AsiaLIFE

Birds brought her to Cambodia, and a rice project to protect them is making her stay. Meet Karen Nielsen, a birdwatcher by association who is bringing wildlife friendly rice to the Kingdom. Words by Nora Lindstrom.

Karen Nielsen’s story of how she ended up in Cambodia follows the usual path. She and husband Howie quit their respective accountancy and dentistry jobs in the U.S., went travelling, and were on a badly timed birdwatching tour in Cambodia. With no birds to be seen and three weeks left on their visa, they approached the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to offer their skills. Though initially hesitant, the organisation took them on.

Three and a half years later, they are still here. Karen now works as an enterprise planning advisor for WCS, while Howie trains local guides for the Sam Veasna Centre for Wildlife Conservation. “I’ve come to wildlife through my husband,” Karen says. “I’ve always done backpacking and hiking and things, but he’s the birder, so by association I became a birder.” Initially based in Siem Reap, Karen worked with setting up WCS’s ecotourism project in Tmat Boey and creating a business plan for the associated Sam Veasna Centre.

Located in Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary in Preah Vihear, Tmat Boey is a small village in a remote area. Its significance lies in that the area supports globally important breeding populations of two critically endangered ibis species, the giant and the white-shouldered ibis. The ecotourism project aims to link the demand to see the mythical birds with conservation and community development. For locals in the area, linking birds with tourism was not immediately obvious when the project started in 2005. “In that area, when people thought about tourism they thought only about the temples,” Karen says. Over time however, as visits by bird-watchers increased, the villagers have come to take pride in the birds.

Though tourism activities have brought an income to the area, Karen says that in order to better protect the birds and their habitat, there is a need to involve more villages by diversifying activities. “The problem is that some villages don’t really have the species that people want to see, so we’re trying to find a way of getting more of the people in the protected areas involved,” she explains.

One such initiative is Ibis Rice. The first step was the development of a land-use plan, which delineated wetland areas permitted to be cleared for rice paddies. The target communities also agreed to a no-hunting policy, enforced by a locally elected committee. In return, participants were offered a premium on their rice, which is then processed, packaged and sold under the brand name Ibis Rice. “It’s fair trade with a small ‘f’,” Karen says. “[The villagers] come up with the price themselves, so I assume it is fair to them,” she adds, noting that this set-up is the complete opposite to the usual practice of prices being set by the market.  

Certified by the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network, the rice is promoted as contributing to the protection of wildlife in the participating villages. “Already we know that the price we pay for the rice is 25 percent higher than what they traditionally get,” says Karen. “We know their income is going up.” She adds that in a developing country such as Cambodia, financial incentives for conservation are key, as otherwise poverty can make basic needs clash with conservation.

Though Karen admits the Ibis Rice project keeps her more indoors than out, she continues to share her husband’s passion for watching the birds she helps protect. “Other than getting you into very interesting and remote places sometimes, you can be in the middle of Phnom Penh and look up to see a falcon or an osprey,” Karen says.  Being out on a dry, hot plain, waiting for birds to appear can sometimes be tiring, but she enjoys the hunt.

“One of the funnest trips in Cambodia is going on the river in Kratie to see the dolphins and then the Mekong wagtail,” she says. Alas, locals show little enthusiasm for birding. “It’s something that hasn’t really caught on, and I’m not really sure how you can push that.” Going out with her husband might be the answer. “Birding is infectious. If young students have some inkling, they should go out with Howie,” Karen says. After all that is precisely the way she got hooked.

Ibis Rice is available for purchase at the Food Pantry. For more information about birdwatching opportunities in Cambodia, visit: www.samveasna.org