To us, Envir­on­mental Edu­ca­tion & Waste Man­age­ment means demon­strat­ing how live­li­hoods link to sus­tain­ab­il­ity, form­ing val­ues to enable com­munit­ies to under­stand their envir­on­ment, reduce exploit­a­tion and man­age their nat­ural resources respons­ibly, at a time of cli­matic uncertainty.

The indi­gen­ous Phnong people of Mon­dulkiri have lived for cen­tur­ies in vir­gin rain­forest packed with biod­iversity and endangered spe­cies. Rely­ing on forest products and slash and burn farm­ing there has always been a nat­ural abund­ance. Recently mar­ket pres­sures have incentiv­ised defor­est­a­tion and increased hunt­ing on one hand, and on the other strictly-enforced con­ser­va­tion laws do not even allow tra­di­tional live­li­hood prac­tices. We intro­duce real altern­at­ives in agri­cul­ture, aquacul­ture, animal hus­bandry and tour­ism to ensure the Phnong and the forest nur­ture and sup­port each other.

In the highly-naturally resource depend­ent Mekong com­munit­ies, we sup­port the con­ser­va­tion of dol­phins, soft-shell turtles and giant stin­grays by redu­cing the amount of time people spend fish­ing and edu­cat­ing against the use of indis­crim­in­ate fish­ing meth­ods such as explos­ives, poison and gill­nets. We train com­munity mem­bers to become war­dens for the envir­on­ment, to pro­tect wild­life to ensure a future income through tour­ism, and to pro­tect fish­ery and forest resources for their chil­dren and grandchildren’s generation.

We only work in areas of high biod­iversity and vul­ner­able eco­sys­tems, offer­ing live­li­hood choices to those pop­u­la­tions in danger of irre­vers­ibly harm­ing import­ant con­ser­va­tion areas just by feed­ing their families.

Read more about how the roles of women are import­ant in envir­on­mental conservation.