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Environmental Education in the Tonle Sap (06/05/05)

Good afternoon everyone:

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) water policy Water for All promotes public awareness and education to help achieve sustainable water resources management and better water services. In May 2002, ADB launched the Water Awareness Programme (WAP) which aims to create an environment supportive of effective water policies throughout Asia and the Pacific.

There are some very useful outputs from the WAP. Several have come from their project in Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. The Tonle Sap ecosystem is the main source of animal protein for much of the population of Cambodia owing to its productive fisheries, and it’s a direct source of livelihood for more than 1 million people living on and around the Tonle Sap. With increasing population making increasing demands on the system, the development of a Basin Strategy in 2003 was an essential step to ensure the ecosystem is sustainably used.

They have developed The Pilot Demonstration Activity of Developing and Testing Environmental Education and Awareness Methodologies and Tools which is intended to assist in the further refinement and implementation of the Basin Strategy. The starting point of this was a rapid assessment of perceptions which aimed to provide an insight into community perceptions of their situation in relation to water issues, and perceptions of how water impacts on their livelihoods. This research was intended to guide the identification, nature and context for suitable environmental education (EE) tools (for both formal and non-formal education). The 58-page report from this research, Environmental Issues in the Tonle Sap: A Rapid Assessment of Perceptions, (referred to as the RAP) is a very thorough publication including full details on the methodology used, a detailed analysis of results, and a full summary and recommendations including suggested methodologies for the future development of EE tools. There’s also a useful executive summary so that you can decide if you want to invest the time in the rest of the document!

Another document associated with this rapid assessment of perceptions was produced to guide the local facilitators who carried out the assessment to ensure that they were able to draw out the relevant information from the targeted communities. This too is available and could be a very useful model for others to follow and adapt. This is called the Research Facilitators Field Guide for implementation of a Rapid Assessment of Perceptions (RAP).

These two documents are available in PDF format and can be downloaded here:

RAP: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Consultant/tonlesap-rapid-assessment.pdf

Facilitators guide: http://www.adb.org/Documents/PDAs/CAM/Progress-Report-CAM-200401.pdf

And it does not stop here of course. The purpose of the RAP was to guide the development of appropriate education tools to support the implementation of the Basin Strategy. The publication Building a Sustainable Future: A Strategic Approach to Environmental Education in the Tonle Sap Region – Cambodia was produced following the main findings of the RAP. It includes a 5-year plan of action to build a common EE agenda which recognises the need to incorporate local culture, spiritual beliefs and religions and puts communities and their well-being at the very centre of activities. Rather than ‘re-inventing the wheel’ it builds upon current EE initiatives in the region by international organisations and national government, and it highlights the need for effective monitoring and evaluation of initiatives.

This stimulating report is available here

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Consultant/tonle-sap-sustainable-future.pdf.

So there you have it, an excellent source of materials providing some effective approaches to using EE as a critical tool in managing wetlands.

Best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

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