White shouldered ibis - their population has increased in the area surrounding the village

We’re happy to report on this Phnom Phen Post story on how the village of Tmatboey in Cambodia is working with conservation groups to establish a model of ecotourism.   Excerpts and some thoughts below:

“As biodiversity in Southeast Asia suffers from an onslaught of habitat loss, climate change and overexploitation, a few organisations are determined to develop strategies aimed at helping people live in better harmony with nature.

“In Cambodia, one of these groups is the Siem Reap-based Sam Veasna Centre (SVC), which manages bird-watching day trips and itineraries to eight Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) conservation projects across Cambodia.

“Nick Butler, the coordinator of the centre, said one of their main strategies for saving Cambodia’s wilderness areas was the promotion of ecotourism.

“He said the involvement of local communities at a very early stage in the development of ecotourism projects was crucial. “We do two things. The first is that we manage the ecotourism business by trying to get international bird watchers to visit the WCS project sites across Cambodia,” he said.

“The second part of our business is to train villagers who live near the conservation area in the provision of ecotourism services. The result is that villagers are able to make an income by providing accommodation, food and guiding services for visitors. In return, they sign agreements not to hunt animals, not to cut down the forest and not to harm their environment.”

“At first the villagers didn’t understand why tourists would want to come and see the birds and forest,” he said. “But now the visitors keep coming, and the income from the tourists benefits their community. This helps them to understand why they shouldn’t hunt or cut down their forest.”

This is a success story for many reasons:

1. A country-based organization (instead of an international or U.S. based NGO) is working on this project.
2. The organization had the community involved at the beginning – this achieves buy-in from the people who will ultimately implement and continue the project.
3. It allows tourists to stay with local people, opening up both the nature element as well as the cultural element of ecotourism to new tourists.

We hope other issues are also being considered or addressed in this project:

1. Are the local people’s diets being changed in major ways through the lack of hunting or increase in funds?  Are they moving away from their typical diet in favor of more processed foods? 
2. Similarly, are local people drastically changing their level of physical activity or other ways they spend their time?  What are the implications to their health and basic way of life?
3. How many tourists come to the area and what is the ideal or maximum number per month or year?  These projects can end badly if too many tourists are encouraged or welcomed.
4. How are the local people empowered to continue to expand on these conservation efforts?

There are undoubtedly more concerns to think about but we think this is a very good start and good model program.  Thanks, Tmatboey, for showing us how it’s done!

Tags: Cambodia, phnom phen post, sam veasna centre, tmatboey, white shouldered ibis, wildlife conservation society

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 8:03 am and is filed under Asia, Ecotourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.