Staff Spotlight: Sothira Seng
Despite an urban upbringing in Phnom Penh, Sothira always loved nature. Her parents, who fled to the capital city after losing several family members and all their financial assets during the Cambodian genocide, also instilled in her an ardent belief in education. She remembers them saying, “The property may be gone in one day, but knowledge will remain.” Sothira earned a degree in biology from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, where she learned about the environmental impacts of rapid population growth and unsustainable economic development in Cambodia.
She began her career in environmental management in 2003 with the Angkor Environmental Management System Unit of the Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management of the Region of Angkor (APSARA). While at the APSARA National Authority, Sothira led a team of technical staff in assessing environmental impacts of conservation and tourism development on the Angkor Archaeological Park. She also provided capacity building to local communities, students, and tourism service providers in Siem Reap to address how increasing tourism was leading to a dramatic rise in waste and water use. This work showed Sothira the importance of environmental management, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem health to the cultural, social, and economic development of Cambodia.
Sothira joined USAID/Cambodia in 2014. She has held several positions at the Mission, where she applies her environmental knowledge to build community resilience, conserve wildlife and forests, improve natural resources governance, and enhance the living standards of local communities whose livelihoods depend on timber and non-forest timber products. “Poaching, snaring, logging, and land conversion for agriculture are major threats to biodiversity in Cambodia,” Sothira explains, largely because the country has valuable wildlife and timber resources to extract, is close to markets in neighboring countries, and has weak wildlife and forest protection laws that the government struggles to enforce.
Educating other Cambodians on the importance of conserving Cambodia’s unique and endangered biodiversity while also developing sustainable and equitable economic opportunities is a key aspect of Sothira’s work with USAID. Her diverse USAID portfolio has included the Keo Seima Conservation Project that successfully reduced more than 2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent from reduced deforestation in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary and mobilized more than $45 million to formalize land and resource use rights for local communities and protect the habitats of endangered species.
Currently, Sothira manages the USAID Morodok Baitang Activity, which aims to conserve Cambodia’s unique biodiversity, reduce land-based sources of carbon emissions, and foster sustainable and equitable economic development in four protected areas of Keo Seima, Lumphat, Siem Pang, and Cardamoms. The activity supports strategic partnerships between Indigenous communities, private sector actors, and development partners to increase revenue and employment opportunities. For example, it provides a premium price to local communities who participate in the environmentally friendly Ibis Rice cultivation. The IBIS Rice program is featured in an evaluation highlighted in the January 2023 Wild Times newsletter.
Sothira is also instrumental in supporting the USAID Cambodia Green Future Activity, which empowers local citizens and community partners with the knowledge and skills needed to influence positive actions to support biodiversity conservation and broad sustainable natural resource management. The activity has mobilized more than 100 environmental youth champions to share information with their families and peers on the importance of protecting Cambodia’s biodiversity.
Sothira believes biodiversity conservation plays a strong role in sustainable development and disaster risk reduction because the forest, wildlife, and ecosystem services are “a part of our lives, culture, and economy.” She explains people should be a part of the solution and that acknowledging the risks and incentives provided by conservation provides the best opportunity for integrating conservation and development. She says, “My future vision is that Cambodians will be aware of the benefits and consequences of biodiversity loss and be a part of the conservation effort.”
