Details:
Today, our speakers; Rathmono Mam and Sam At Rachana, will cover the context of the project they’re working on and how each of their specialisms is applied to recognising and rewarding the contribution of Indigenous knowledge for the sustainable management of biodiversity.
Speaker biographies:
Sam At Rachana.
I am a Bunong Indigenous woman from Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia, and my journey has been shaped by both structural barriers and a strong determination to pursue education and representation for Indigenous Peoples.
My professional journey has focused on Indigenous rights, environmental governance, and legal research. I currently serve as Lead Researcher at the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Organization on a UK-funded project. Working in partnership with Indigenous communities, the University of Oxford, Monash University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Royal University of Agriculture, I help ensure that Indigenous knowledge is recognised as evidence that can inform biodiversity conservation and environmental governance. I hope to build on this work by contributing to the implementation of national biodiversity policies and international frameworks, including the Global Biodiversity Framework, where Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and participation are essential.
At the same time, I am committed to strengthening Indigenous-led research in Cambodia. I want to help create more opportunities for Indigenous researchers to document their own histories, languages, cultures, and traditional knowledge so that communities become authors of knowledge rather than subjects of research.
Rathmono Mam
I am an interdisciplinary researcher focused on agriculture, livelihoods, conservation, and food systems. I am currently completing an PhD while working as a researcher at the Center of Excellence, Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development. My research involves the understanding of the impact of indigenous communal land titling (ICLT) on deforestation, where I utilized staggered synthetic difference-in-differences in STATA and Google Earth Engine to extract deforestations. Next, I will be involved the designing and modelling of procurement auction, contributing an equitable and inclusive benefit sharing program with the indigenous people.