Osmose Mission

• To create harmony between the local communities and the core reserve area
• To facilitate both the conservation of the Tonle Sap environment and the sustainable livelihood of the floating villages' communities

• To improve the livelihood of floating villages’ inhabitants
• To reduce poverty
• To protect the environment
• To protect the bird sanctuary, (classified as the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO since 1997)

Starting in 1999, Osmose has undertaken an extensive pilot project linking conservation and development in the Prek Toal area of the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, north of Siem Reap.  The site is the last breeding stronghold in Southeast Asia for large waterbirds, which were then seriously threatened by massive egg and chick collection for local consumption. The project implements an original approach integrating waterbird conservation, environmental education and ecotourism, with the equitable development of the local communities as an overall goal.  After six years of effort and hard work, the waterbird colonies are saved, more than 1000 children follow the environmental education program, Osmose is the first ecotourism provider in the area, and over 100 poor families benefit from socio-sanitary support and alternative income-generating activities.  The project is now recognized as a model by local and international peers.

Osmose works in Cambodia with 3 floating communities: Prek Toal, Kbal Taol and Peak Kantel, located on the North-East of the Tonle Sap lake, the largest lake in South-East Asia and a unique flooded forest ecosystem.

Villagers depend on their natural resources for survival (fish, wood, water), and Osmose believes that the exceptional environment of the lake is the villagers’ main asset for development

Osmose is an environment awareness building project linking short term priorities (bird colony protection, poverty reduction), long term appropriation (environment education) and revenue incentives (alternative revenue source building), and Osmose has progressively built an integrated approach linking:

• Conservation: partnering with bird conservation and fisheries actors to observe and protect the colonies.
• Environmental Education (EE): educating more than 1,100 schooled and not schooled children with in- and outdoor classes throughout their school age since 2000.
• Ecotourism (ET): creating the first environment respecting tourist activity on the lake back in 1999.
• Local Development (LD): poverty reduction and livelihood improvement through schooling assistance, development of water hyacinth handicraft, organization of bi-monthly mobile clinics, medical assistance, implementation of floating gardens, water sanitation, material assistance for emergency cases.