Conservation in Cambodia and Guinea with Fauna & Flora

• Could you explain to us Fauna & Flora’s role in BCOMING, particularly in leading conservation efforts?   

Within BCOMING, Fauna & Flora’s role focuses on supporting local communities and provincial decision-makers in piloting innovative biodiversity conservation strategies that help mitigate or reduce zoonotic disease risks based on a participatory evaluation of different management intervention scenarios.  

 

• One of your key tasks is piloting conservation actions based on community input in forest (Guinea) and cave (Cambodia) ecosystems. Can you share some of the conservation actions you are piloting in these regions, and what challenges or successes you’ve encountered so far?  

Fauna & Flora Cambodia has been conducting karst biodiversity surveys, and as a result, we have documented globally critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable mammal species. Most importantly, we discovered four gecko species new to science and are endemic to our project karst areas in Cambodia. In addition to the biodiversity survey, we surveyed the human use of caves. The result indicates that several caves in our project area provide the largest bat guano collection in the country. The survey also suggests that caves in our project’s karst areas are commonly used for religious purposes and tourism, primarily as Buddhist shrines and places for meditation.  

Some of the new gecko species discovered by Fauna & Flora

 

To pilot conservation actions, Fauna & Flora is developing cave use guidelines that will provide guidance on best practices for conservation and sustainable development of cave access and bat guano collection to the local community, bat guano collectors and other cave users (such as cave managers, guides/tourists, and religious patrons like Buddhist monks and pilgrims). Through these guidelines, bat guano collectors and other cave users will be trained so that cave management and conservation can be improved, and the impact from tourism and bat guano harvesting can be reduced. As part of this conservation action, Fauna & Flora will pilot biodiversity-friendly cave lighting for tourist caves, creating pathways that guide visitors while avoiding zoonotic risk areas, such as bat roosts.  

Fauna & Flora has already held meetings with the provincial government of Battambang regarding our proposed conservation actions. The government has expressed strong support for our work, particularly, they are really happy with our proposed cave lighting, which they think can promote sustainable tourism, protection of biodiversity, and help mitigate the risks of zoonotic diseases. Seeing the value of biodiversity resulting from our survey, the provincial government of Battambang also approved making two priority karst areas into the national protected area. So, we hope our work can lead to the legal protection of these karst areas, which will help to address potential threats from limestone quarrying operations. 

Camodian Grotto (left), Forest in Guinea (right)

 

• Looking ahead, how do you envision the conservation strategies and guidelines you’re developing having an impact locally in the communities you’re working with, and globally in terms of reducing zoonotic risks and promoting sustainable livelihoods? 

Based on our findings, karst landscapes in our project areas are crucial for biodiversity, and they support the livelihoods of the local community. For example, bats that control agricultural pests provide guano for both households’ income generation and organic fertilizer used for crops. Additionally, the karsts attract tourists who can provide job opportunities for the local community from related tourism services such as selling food and souvenirs, guiding and providing local transportation for tourists, homestays, and so on.  

However, these karst areas face threats from hunting, potential industrial development, unsustainable guano harvesting, and unmanaged tourism activity, all of which alter cave environments and pose a negative impact on cave biodiversity, including bats and invertebrates. There is also a high risk of zoonotic diseases when more people come into close contact with wildlife inside caves, such as bats.  

Through our proposed conservation strategies, including developing best practice cave use guidelines, designing biodiversity-friendly cave lighting, and conducting training and awareness-raising for the local community, we believe we can address the significant challenges in biodiversity conservation. These efforts will improve the management of karst and cave ecosystems by promoting the conservation of bats and sustainable guano harvesting, allowing local communities to continue benefiting from the essential ecological services provided by bats, including guano collection and tourism-related income.  

The design of cave lighting and zoning for tourists, of course, will improve caves, showing that they can attract more visitors, but more importantly, guide them via walkways through a cave system that can reduce impact on cave biodiversity and the risk of zoonotic diseases by avoiding disturbance of bat roosting areas. We believe these conservation strategies can be replicated in other karst landscapes, not just in Cambodia but also in other countries or regions so that karst biodiversity can be conserved, local communities can have long-term benefits from bats and their associated karst habitat, and most importantly, contribute to global health issues by mitigating the risk of zoonotic diseases.