Organization background

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit organization established in 1895 and based in New York, that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With a presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. In the Greater Mekong WCS has country programs in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam and is managed through a dispersed regional network with a hub in Bangkok.

Position background

WCS Cambodia provides technical and financial assistance to the management of Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (KSWS) REDD+ Project and to the Northern Plains Landscape (NPL) REDD+ project, working closely with the Ministry of Environment, and with Indigenous Peoples and local communities. With funding from the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC), WCS Cambodia will lead a three-year research project titled ‘Recognising and rewarding the contribution of Indigenous knowledge to the sustainable management of biodiversity’. The project is in partnership with the Cambodia Indigenous People’s Organisation (CIPO), the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), Monash University, and the University of Oxford.

This innovative transdisciplinary partnership will identify innovative solutions to support Indigenous management of biodiversity by understanding the Bunong people’s knowledge and practices for sustainable use of biodiversity in Cambodia, and investigating the co-design of novel incentives, such as procurement auctions, to support Indigenous stewardship of biodiversity in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (KSWS).