Dekila Chungyalpa to Speak at Final Wooster Forum Event on Oct. 26

Founder of the World Wildlife Fund’s Sacred Earth program to address “Innovative Conservation in South Asia”

WOOSTER, Ohio — Dekila Chungyalpa, a priority leader with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and a 1997 College of Wooster graduate, will present “Innovative Conservation in South Asia” at the final Wooster Forum lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at The College of Wooster. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in McGaw Chapel (340 E. University St.). Chungyalpa will be substituting for Eric Dinerstein, Chief Scientist and Vice President of Conservation Science of the WWF, who had to cancel because of another commitment.

Chungyalpa, who has worked for the WWF in the Eastern Himalayas and South Asia, currently heads the organization’s efforts in the Mekong region. She is the founder of the WWF’s Sacred Earth program, which works with religious leaders in Asia on a range of environmental and sustainability issues, including the conservation of tigers in the region. Her experience working with local communities and designing practical solutions at multiple scales has enabled her to address the diverse threats facing the Mekong region, including rapid hydropower and road development, climate change, and agricultural expansion.

Profiled earlier this year in Oprah Winfrey’s “O” magazine, Chungyalpa has helped to establish programs that benefit both local communities and wildlife. "Our projects work best when we understand what lies in the heart of a community — its aspirations and its needs — and can marry this understanding with a conservation vision,” she said. "The scale and scope of our work in the Mekong region would have been hard to imagine 10 years ago. WWF is helping design roads that are flood resistant, working with logging companies to promote sustainable forestry, setting up community fishery projects, and designing projects that protect rebounding populations of tigers, elephants, and leopards. I know of no organization that is better at transforming threats into opportunities for wildlife and for people."

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