Management Information System

The suitability of the spatial Management Information System (MIST) for use in protected area management in Cambodia was tested in Virachey National Park in 2003. After a successful test phase it was introduced in Virachey and Bokor National Parks in 2004 and Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary in 2005. In 2006 MIST has been introduced in Aural and Samkos Wildlife Sanctuaries.

MIST provides protected area managers with easy access to up-to-date and timely information for their decision-making, planning, monitoring and evaluation. The information is based on the analysis of data on illegal activities and wildlife collected by ranger patrols (ranger-based data collection), resource-use data collected by local communities, and data about visitors. The data collection component of MIST focuses on protected areas.

MIST is easy to customise and can be set-up to meet the needs of different users and for different types of natural resource management, reflecting differences in issues, objectives, and threats at local level and different protected area categories.

MIST is not only a tool for managers at local (protected area) level, it has also been designed for use at national and regional (transboundary) levels. The next step therefore will be the introduction of MIST at the Ministry of Environment’s Department of Nature Conservation and Protection.

The standardised data collection and the design of the MIST database enable database replication from the protected areas to the central database at the Department of Nature Conservation and Protection. The introduction of MIST at the Ministry will also contribute to institutionalising information and knowledge management through capturing and storing information and knowledge in an accessible way, and through joining up people to enable knowledge to flow/exchange. This is also supported by the national biodiversity conservation database which is currently set up by BPAMP.

For further information about MIST visit the developers webpage.