Featured on Bryony Angell Dot Com

I cannot recall how Bryony and I were connected via Instagram many months ago or perhaps almost a year ago. After visited Bryony Angell's website awhile ago, I was impressed with her writings and especially her posts featuring female bird guides from different countries. And to my surprise in late May 2019, Bryony invited me for an interview via email for her next blog post feature. Her blog was only posted on 16th August due to the delay from my heavy schedule in June. Bryony was very patient with me, thanks!

Screenshot of Bryony's blog page

Thank you to Bryony Angell for selecting me to be featured on her web blog. Bryony is a freelance writer/blogger and also an avid birder. Her website has a specific focus on birding culture and women in the world birding scene, with clips in regional and national publications.

Screenshot of Bryony's blog page

My contents to her questions can be hard to stomach by some bird or eco tourism industry players or may be offensive to some simply because the truth hurts. While the word "sustainable" is so overused, almost to as "green-washing", it is challenging to strike a balance between ethical practices and profit making. Tourism practices follow the trend of consumers who are the tourists. Companies will continue to provide what tourists want in order to make huge profits. Like the saying goes, "If there are demands, there will be supplies". It takes more than two parties to ensure ethical practices in tourism or eco tourism but the greater power comes from the visitors or tourists themselves. It will be my dream one day to be able to witness all tourists to say "No" to wildlife exploitation in tourism. Likewise as guides whether we are freelancers or employees, we too have our roles to play as frontliners. We had our training when getting our licensed badges and it is part of our duty to educate the tourists and not spoiling them in the end. I usually lay out my rules before accepting a nature tour booking especially Bird Photography and Mangrove Boat tour. Some will accept and some will not. I also have been declined by some tour agents when I laid out my rules. At least now, I do not have a boss to answer to. I only have to answer to my conscience. It is never easy to practice full ethics as guides. 

Please click on this link here to Bryony Angell's latest blog post.

Once again, thank you Bryony for featuring and acknowledging female Birdwatching guides around the world.