Project
Promoting Environmental Conservation at Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve
The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and a lifeline for over 3.6 million people. During the rainy season, a unique hydrological phenomenon occurs causing the swollen waters of the Mekong River to force the Tonle Sap River to reverse its flow, expanding the size of the Tonle Sap Lake by up to five times.
The vast wetland area resulting from this cycle is home to an extraordinarily high biodiversity. However, the Tonle Sap Lake is under increasing pressure from infrastructure development, over-exploitation of its natural resources, and climate change.
Through the EU-funded TSBR project, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, line ministries, sub-national administrations, development partners, and relevant stakeholders, is working to strengthen the coordination of actors around the Tone Sap Biosphere Reserve (TSBR). This aims to conserve the TSBR鈥檚 resources and improve the livelihoods of local communities by fostering collaboration around the TSBR on conservation, livelihoods, governance, and hydrology, and promoting knowledge exchange.
Alongside this initiative, UNESCO is supporting the RGC to identify natural and mixed heritage sites for potential inclusion on the World Heritage List, and possible Biosphere Reserves and UNESCO Global Geoparks, to protect and promote the country鈥檚 rich natural heritage and resources.
Promoting Sustainable Beekeeping and Native Bee Conservation
As part of the global UNESCO-Guerlain Women for Bees programme, UNESCO undertook an assessment and developed the 鈥淩apid Assessment: Beekeeping Ecosystem at Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve鈥 report. Drawing on its findings, UNESCO launched a series of trainings to promote sustainable beekeeping and native bee conservation. The trainings aimed to foster biodiversity conservation, ecotourism development, and the development of local communities鈥 livelihoods, with a specific focus on women鈥檚 empowerment. In addition to the trainings, UNESCO is working to develop a roadmap for a National Plan for Sustainable Beekeeping, and create a community of female beekeepers to promote knowledge transfer.
