To celebrate World Earth Day, Dengue Fever, a rock band fronted by Cambodian-American singer Chhom Nimol, has partnered with the environmental organisation Wildlife Alliance to help conserve Cambodia’s threatened flora and fauna. In addition to releasing the soundtrack to a documentary about the band Dengue Fever kicked off the partnership at a show in Virginia. “We want to preserve Cambodia’s rich cultural heritage, just like Wildlife Alliance is working to protect Cambodia wildlife species and forests,” Dengue Fever guitarist Zac Holtzman explained. The band and Wildlife Alliance hope to work together to hold benefit concerts, release charity remixes and make online commercials about conservation in Cambodia.

The Kingdom’s first marine conservation NGO plans to help local community members protect Cambodia’s diverse ocean life against the threat of illegal fishing and new development. ‘What was once a colourful sea floor teeming with ocean life had been completely wiped out. There was nothing left - just bare sand’, Paul Ferber, a co-founder of Marine Conservation Cambodia, said.

A fishing trawler had dragged a weighted net along the bottom of the sea floor, scraping the oceans bare and taking all the marine life with it. Bottom trawling - the marine equivalent to clear-cutting forests - catches everything in its path, rips out coral reefs and stirs up sediments that can suffocate life on the sea floor. As much as 90 percent of what ends up in the net is by-catch, unwanted marine sea life that is useless to fishermen but integral to the ocean ecology, according to Greenpeace. ‘It can take many years for an ecosystem to recover from something like that’, Ferber said.

It was that dive nine months ago that inspired Ferber to increase his conservation efforts. Ferber, along with Bora Raan and Bart Kluskens, founded Marine Conservation Cambodia, the Kingdom’s only NGO dedicated to conserving Cambodia’s oceans. Bottom trawling is not the only threat to Cambodia’s sea life. Other types of illegal, damaging fishing techniques that involve cyanide or dynamite are common farther off the coast. As the islands off of Sihanoukville become popular tourist destinations, a development boom promises to release sediment into the water, potentially smothering the coral reefs, Kluskens said. Increased scuba diving also poses a danger. Currently, there are no mooring buoys at the most popular dive spots, meaning many boats accidentally drop their anchors on the reefs.

But despite the threats, Cambodia still has abundant marine life. Gianluca Lamberti, a trainer for Reefcheck, the largest coral reef monitoring program in the world, who is working with Marine Conservation Cambodia, said: ‘On any dive, you’ll see 10 to 20 seahorses. This is incredible. There’s not a place in the world where a person can see that’. Seahorses are an important indicator species, because they are particularly sensitive to pollution, Lamberti said. The government has recently classified seahorses as endangered, making them illegal to fish.

With the help of the Koh Rong Samleom community, the organisation is constructing an island office, replete with bathroom, restaurant and bungalows, where it hopes to house scuba divers interested in learning ocean-conservation techniques. During the divers’ conservation training, they will be monitoring the reefs by counting indicator species, Lamberti said. The biggest focus of Marine Conservation Cambodia, however, is on land. The group has targeted people on Koh Rong Samleom, an island near ecologically diverse sea grass areas and coral reefs, to educate about marine conservation.

To arrange tours to Sihanoukville & Koh Rong Samleom contact: info@asia-adventures.com

Edited from The Phnom Penh Post (10-12-08)

Famous for its population of silk weavers, Silk Island, or Koh Dach in Khmer, also has a small beach on its far-north edge. There are two ways to get to either by road and ferry, or more relaxing by boat.

Once on the other island enjoy the scenery. A dusty, sandy road takes you through charming villages and past picturesque views of the river. The pace of life here is reassuringly slow. When you reach the island’s northern tip scramble down the eroded bank that leads down to the white, sandy beach. Make your way to the river’s edge, install yourself in one of the many little thatched huts that are pulled into the water and enjoy the calm. The water itself is very clean and inviting enough for a refreshing splash on a hot afternoon. Local vendors are eager enough to sell you food, fresh fruit and cold drinks – a whole chicken costs about US$10 and is cooked for you in three different ways. If you order some food, the use of a thatched hut should be thrown in for free.

change into your swimming gear. At the weekends and during public holidays it can get quite busy when families flock here. If you are not only looking for water but also for some calm, then you’d better come during the week when you will find the isolation you crave. Lazing around with a suspenseful book and a cold beer while listening to the sound of the water underneath your wooden platform, makes you forget that this is still Phnom Penh.

For tours of Phnom Penh including Koh Dach contact: info@asia-adventures.com

Edited from Asia Life (April 09)

Following internal debate within various government departments that has been ongoing for the last four years, the Cambodian government recently approved the establishment of a new protected area in Rattanakiri Province. Comprising around 100,000 hectares, the O’Yadav Protected Forest (OPF) is slated to become the Kingdom’s first hunting reserve, where big-game trophy hunters will be allowed to pay thousands of dollars to shoot wild animals including gaur, banteng, wild boar and deer.

According to the government, revenues would be used to protect the area, manage sustainable wildlife levels, provide funds for social development and generate income for the national budget.
“If we calculate several gaur and banteng [per year] in the next five years - gaur, a maximum of 20, and banteng about 40 - with that and other small pigs and deer, we can generate about US$4 million,” said Chheang Dany, deputy director of the Wildlife Protection Office (WPO) at the Forestry Administration. “And from royalties and licences [we could earn] about another $600,000.”
Based on recent field surveys conducted in the OPF, the wildlife office estimates that there are between 50 and 80 gaur and between 250 and 350 banteng currently in the area.

A Spanish company, NSOK Safaris, has been working with the government on the reserve. He explained that NSOK’s proposal included plans to build a hunting lodge, a small airport so hunters could fly directly from Phnom Penh to the protected forest, and that they were committed to build a school and a health clinic - probably in a local village.

Trophy-hunting as a method of managing and preserving wildlife is a controversial issue that has seen hunting organisations and conservation NGOs go head-to-head for decades. “I support the concept with the caveat that it has to be done right,” said Hunter Weiler, a technical adviser to the WPO. Seng Teak, Cambodia country director for the global conservation group WWF, said that the decision to designate the area as a protected forest was “good news” but that any hunting had to be based on “scientific information and sound management".

However, don’t expect to see rifle-toting big-game hunters kitted out in safari suits passing through Phnom Penh any time soon, as a raft of regulations still remain to be passed. Moreover, the global economic downturn may for the time being take the wind out of the sails of any guy who needs to come up with the $50,000 required to walk around the jungle looking for a wild cow to shoot.

Edited from the Phnom Penh Post (3-3-09)

A new tourist attraction said to open in October 09, the Angkor Butterfly Centre, is being built on the outskirts of Siem Reap and will double as a poverty alleviation project, with rural families trained to breed butterflies and harvest pupae, organisers say.

The privately funded centre is an offshoot of a similar venture in Tanzania, the Zanzibar Butterfly Centre, which opened to the public in January 2008. The Angkor centre, in Sanday village, about 25 kilometres from Siem Reap, is run by some former staff from Zanzibar and is headed by director Ben Hayes, a founder of the Zanzibar centre. Also from Zanzibar is Project Manager Alistair Mould, and representing Cambodian interests is Tek-Sakana Savuth, executive director of local NGO Angkor Participatory Development Organisation. Involved in an advisory capacity is WWF stalwart Mike Baltzer.

“In Zanzibar, we are working with just one village, but here we want to work with more, especially in areas that as yet don’t have any income from tourism.” Mould explained. Director Hayes said: “Initially, we’ll work with 10 families spread out over a number of areas including Phnom Kulen and here in this village. But we hope to expand that. Plus, we’ll do farming of pupae within the exhibition and on site.”

Like Zanzibar, revenue for the Siem Reap centre will initially be generated by tourism admissions, but in time income will also come from the sale of butterflies and butterfly pupae to collectors, zoos and other centres mainly in Europe and the United States. Hayes said there were several reasons why Siem Reap was chosen for the new centre, including the tourism potential, communities to work with and the richness of butterfly fauna. “The butterfly fauna of Cambodia is not as well-studied as that of Thailand and Vietnam, but it’s very high in diversity; and for the project, we will probably deal with 20 to 30 species. Those species are local to the Siem Reap region.”

Edited from the Phnom Penh Post (9-4-09)

In addition to their sophisticated roads, the ancient Khmers also built a complex network of irrigation channels, causeways, and reservoirs, many of which are still is use today.

The vast Western Baray was the largest of all. This immense reservoir, measuring 8.5 x 2.25km, was contained within earthen banks and filled solely by rainwater. Although built 800 years ago, it still contains water today. The small Angkorian temple at its centre can be reached by boat.

The slightly smaller East Baray extended 7.5 x 1.75 kilometres, but this reservoir dried up centuries ago. The splendid brick East Mebon with its five towers was at its centre. The area is now a rich farmland area around the village of Pre Dak. After passing through the village of Pre Dak on the way to Banteay Srei you the road passes through the northern earth embankment.

For wonderful tours of the Angkor Temples contact: info@asia-adventures.com