Cambodia adopts Assam’s successful women-led model for conservation of endangered Storks

Guwahati: The training was led by Purnima Devi Barman, known affectionately as the Stork sister, is a wildlife biologist, the founder of the Hargila Army, and the United Nations Environment Programme Champion of the Earth, along with Aaranyak, an Assam-based biodiversity conservation organisation. 

The initiative, hosted by Cambodia’s Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), involves training 20 Cambodian women conservationists and park rangers in the ‘Hargila Army’ model, a women-led conservation movement that has helped protect the endangered greater Adjutant Stork in Assam. The focus area is the Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary in the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve.

Dr. Barman unveiled a series of educational posters featuring a behavioural ethogram of the Greater Adjutant, developed to boost awareness and inspire coexistence with storks and wetland wildlife. The programme featured activities such as leadership exercises to highlight women’s strengths in conservation, and cultural workshops linking local traditions with ecological values, “textile hunts” showcasing nature in fabrics and folk art, and an interactive “web of life” game to demonstrate biodiversity interdependence. 

This is a milestone cross-border conservation initiative advancing both biodiversity protection and women’s leadership in conservation, while forging stronger ecological ties between Assam and Cambodia.