| | Local Language Field Guides(138kb pdf) |  |
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Supporting Local Language Field Guides, the World Bank’s highly successful Field Guides Program, has now contributed to the production of over 30 local language field guides across the EAP region. The field guides, supported through Bank projects and Dutch trust funds, are key tools in promoting environmental awareness and capacity building in developing countries where a lack of accessible information in local languages has hampered biodiversity training, protected areas ranger capacity, opportunities for local communities to benefit from their rich biological heritage, and adequate environmental assessments of development projects. The program has supported local language guides for a variety of plants and animals, including the birds of China and Lao, various parts of Indonesia and Vietnam; the trees of Thailand; the bamboos of Indonesia; and the tortoises and turtles of Southeast Asia. Many of the individual projects have been implemented through, and co-funded by, local and international NGOs working with national scientific agencies. The program has been showcased at various platforms both at the Bank and outside, and is currently trying to respond to a demand that is overwhelming. The field guides program has proven especially valuable in encouraging and empowering young professionals to take up careers in conservation. Field guides can inspire young scientists and young members of local communities so that they can better promote, and benefit from, natural resources and biodiversity, as well as from alternative livelihoods based on sound biodiversity management. Already some of the Bank-funded guides are being utilized at the local level by village ecotourism guides, including youth and women’s groups, as well as teachers and young environmental professionals to increase their own knowledge and strengthen the services and information they can provide to others. Local language field guides strengthen overall capacity for environmental management and impact assessment. Moreover, by providing easy access to information in local languages, the guides provide tools to environmental activists to better participate in monitoring and strengthening the impacts of government-led development programs. Since many of the Bank’s own operations focus on resource management at the village or watershed level, these guides can provide effective tools for communities to monitor the environmental impact of current and future resource management decisions. |
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