Conservation in Cambodia

We’re very excited to be launching two Spring Break Cambodia programs this year. In preparation, our Executive Director, Addam Stine, recently spent three weeks in Cambodia volunteering at SCAO and visiting the site for the upcoming Elephant Nature Park there.

When it comes to conservation, Cambodia is in a unique position. Still home to wild populations of freshwater dolphins, elephants, leopard, and tigers, Cambodia could be the savior of South East Asian Wildlife… and the wildlife could in turn save Cambodia right back. While some of its opportunities stem from tragic roots, the Kingdom is home to some wonderful incentives that benefit locals financially while creating a sustainable environment.

In August’s issue of Audubon magazine, Christopher R. Cox provides some insight into the current situation of conservation in Cambodia:

“Cambodia… boasts some of the largest wilderness areas remaining in Asia. The brutal Khmer Rouge regime, which in 1975 drove the entire population into centralized slave-labor camps, had an unintended environmental effect: huge swaths of diverse habitat, including such birding hotspots as the Northern Plains’ savannah and the Tonle Sap’s seasonally flooded forest, essentially became uninhabited,’ says Mark Gately, Cambodia program director for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). ‘Wildlife was basically left to prosper.’”

The Cambodian government continues to set aside large areas for conservation, from 100 square miles in Siem Reap to a million square miles, just recently, north of there. These areas, called “Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas” (IFBA), are designed to allow locals to farm while still fostering a wild area to drive tourism dollars into the country.

The WCS, the IFBA program, and Birdlife International are working to introduce initiatives that make conservation pay. For example, “The WCS pays each villager $15 for each flourican nest containing an egg ($20 if the nest contains two) and another $15 if it hatches. The windfall – a month’s earnings for a subsistence farmer – protests nesting females.”

As ecotourism draws birdwatchers and other wildlife lovers to the area, locals are getting the message that conservation pays out. Villages charging community fees of $10 to $10 for birdwatchers to look for elusive and impressive species are able to rebuild their failing infrastructures.

Yin Sary, a guide profiled in Cox’s article, has seen the personal benefits that conservation can bring. “The father of four says he no longer hunts; wildlife generates revenue his village would otherwise never enjoy. ‘Foreigners pay $30 to see the ibis,’ says Sary, who also earns $5 every day he guides. ‘I never imagined this.’”

“’If the habitat is here, and we can protect the birds, the foreign tourists will come to see the village,’ says Sary. ‘We want it to be like this forever.’”

These conservation efforts, the ones intended to benefit the local people while targeting the conservation of land for the benefit of particular species, are working. The bird populations are growing, and growing fast. “Since ranger patrols began in 2001, bird numbers have soared,” doubling or even multiplying twenty-fold for some species. “As a Belgian ornithologist once noted, this place is a veritable ‘bird factory.’”

We can’t wait to be a part of one of the biggest conservation efforts in Asia this spring. We're going to do our part to keep that nature 'factory' going. If you are interested in joining a Loop Spring Break Cambodia trip, please be in touch!