Conservation Firsthand
Travel
WWF Experts
Dekila Chungyalpa
Priority Leader Mekong
Education
- MA - Sustainable Development, American University
- BA - International Environmental Studies, College of Wooster
Areas of Expertise
- Economic drivers of change in the Mekong region
- Sustainable livelihoods
- Socioeconomic strategy design including human-wildlife conflict mitigation
- Community-based natural resource management
- Gender dynamics in South Asia
"For many indigenous communities in Asia, nature reminds us that we are part of something larger and more profound than our immediate daily lives. When I am surrounded by wilderness, I get a feeling of awe and renewal that I get nowhere else."
About Dekila Chungyalpa:
Dekila has led WWF's efforts in the Mekong region since 2005. Prior to this, she worked for WWF in the Eastern Himalayas and South Asia. Her extensive experience working with local communities and designing practical solutions at multiple scales enables Dekila to tackle the diverse threats facing the Mekong region: rapid hydropower and road development, climate change, agricultural expansion, and wildlife and timber trade.
Dekila - who speaks Sikkimese, Tibetan, Hindi and Nepali and is known to eat anything remotely edible - has helped establish programs that benefit both local communities and wildlife. "Our projects work best when we understand what lies in the heart of a community - its aspirations and its needs - and can marry this understanding with a conservation vision."
This philosophy continues to guide her work. "The scale and scope of our work in the Mekong region would have been hard to imagine 10 years ago. WWF is helping design roads that are flood resistant, working with logging companies to promote sustainable forestry, setting up community fishery projects, and designing projects that protect rebounding populations of tigers, elephants, and leopards. I know of no organization that is better at transforming threats into opportunities for wildlife and for people."
