Mekong
Off the Beaten Path; My Cambodia Travel Log
Dekila is the WWF US leader for the Greater Mekong Program. The Greater Mekong Program consists of three Global 200 ecoregions; the Mekong river, the Lower Mekong Dry Forests and the Greater Annamites and covers six countries; China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This ecoregion complex is one of WWF US's priorities due to the incredible endemic biodiversity found there; whether it is the Mekong Giant Catfish, the largest freshwater fish in the world, or the Douc Langur, possibly the most charismatic primate in the world.
Dekila is from Sikkim, a tiny northeastern state in India the size of Rhode Island which is squished between Nepal and Bhutan. Like every other person from the Himalayas, she is convinced that her homeland is the original Shangrila. Her family is Bhutia, of Tibetan origin and she speaks Sikkimese, the local language, as well as Tibetan, Hindi and Nepali fluently. She worked in the WWF Eastern Himalayas Program for five years prior to working on the Greater Mekong. Her areas of expertise include strategic conservation planning, community based conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Among her most prized skills is the ability to eat anything remotely edible.
Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 14 and 15 | Last Day
My Cambodia trip is almost over. Tomorrow, I fly out of Siem Reap to Bangkok and back to the United States.It's been a longer trip than I expected. It certainly consisted of more roads and road bumps than you can imagine. An incredible smorgasbord of foods including deep fried tarantulas and locusts with honey. Spine-chilling moments of being too close to nature with red ants all over my back and being lost in an unending sea of tall grass. But, I would take every bit of discomfort or delay for the opportunity to see a douc in the wild. Wouldn't you?
I hope you have enjoyed meeting the people and wildlife of Cambodia as much as I have. Many of the people we met are unforgettable, those who work for conservation and those who need our help to conserve their way of life. Wherever we work, WWF protects wildlife and local communities, bringing together all our resources at the local and global levels. The WWF Greater Mekong Program has presence in five countries: Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. It works on a wide range of issues and strategies, ranging across protected area management, sustainable forestry, landscape conservation, natural resource management, community based development, and the influencing of government and regional policies for sustainable development. The threats are many: large-scale infrastructure development, relentless wildlife trade, unsustainable timber trade, multi-scale mining and agricultural expansion. With your support, we are able to work with local communities and protect the wildlife of the Greater Mekong region and address the ever growing challenges that threaten the Mekong river from source to sea.Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 14 and 15 | Last Day
