The Arowana still faces massive threat from construction and thus habitat degradation as a result. Illegal trade of this highly valued species is also a problem. It is unclear what measures have been taken to help conserve the Arowana’s natural habitats, especially seeing as Cambodia has approved plans to build a dam on the habitat of one of the largest Arowana populations in the world.
Although governments are doing their part to mitigate the impact of overharvesting, the natural population of Asian Arowana is still suffering from overall population decline. It is also unclear to what degree the regulations have been followed in third-world countries such as Cambodia, where monitoring and enforcement are harder to carry out.
One thing is clear – greater effort needs to be put into conserving this exotic species, particularly its natural habitats, before they disappear from the wild for good.