Kep Archipelago Hope Spot team win landmark contract to restore Cambodia’s coastline. With support from Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative partner Mission Blue, a local conservation organisation is working tirelessly to bring the ocean’s largest vegetarian mammal, the dugong, back to restored seagrass meadows in Cambodian waters.

According to Mission Blue Hope Spot Champion Rachana Thap, seagrass is “the superhero in the oceans”. Not only does it form the basis of ecosystems that are critical to hundreds of marine species, it is also capable of sequestering more carbon than any terrestrial forest.

The waters of the Kep Archipelago were once rich with seagrass and teeming with life, but years of industrial fishing and bottom-trawling wiped away huge swaths of seagrass and coral reef.

The story might have ended there, but not for a former policeman from England, Paul Ferber, who arrived in Cambodia in 2006 to teach diving. Struck by the need to conserve the beautiful waters, he founded Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC) in 2008.

In 2013, after years of championing the marine environment, MCC was invited by the Cambodian government to form a permanent base on the island of Koh Ach Seh in the Kep Archipelago, where they were joined by Thap, a university student at the time, on a six-month internship. She was working on a marine biology thesis on artificial reefs and was soon appointed by Ferber to lead a project implementing these reefs in the archipelago.

The artificial reefs are structures made up of two-tonne concrete blocks that act as both an anti-trawling measure and provide a habitat to replenish the marine ecosystem. As the artificial reefs took effect, all manner of wildlife began to return to the region, Irrawaddy dolphins and green turtles. Seeing Kep’s marine life flourish, the people of the neighbouring Kampot Province asked MCC to install reef structures along their coast, “and they say the number of dolphins increased immediately after deployment”, says Thap. Ferber was so impressed with the project’s success, he appointed Thap to be his successor, as Executive Director of MCC.

Seeing the success of MCC’s work, in 2016 the Cambodian government declared the country’s second Marine Fisheries Management Area: 11,600 hectares of ocean around the Kep Archipelago, including 12 islands, dedicated to sustainable fishing practices and improving local livelihoods.

With life thriving amid the artificial reefs, Thap began to wonder if it might be possible to bring back the dugong, which had not been seen in Cambodia’s waters for many years. She reached out to Mission Blue, an ocean conservation non-profit organisation supported by the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative and started by legendary marine biologist Sylvia Earle, to help extend and amplify the project’s success.

In 2019, Mission Blue named the Kep Archipelago a Hope Spot. “Being recognized by Mission Blue was a really big moment,” says Thap, “It’s hugely encouraging for us to know that we’re not working alone, we have international backup.”

Thap was able to expand the distribution of artificial reefs, which now number over 300. In just a few years, 1,000 hectares of seagrass returned to the archipelago, and in 2022, this yielded an extraordinary result: a dugong and its calf spotted in the waters of the archipelago. “It just appeared 300 metres from our island,” recalls Thap, “It almost made me cry. We spent hours watching it. I can’t describe the feeling, but it showed us that what we were doing was right.” Since then, dugong sightings in the recovering seagrass meadows have become a regular occurrence.

The Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative and Mission Blue both believe in the power of engaging local people in conservation, which is a large part of why Kep Archipelago is such an exemplary and successful Hope Spot. By collaborating with the local community, MCC are ensuring conservation work helps sustain local livelihoods. “We work with the community because this is their home,” says Thap. Locals have been delighted to see an increase in their catches in areas where the ecosystem has been recovering thanks to MCC’s protection: “The local community love the artificial reefs and have requested us to install more.”

Installing more reefs is exactly what Thap plans to do, having recently been contracted by the Cambodian government to install 5,000 artificial reefs along the Cambodian coast over the next five-and-a-half years. “It’s going to change the whole Cambodian coastal province,” she says, “the potential for restoration and returning wildlife is enormous.”

Although she has been with MCC for seven years, Thap feels that her work is just beginning: “For me, it’s not about five or ten years, it is a lifetime commitment.” With the support and media visibility offered by Rolex and Mission Blue, she is spreading awareness of her work and its implications not just for the archipelago, or even Cambodia, but the wider world: “This is not just a national project, it is a worldwide one.”

ABOUT THE PERPETUAL PLANET INITIATIVE
For nearly a century, Rolex has supported pioneering explorers pushing back the boundaries of human endeavour. The company has moved from championing exploration for the sake of discovery to protecting the planet, committing for the long term to support individuals and organizations using science to understand and devise solutions to today’s environmental challenges.

This engagement was reinforced with the launch of the Perpetual Planet Initiative in 2019, which initially focused on the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, as well as longstanding partnerships with Mission Blue and National Geographic Society.

The initiative now has more than 20 other partnerships in an expanding portfolio. They include, for example, Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, offspring organizations of Tompkins Conservation, the Under The Pole expeditions, the Monaco Blue Initiative, and Coral Gardeners.

Rolex also supports organizations and initiatives fostering the next generations of explorers, scientists and conservationists through scholarships and grants, such as Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and The Rolex Explorers Club Grants.