Cambodian Climate Hero Profile: Mr. Nyda Chhinh

The future of Cambodia’s research lies in people like Mr. Nyda Chhinh. Following his undergraduate mining engineering degree at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, he began a position in the Ministry of Environment. This then led to more study; Mr. Chhinh spent over 6 years in Australia completing both his masters and PhD in Adelaide as well as a course on environmental governance before returning to Cambodia to pass on his knowledge. In 2007, Mr. Chhinh took up a position as a lecturer at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, teaching a range of subjects including environmental ethics, statistics, research design and geographical information systems (GIS).

Mr. Chhinh recently worked with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the UNDP-supported ‘Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems in Cambodia’ project to develop a drought monitoring report for the country of Cambodia. This report looks at historical perspectives of drought within the country, as well as proposing new contextualized sets of indicators and future ways forward.