NatureLife Cambodia staff conduct training for the first all-female patrol group at the Toul Neang Sav Plov Loung Community Protected Area on February 17. NCO
Conservation NGO NatureLife Cambodia has launched its first all-female patrol within the Tuol Neang Sav Plov Loung Community Protected Area along the southeastern border of the Tonle Sap Lake, complementing the existing men’s patrol.
The initiative aims to enhance the management and conservation of natural resources in the region.
NatureLife Cambodia director Bou Vorsak said on February 18 that although the protected area was under women’s leadership, there was an absence of female members engaged in conservation patrols.
He highlighted the organisation’s efforts to address this disparity through training on gender roles, fostering increased women’s participation in natural resource management and conservation within their communities.
He said that while natural resource patrols currently see mostly male participation, the training programme is fostering a positive shift. By encouraging women to take on leadership roles, it aims to create a more balanced and inclusive approach to resource management.
“Therefore, in order for women to be involved in the conservation of natural resources, we established a women’s patrol, which is currently underway,” said Vorsak.
He underscored the importance of women’s direct involvement in natural resource patrols. While past efforts relied on women attending meetings, this approach did not provide adequate on-the-ground knowledge.
The new patrol initiative, he said, addresses this gap by empowering women to actively participate in managing and protecting their community’s resources.
“By directly participating in patrols, women gain firsthand knowledge of field conditions, resource quality and potential threats. This understanding enables them to contribute meaningfully to conservation efforts. Women also often hold strong ties within their communities. Their involvement in patrols allows them to directly engage with potential resource exploiters, fostering understanding and encouraging sustainable practices,” he explained.
He said his organisation promotes this initiative, in which several women have joined as members and engaged in patrols within the protected wetland area, participating in biodiversity monitoring four times a month.
“In the past, we arranged for women to patrol alongside a group of men, consisting of three men and two women. In this arrangement, the women served as the communicators, while their male counterparts were responsible for investigating any crimes within the protected area,” he added.
Vorsak noted that in the initial phase, NatureLife – founded with support from BirdLife International and financial support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund – establishes the patrol team solely comprised of women within the Tuol Neang Sav Plov Loung protected area. Upon successful implementation, the organisation intends to expand the initiative to other communities across the country.
Khvay Atiya, a spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, could not be reached for comment on February 18.
NatureLife has been implementing the “Empowering Local Communities to Co-Manage Stung Sen Ramsar Site” project, supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) – a collaborative biodiversity conservation effort involving French development agency AFD, Conservation International (CI) Cambodia, the EU, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Japanese government and the World Bank.
One project goal is to enable and engage women through coordinating gender mainstreaming training sessions and establishing women-led groups to actively participate in community activities. Consequently, seven women were selected to serve as members of the new natural resources patrol group.
