Neth Pheaktra during an interview with The Post at the Ministry of Environment headquarters. Hong Menea
For many years now, Ministry of Environment secretary of state and spokesman Neth Pheaktra has been leading tour groups composed of journalists on visits to Cambodia’s natural protected areas, which are often otherwise legally off-limits to anyone but forest rangers and the communities living there.
The Post asked Pheaktra about these nature-oriented “field trips” and more in this week’s interview.
What is the purpose of these missions?
To give journalists, primarily, a safe and legal way to visit various protected nature sites that are of definite interest to Cambodian society and the public, but access to them must be restricted in order to preserve them.
Journalists can go there with us and see what is happening and report on it, which is important because for now the general public can’t do that freely without risking the destruction of natural habitats and the loss of more species.
How did you choose which journalists are invited along on these trips?
We try to invite along a cross-section of journalists from different outlets because with the media and in public relations there’s a theory that says you can do all sorts of amazing work but if nobody knows about it then how much good will that really accomplish? To most people it will look like we’ve been doing zero, nothing at all, unless we get out there and talk about it.
So, in my view partnering with journalists is a necessary task for every ministry if they are interested at all in good publicity – and they should be! At least they should if they believe that their work is bringing some benefit to society.
For you personally, as someone in a leadership position, does the added publicity help you or is it a burden?
I personally like to put the spotlight on the work of others as much as I can rather than myself. So for me, I really enjoy getting the word out about all of the incredible things our ministry’s forest rangers are doing every day in the protected areas.
They really are heroes and that’s no exaggeration. They spend days and weeks out in the wilderness away from their families and the comforts of home – and they risk their lives doing this for a very modest salary – because they can see with their own eyes that if they don’t it then Cambodia may lose much of its forests and wildlife forever.
After years of publicity efforts, how has the public’s attitude about the environment shifted? Have all the changes been positive or are there any areas that have gotten worse? Or are they just the same?
The shift has been a positive one and overwhelmingly so. In the last 10 years, we have seen the government make consistent and concerted efforts to raise awareness about environmental work and I think anyone at the ministry would say that undoubtedly the public is more informed and interested in these topics than ever before, thanks in part to those efforts.
Young people are passionate about issues like wildlife protection or even eliminating plastic waste. Community clean-up drives – in other words, volunteering to spend your free time picking up garbage – often draw crowds of hundreds of Cambodians eager to join in. Even out in the provinces that’s true at times. And all this volunteer work is helping and having a measurable impact that will continue to grow with time.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, were there any additional obstacles to visiting or protecting the conservation areas?
The Covid-19 pandemic is a big obstacle to leading our PR missions out to remote wilderness areas, definitely but despite that we have so far visited many places this year including areas in Preah Vihear, Kratie, Mondulkiri and Koh Kong provinces as well as other places of interest in terms of natural resources.
What’s next for you and the ministry? Any big plans?
Right now, the ministry has major efforts underway for the protection and conservation of wildlife and birds in the Prek Toal Ramsar Site and for the preservation of cranes in northeast Cambodia’s Ang Trapeang Thmor nature reserve and we are working on building conservation centres that can provide veterinarian treatment for animals and also provide livelihoods for the communities in the natural protected areas.
I think that in the future – when the conservation situation in the country improves – we will continue our plans to someday allow limited visitation of these spectacular natural areas by the public, with both domestic and international ecotourism programmes.
It will all have to be carefully managed to preserve these places, of course, but once they have recovered some and are stable eco-systems again with flourishing wildlife, that is our goal.
