Phien Sayon, Cambodia
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Phien Sayon, Wildlife Conservation Society,Cambodia
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2016 Presentation (abstract below) none
2016 Profile: Phien Sayon
Organization name: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) – Cambodia Program
*-Organization full street address (in your local format): House 21, Street 21, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkamorn, Phnom Penh
*-Organization full mailing address, if different: P.O. Box 1620
*-Country: Kingdom of Cambodia
*-Work phone with country and area code: +85523219443
*-Work fax with country and area code: +85523217205
*-Main email: stim@wcs.org
*-Organization Web site URL if any: http://www.wcs.org/our-work/regions/mekong
history of your personal work in conservation and GIS:
I have been working as a GIS Technician for Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) since 2008 while I did my bachelor degree thesis writing. This is the only organization which I working for since I started my GIS career. I have been grown from a junior GIS officer for Northern Plains Landscape of Cambodia to be a GIS Analyst and then become a manager of GIS Team for the program. I am really ambitious to make this team the strongest GIS Team of WCS regional programs by building the capacity and improve efficiency of the team members. I also provide training to GIS teams for other WCS programmes, including Lao PDR and Myanmar.
work that your current organization does:
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a world leader in on-the-ground wildlife conservation, currently overseeing more than 320 projects in 60 countries of 15 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the world’s biodiversity. Our Mission is “WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature”. Our Vision is “WCS envisions a world where wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas, valued by societies that embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on earth”. WCS Cambodia has been working in Cambodia since 1999, and works across seven main sites in three landscapes: the Northern Plains, the Tonle Sap Floodplains and the Eastern Plains. WCS Cambodia working counterpart with Royal Government of Cambodia by having Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with two particular ministries: Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. WCS has been providing financial and technical support these two ministries to manage protected areas, undertake applied research, and incentivize communities to conserve wildlife and their habitats. With the values of scientific integrity, service, efficiency, and innovation, the GIS program of WCS Cambodia seeks to provide land information in support of WCS Cambodia’s objectives. I am responding on leading and managing GIS Team which composed of eight staff. I do quality assurance, quality control and efficiency of GIS Team. I provide technical support on Spatial Analysis, Land-use Monitoring, Cartography, Landscape Management and Planning, Biodiversity Database Management, and GIS and Remote Sensing Training. Moreover, I have been using land-use monitoring techniques to manage land-encroachment and leakage of Social Land Concessions (SLC) and Economic Land Concessions (ELC).
what is the most unique and the most challenging about the conservation/GIS work that you do: GIS support is very important for WCS Cambodia. Spatial analysis and cartography techniques which I have been using needed to improve to be a better performance. In Cambodia, only WCS that uses land-use monitoring techniques to manage land-encroachment and leakage of Social Land Concessions (SLC) and Economic Land Concessions (ELC). Getting everyone who needs maps to customize the maps by themselves via online or web-based map making is my obstacle to be solved by this SCGIS scholarship.
2016 ABSTRACT: "The roles of GIS and Remote Sensing in conservation in Cambodia”
National development plan, economic growth, social poverty, agricultural land expansion and people’s landlessness puts conservation areas in Cambodia in danger. Deforestation and land clearance are the main threats that need to be monitored. We are using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing, two very powerful tools, to monitor the land-use change in protected areas, to map where the hot spots of illegal activity are, to analyses how they are affected, and to identify places to take rapid action. Because of competing land requirements, most conservation areas in Cambodia have been reduced in size by excising land for urbanization, settlement, and agriculture and converted for economic development purposes. GIS and Remote Sensing can detect the areas where land has been grabbed or cleared illegally, which may have been granted to companies or individuals and can provide an alarm quickly on time to Protected Areas Managers and law enforcement teams to take action against illegal development and unplanned deforestation. We have also been able to prevent or change the boundaries of economic land concessions that infringe upon protected areas through our GIS and remove sensing work and providing the results to government decision makers to take action. GIS and remote sensing also provides a very visual opportunity to share information about the impact and danger of these practices to all stakeholders. GIS and Remote Sensing is a crucial tool for Conservation in Cambodia. Keywords: GIS, Remote Sensing, Land-use Monitoring, Conservation, Cambodia
