MAP Asia Staff Profile

Jim Enright – Asia Regional Coordinator

Jim has been the main organizer and facilitator of MAP's "In the Hands of the Fishers" (IHOF) program, starting with the first workshop in Trang, Thailand in 1999.  Since then, MAP has led 10 regional "fisherfolk to fisherfolk" workshops in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  Jim has co-organized and co-facitiated four Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR) technical training workshops in India and Sri Lanka.  He also oversees MAP's field projects with partners in Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India.  Before joining MAP in 2000, he spent 7 years working with coastal resource issues in Thailand, as a national park interpreter in Khao Sam Roi Yot, Thailand's first coastal national park, and with the Thai NGO Yadfon Association, which promotes community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM) with coastal fishing communities in Trang.  Jim has an honors degree in Environment Resource Studies with a speciality in international development.  He is based in Trang, southern Thailand, and speaks conversational Thai.

Contact: mapasia@mangroveactionproject.org

Ms. Jaruwan (Ning) Kaewmahanin, - Field Project Manager - Thailand

Ning oversees MAP's environmental education program at Koh Phra Tong, Phang Nga.  Ning joined MAP in 2006 and comes with 4 years experience in project management and coordination of action research related to mangrove and community-based natural resource management as a project coordinator and field researcher for the Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and Pacific (RECOFTC).  She also has 9 years experience in participatory mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for natural resource management, including field application, training curriculum development and training of trainers.  While with Greenpeace she was involved in environmental education for children.

Contact: map.thai.coord@mangroveactionproject.org

Piyapat Nakornchai (Por) - Lion Village Field Project Coordinator

Por has been working with MAP as a community facilitator, responsible for implementing the collaborative community and conservation effort between MAP and Naucrates Conservation Biology on Phra Thong Island since the beginning of year 2009. Before joining the team, she was a project assistant at Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) from 2006-2008. Her experiences include conducting environmental education programs for children and adults, coordinating volunteers, acting as an interpreter/translator, as well as assisting the animal rescue unit.

Contact: piyapat_n@yahoo.co.th

Vathana Tithuot - MAP Cambodia Representative

 Ms. Vathana Tithuot oversees MAP Asia's 3 year McKnight Foundation supported project, “Conservation of Coastal and Tonle Sap Resources” working directly on the ground with project partners ‘Participatory Management of Coastal Resources of Cambodia’ (PMCR) under the Ministry of the Environment and with the NGO ‘Development and Appropriate Technology’ (DATe).  Vathana joined the MAP team in Jan. 2008 and splits her time between PMCR and DATe.   Before joining the MAP project, she spent 5 years working as a script writer at ‘Women’s Media Center of Cambodia’ (WMC), producing a weekly women’s TV program.   Vathana is now bringing her knowledge on gender issues and media skills to the resource conservation work in Cambodia.  In her free time on weekends she is kept busy working part time on a Masters of Development Studies Degree at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.  This also presents the opportunity to bring the theory to her field work and real life experience of the field to the classroom.   

Contact: MAP.Cambodia@gmail.com