Activities include environmental education with fishing communities on the Tonle Sap lake. Education is participatory and involves working with the people to identify local problems related to the Tonle Sap lake, then designing and implementing extension material to address these problems. Chong Khneas commune was the first community to complete the process of identifying problems and the related extension material. The two main issues identified in this commune were: cutting of the flooded

forest; and waste management. As a result of this process the participants decided to develop a video about protecting the Tonle Sap Lake resource. Furthermore the participants organised a community environment committee to continue addressing the issues identified by the community.

One of the environment committees main initiatives has been to organise community fishery management in the local area. This process involves a partnership between the stakeholders of a fishing ground with the objective of managing the natural resources productively and sustainably for the benefit and development of local communities. Currently the community has over 6000 hectares under community management.

GECKO and the environment committee have initiated education about is waste management awareness. This program involved a World Environment Day Clean Up and the development of signs and banners in the local community. The issue of waste management has no easy solution for a floating village without any land to bury waste. The land you can see in the above picture is the main road to the port area and is inundated by the lake during the rainy season June - November.

The GECKO center is also working to empower all levels of the local community and improve their ability to educate and communicate knowledge to other community members. During the last 12 months the Environment Staff have been training community members to be facilitators together with the environment officers for the children's environmental education programs.

Environmental education for children is held every Thursday morning in the GECKO. Since the GECKO started this program over 1000 children have participated in our activities. These children have come from Prek Toul Commune in Battamabang Province, a fishing community one hour across the lake. All the children in Chong Khneas commune where the GECKO is located and a group children from an orphanage visit the GECKO each month and participate in our education activities.

Our strategy is to involve children from one commune until all in school and out of school children have participated. Initially we have been bringing children to the centre because the communes are located close by and there is a lack of teaching area in the overcrowded schools. However as our program expands and more environment staff and community members are trained to conduct the environmental education activities, we will establish a mobile team of facilitators to involve more distant communities living near the lake.

The GECKO centre is located in the Port community of Chong Khneas. Chong Khneas is a fishing community and provides a major landing point for fish caught in the lake. Furthermore, Chong Khneas is the landing point for visitors arriving by boat from Phnom Penh and Battambang and is the place from where tourists visiting Angkor can hire a boat to enjoy a few hours on the lake.

The GECKO provides information to the visitor about the Tonle Sap Lake wildlife, forests, products and people. You

will also gain an insight into the main problems associated with managing this unique area. The GECKO is your gateway to the Tonle Sap Lake, equiping you with the knowledge you need to enjoy and understand this spectacular area.