Keeping community at the heart of conservation in Kratie, Cambodia

Story 10 Sep, 2024

Keeping community at the heart of conservation in Kratie, Cambodia

Photo: ��ϲʿ��ֳ�ֱ�� Asia

Samsaren and her husband stand in front of her model farm in Koh Tnoat, Cambodia

Guests at Le Tonle stir from their sleep to the gentle hum of boats along the tranquil Mekong River. With a view of the river melting into the horizon and a menu that celebrates the local catch, Le Tonle Guesthouse and Restaurant offers an alchemy of community, cuisine and culture in the quiet riverside town of Kratie in eastern Cambodia.

Two-storey hotel with two cars parked in front

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Initially opened in 2018 as a popular destination for local tourists to enjoy a weekend by the river, Le Tonle was forced to close when both local and international tourism dried up during the Covid-19 pandemic. In an effort to reopen the business when tourism began picking up in 2023, Or Channy, Executive Director, Cambodia Rural Development Team (CRDT) Tours, parent company to Le Tonle Guesthouse, set out to implement a stronger business strategy. Over the last year, Le Tonle staff have undergone training to strengthen its operations – with support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and ��ϲʿ��ֳ�ֱ�� through the Strengthening institutional capacity of CRDT Tours, a social enterprise supporting conservation in Cambodia project.

A gap analysis of the business was conducted as a crucial first step to understanding areas for improvement in CRDT Tours’ performance. Guided by a new strategy developed under the project, staff have undergone intensive training to strengthen their financial management, accounting systems as well as integrate conservation into the core of their business.

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Channy beams with pride when he looks to his dedicated team of young staff from vulnerable backgrounds in Northeast Cambodia. “Many of them couldn’t pursue a higher education due to financial constraints and were at risk of an uncertain future had they not been employed at Le Tonle,” he says. “Now, we can focus on linking the business to our ongoing conservation work with local communities.�� It’s a win-win situation for those communities, for CRDT, and for the guesthouse.”

Conservation has always been at the core of Channy’s personal mission. He originally founded Dolphins for Development in 2012, which ran educational tours for visitors to see one of the last remaining pods of Irrawaddy dolphins in Kratie. Today, the organisation has evolved to become CRDT Tours, a growing social enterprise that aims to promote educational, responsible travel that supports local well-being and rural development.

A journey to the Mekong encased island of Koh Tnoat

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As part of their visit, Le Tonle guests have a unique opportunity to continue their journey through the outskirts of Kratie and experience community-based tourism. Driving along country roads parallel to the river, a car weaves through communities full of playful children. Arriving at a roughly constructed wooden bridge, a��boat waits to transport guests on a 30-minute boat ride upstream to Koh Tnoat – a 16-kilometre-long island encased by the Mekong River.

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A man sitting on a boat parked next to a wooden bridge

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Here, a group of smiling locals are on-hand to grab luggage and guide guests up a small hillside climb to their homestay. Local customs are at the heart of Koh Tnoat, so guests are welcomed on a short walk across farmlands to the community’s spirit house where everyone is invited to make offerings of food and drink. Back at their homestay, the evening meal is prepared by Jansati who celebrates local ingredients in every dish. Jansati took part in a CEPF-supported project led by CRDT Tours to attend a cooking course in Siem Reap. “The course helped me learn how improve my skills and prepare food for visitors who have perhaps never experienced Cambodian food before. Now, every time I cook for guests, they always say my food is delicious!”

A women smiling and looking into the distance

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Settling in for the evening, homestay guests have their pick of one of the double mattresses cocooned in a mosquito net under an open window that lets in a gentle breeze. Electricity supply to the island is limited so homestays have solar panels for fans and recharging devices. As the chatter of locals continues past dusk, the fading light offers a chance to embrace the flicker of stars and brightly lit moon for an evening read, or an early night. ��

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A double mattress on the floor with a mosquito net tied above

On Koh Tnoat, everyone has a role to play, even the guests. “When the tourists come to stay, they teach my children other languages like English, and they learn Khmer from my children,” Jankatana, member of the homestay group on the island, explains. She welcomes up to 30 international guests into her home every year. Guests are also engaged in community activities and have already built chicken coups for farmers and toilets for nearly 90% of households on the island.

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At the heart of Koh Tnoat is a thriving sense of co-dependence. The island leaves a lasting impression that communal living is still highly valued in some of the most far-reaching corners of the country. Many local people want to help build a prosperous local economy so that younger generations have employment opportunities and an incentive to build a life in the area. The CRDT Team are supporting this by helping the community learn to move away from unsustainable practices, like illegal fishing, and towards conserving the island’s beaty to attract more guests to this peaceful retreat.��

An example of this is the Agricultural Cooperative, established in 2021 with support from CEPF. These cooperatives are a community led arrangement for households to pool together resources and use them to pursue sustainable income activities.��

Samsarem, who previously relied on one annual rice crop and her husband’s fishing to put food on the table, is now one of 11 model farms on the island. After being nominated by the cooperative to take part in a CRDT training on crop farming, she’s now able to grow and sell produce year-round, making an average of 10 USD per day, and sometimes even up to 25 USD.

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Woman standing in her field looking into the distance

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Through regular meetings with members of the cooperative, providing opportunities for locals to attend skill-building training and bringing homestay guests from Le Tonle in Kratie to experience community-based tourism, the CRDT team remain closely connected to the community in Koh Tnoat.��

“We hope that CRDT can continue to support the community and protect the environment,” Channy shares his vision for the future of the organisation. ��

About CEPF

CEPF��empowers non-governmental organizations, Indigenous groups, universities and private enterprises to protect the world’s biodiversity hotspots and help communities thrive. It is a joint initiative of l’Agence ��ç��e de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, and the World Bank. In the Indo-Burma Hotspot, it is also supported by the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies. ��ϲʿ��ֳ�ֱ�� serves as CEPF’s Regional Implementation Team in the Indo-Burma Hotspot.

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