The last couple of weeks I’ve been adjusting to life in Phnom Penh which has thus far been pretty fun. It’s strange how just a month ago taking the 5 hour van ride from Phnom Penh to Kratie didn’t seem that demanding, just more of an annoyance you had to suffer through. But, after adjusting to city life, Kratie seems so removed and far away. People tend to ask how long you’ve been in Cambodia when you meet and when I tell them I lived in Kratie for a bit, they’re usually surprised. For me, living in Kratie was just where I needed to be for work and I made living there work, for lack of a better term. I made friends, figured out how to get around, buy the things I needed at the market etc. While people have been placed in far stranger locales under much tougher circumstances, I think, generally, when humans are placed in a situation and know they have to adapt, they do. Thinking back on it I’ve moved to multiple new places in the U.S. where I didn’t know the area or have any friends and I adapted there, too. While moving to Kratie easily challenged me more than any other move or experience I’ve undertaken, it reminds me that trying new things and forcing ourselves to adapt is challenging and frustrating, but, also, exhilarating and inspiring once we realize we’ve done it. I suppose because Phnom Penh is so different from Kratie I already have a bit of perspective on what my time in Kratie has meant and wanted to share it!
Currently at WWF I’m working on a couple different projects. I’ve started drafting the paper on the behavioral research we hope to have published. I’m also working on developing a project that I hope to pass off to Duke students from my graduate program. At the introduction of Dr. Helene Marsh, a professor from James Cook University, who I met at the dolphin workshop, I have been consulting with two Australian researchers on a survey that would distributed to tourists in Kratie. I’ll share just a quick explanation of the project for now.
The whale and dolphin watching tourism industry has been growing over the last couple decades and currently contributes $2.1 billion to the global economy each year (O'Connor 2009). Many of these industries are unregulated which can result in harassment to the animals ultimately leading to long-term fitness consequences for individual animals and their populations. However, it’s incredibly difficult to prove these industries are biologically unsustainable so instead researchers can analyze the industry from an economic and managerial perspective. Essentially, this consists of determining how much money can be directly contributed to the dolphins’ presence in Kratie and also asking tourists how satisfied they were with their tour experience. Theoretically, you learn what the boat drivers could do to improve the tourists’ experience which may mean having fewer boats on the water or fewer people in the boats, providing educational materials, or approaching the dolphins less aggressively. If the managers at the dolphin site recognize how much money is being injected into the community and ways they could improve the tour to encourage even more visitors, they are theoretically much more likely to make changes. Both Dr. Putu Liza Kusuma Mustika and Coralie D’Lima, the Australian researchers I mentioned, have conducted this type of research in Indonesia and India, respectively. We are currently developing a survey draft and I’m working with WWF-Cambodia to determine how the Duke students could help take over the project once I leave. I wish I was going to be here to see the project through, but hope at the very least it will be completed.
Finally, I’m starting to assist the communications team with their efforts to advocate against the building of the Don Sahong Dam. Thus far I’ve only written some facebook and twitter posts, but I quickly realized communications and advocacy is much different than the science/policy world I’m accustomed to. I wrote the facebook post that is pictured below thinking it was perfectly innocuous. It was even reviewed by the WWF staff before it was posted.
But, that same day we received a comment saying “So you got nothing to say about the engine noise and disturbances by tourists all day long”. I felt guilty that this negative comment was posted on the site, and while it wasn’t the right time for this comment, knew it was a legitimate question. Thankfully, that is what SeangAun’s masters project and the survey I mentioned above is attempting to address, however, I realized in that moment that anything you say in a public forum is up for grabs. I obviously knew you have to be careful when conducting any advocacy work, but the fact I had thought about that post and people were still upset by it, made me realize just how careful you have to be. Not withstanding how much I assist with this campaign, think hard before you speak will easily be a new mantra for me if I do any more communications or advocacy work!