The environment is our lives
Chhaliheng, 11, takes part in World Vision programming as a sponsored child and studies in grade 4. He enjoys helping his father collect and filter bee honey from the forest near his community.
When he returns from school, he helps to take care his little brother and do housework while his parents facilitate community lessons on natural resource protection and livelihood support- part of the World Vision Community Natural Resource and Livelihood Project.
World Vision provides capacity-building within communities to enable locals to work with authorities and peacefully claim their land rights, equipping them with knowledge on how to strategically negotiate with companies in order to solve the problem.
World Vision works to empower communities through sustainable natural resources management and livelihood enhancement.
World Vision also works to empower communities through sustainable natural resources management and livelihood enhancement. After several years of implementation, more than twenty-thousand hectares of land along with legal certificates have been granted by the government to communities in the form of protected community areas and community forestry areas.
The project’s implementation has impacted individual livelihood as well as increased community economic, social, and environmental development.
Communities have gained higher income generation from non-timber forest products and their prices have increased in local and international markets. Resources like wild honey and eco-tourism also make sustainable development for communities possible.
Mr. Sangvat, Chhaliheng’s father, a leader of Preah Vihear’s Network of Bee Conservation and the community based Wild Honey Enterprise, has shared his experience with other communities on how to collect natural resources like wild honey and how to protect the forest.
Chhaliheng said, “I can buy school materials from the money that we earn by collecting honey. Moreover, it will make our community keep a healthy environment.”
