A brief report of the visit to Thmor Bang district in Koh Kong province from April 16 to 18, 2012

MP Son Chhay's team from left to right: SRP activist Mardi Seng; Hay, a local villager who helped arrange the trip to Areng River; Keo Phirum, a SRP provincial councilor; MP Son Chhay; acitivist Theary Seng, and Emily Keo who acted as the note taker.

A view of the Areng River

Fishing on the Areng River. The river has plenty of fish.

A civet caught at night time by local villagers

Close up look of the civet

A viper came out at night time

Bo the owner of a logging truck seen on the right. Bo is allegedly involved in illegal logging in the area

20 April 2012
By MP Son Chhay

After receiving complaints from local communities in a number of communes in Thmor Bang district concerning illegal logging activities in the area and the plan for the construction of a hydro-electric dam on the Chhay Areng River, I took the action of sending two complaint letters to the government: (1) first on October 10, 2011 regarding the illegal logging activities in the areas near Tatai Leu, and within the districts of Reusei Chrum , Thmor Daun, Chupnuap, Chamnar in Thmor Bang district, Koh Kong province, and (2) the second letter was sent on February 27, 2012 to ask the government to stop the hydro-electric Dam project which was given to the company by the name of “Guodian Corporation”, a Chinese state-owned energy company, which is licensed to build the dam. So far the government has not responded to any of the letters.

From April 16 to 18, a team of five people visited the area of Thmor Bang district to investigate the situation of illegal logging activities and also to assess the environmental impact on the area should the hydro-electric dam project go ahead.

During these three days, the team went right up to Chamnar village, located upstream of Chhay Areng River, to meet with people from different villages and to check the condition of the forest and wildlife which will be affected by the planned construction of the dam.

1- Reaction from the local people

The majority of the people affected are indigenous people known as the “Chaung” people who number around 1500 members and who still speak some of their own dialect mixed with the Khmer language. They live in harmony with nature by farming and fishing from the river.

When asked what they thought about the hydro-electric dam project, all of them – including the CPP village chief whom we spoke to – strongly displayed their anger and disapproval, but they are not willing to protest in public for fear of facing abuse from the authority. Local villagers along the Areng River told us that they have been forced out of their land once when the Vietnamese army occupied Cambodia in 1979. They were forced to resettle in Chiphat, Botum Sako district, but about 17 years ago, they have decided to return back to their ancestors’ villages.

Venomous Cardamom viper after crocodile watching excursion - Video by Theary Seng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTESYCzleLA

Photos: three bizarre bats discovered in Southeast Asia

Murina walstoni, a new bat species named after Joe Walston, Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Executive Director for Asia Programs. Photo by: Gabor Csorba.

New bat species: Murina cineracea. Photo by: Neil Furey.

New bat species with an especially evocative name: Murina beelzebub. Photo by: Gabor Csorba.

October 30, 2011Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com

In the forests of Cambodia and Vietnam, researchers have discovered three new species of tube-nosed bats, known for extraordinary nostrils that look like blooming flowers. The new bats, described in the Journal of Mammalogy, are likely imperiled by deforestation.

"They all possess specially shaped nostrils (hence the name for the group) the exact role of which not known yet," Gabor Csorba, lead author of the paper with the Hungarian Natural History Museum, told mongabay.com.

Csorba says the bats remained hidden for so long, because they have 'highly sophisticated echolocation systems', making it impossible for scientists to catch the bats in mist nets—the usual method for trapping bats in the wild.

Mekong Dams Could Threaten Aquatic Life

Grilled food stall in Vientiane that sells aqua-cultured Tilapia fish (Photo: VOA - D Schearf)

Vientiane 11 January 2010
Daniel Schearf
Voice of America

Plans to build a series of hydropower dams on the Mekong River could threaten already endangered species in the waterway.

The Mekong River is the lifeblood of Southeast Asia, with the largest inland fisheries in the world.

About 40 million people depend to some degree on the fisheries, worth about $2.5 billion a year.

But fisheries experts say plans by Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to build hydropower dams on the Mekong would block fish migration, threatening already endangered species.

Environmental activists say plans by Laos to build a dam in the Don Sahong area near the Cambodian border could doom the nearly extinct Irrawaddy dolphin.

Soung Ma earns money taking tourists for a rare glimpse of the dolphins. "Local people normally work in dolphin tourism. Everyone has a small boat and can pick up tourists and get money from tourists every day or every month depending on the season," Ma said.

The Mekong River Commission works to manage river resources among Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Jeremy Bird heads the commission and says balancing the pros and cons of hydropower dams is the biggest challenge facing the Mekong basin. "We're talking about the livelihoods of millions of people but we're also talking about a huge potential resource of hydropower which can not only provide foreign revenues to the countries, but can those revenues can then be used to finance other development programs and help countries meet their targets on poverty alleviation and millenium development goals," Bird said.

Some dams on rivers feeding the Mekong have disrupted fish populations.

Fishermen may have to turn to aquaculture like this tilapia farm in Vientiane to make up for the lost wild catch.

Suchart Ingthamjitr, a program officer at the MRC's fishery program, says fish farms help meet demand. "The price of wild fish is higher than cultured fish. But, the problem of wild fish is seasonality," Ingthamjitr said. "Yeah, you can catch and have the wild fish depend on the time of year. But, for tilapia all year round you can buy it in the market."

As the sun sets on the Mekong, fishermen try their luck.

Environmental and fisheries experts say damming the Mekong will change some of their traditional ways.

Greater Mekong's species spectacle

Monday, 15 December 2008
BBC News

Conservation group WWF says that more than 1,000 species new to science have been recorded in South-East Asia's Greater Mekong region over the past decade. These include 22 snake species, including this green pitviper (Trimeresurus gumprechti).
The "dragon millipede" (Desmoxytes purpurosea) was first described in 2007 by scientists in Thailand. Researchers suggest the bright colouring acts as a warning to would-be predators, as the millipede has glands that produce cyanide as a defence mechanism.
The Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus) was first recorded by scientists at a food market in Laos. Remarkably, researchers say this species is the sole survivor of an ancient group of rodents understood to have died out 11 million years ago.
The large and aggressive Heteropoda dagmarae was found in forests of northern and central Laos. The nocturnal spider skillfully ambushes its prey from shrubs, trees, or bamboo between two and four metres from the ground.
Tree frog Chiromantis samkosensis, found in Cambodia, has a number of unique characteristics that distinguishes from other Asian Chiromantis species, including green blood and turquoise bones.
Scientists say finding so many species, such as the Gekko scientiadventura, suggests that many more creatures are still to be described in the region, which covers Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China's Yunnan province.

Plate-sized spider among 1068 new species found in Mekong

December 15, 2008
By Lewis Smith
Times Online (UK)

STRIPED rabbits, bright pink millipedes laced with cyanide and a spider bigger than a dinner plate are among a host of new species discovered in a remote wildlife hotspot.

The Greater Mekong is described as one of the last scientifically unexplored regions of the world and it abounds in life seen nowhere else in the world.

So little is known about the ecology of the region that previously unknown animals and plants have been turning up at a rate of two a week for a decade. At least 1,068 new species were identified in the Greater Mekong from 1997 to 2007 along with several thousand tiny invertebrates.

Annamite striped rabbits, Nesolagus timminsi, with black and brown fur, were discovered in Vietnam and Laos in 2000 and are only the second species of striped rabbit to be identified. The other is in Sumatra, the two sharing a common ancestor that lived several million years ago.

Among the most bizarre to be discovered was a hot-pink, spiny dragon millipede, Desmoxytes purpurosea. Several were found simultaneously in Thailand as they crawled over limestone rocks and palm leaves.

To defend themselves from predators the millipedes have glands that produce cyanide. Scientists believe that the shocking-pink colouration is to signal to predators that they would make a fatal snack. "They would do well to heed this warning," concluded a WWF report on the Greater Mekong discoveries.

A huntsman spider, named Heteropoda maxima, measured 30cm across and was found in caves in Laos. It was described as the "most remarkable" of 88 new species of spider located in Laos, Thailand and the Yunnan province of China.

The Greater Mekong comprises 600,000 square kilometres of wetlands and rainforest along 4,500km of the Mekong River in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Wars, internal problems and the remoteness of the region kept most international scientists away for decades but in the 1990s it began to be surveyed extensively for its wildlife.

Thomas Ziegler, curator at Cologne Zoo, was among the researchers to explore the Greater Mekong. "It is a great feeling being in an unexplored area and to document its biodiversity for the first time, both enigmatic and beautiful," he said.

The discoveries documented in the WWF report First Contact in the Greater Mekong, published today, include 519 plants, 15 mammals, 89 frogs, 279 fish, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 4 birds, 4 turtles and 2 salamanders.

Stuart Chapman, the director of WWF's Greater Mekong program, said: "We thought discoveries of this scale were confined to the history books. This reaffirms the Greater Mekong's place on the world map of conservation priorities."

Among the 15 mammals discovered in the region was the Laotian rock rat, Laonastes aenigmamus. It was thought to have been extinct for 11 million years but a researcher spotted the corpse of one on sale in a food market in Laos in 2005. While unknown to scientists, the rock rat was known to locals as kha-nyou and was enjoyed roasted and served whole on a skewer.

Two of the biggest surprises were the discoveries of two types of muntjac deer. One, the dark Annamite muntjac, Muntiacus truongsonensis, was identified in Vietnam from skulls and descriptions by local people who knew it as samsoi cacoong - "the deer that lives in the deep, thick forest". Live specimens still elude researchers.

One new snake - the Siamese Peninsula pit viper, Trimeresurus fucatus - was spotted slithering through the rafters of a restaurant in Thailand.

There are estimated to be 20,000 different types of plant, 1,200 species of bird, 430 mammals, 800 reptiles and amphibians, and 1,300 fish in the Greater Mekong. Among the mammals is one of the two remaining populations of the critically endangered Javan rhino.

Like Cambodia's Elephants, Phnong Traditions in Jeopardy

Mane Yun in local Bunong village in Cambodia.

Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
13 August 2007

Cambodian elephants can be distinguished from their African counterparts by their smaller ears, Yun Mane, a young law student of the Phnong minority, explained recently from Mondulkiri province.

These elephants are endangered, just as the traditions of the Phnong people are.

The Phnong's traditional use of elephants to clear forests and for transportation is declining, as the monetary value of elephants increase. Many Phnong, who are short of food and money, sell their elephants to companies in Siem Reap, where they are used transport tourists around Angkor Wat, Yun Mane told VOA Khmer recently.

"The elephant is the animal we love the most because it helps transport wood from the forests to help us build homes, and rice from the fields, and fruits and vegetables from farms," she said. "Our people do not rely on motorcycles or bicycles, because, in the forests and on the mud paths, when there is heavy rain and flooding, the elephant is the most reliable of all.''

As a child Yun Mane rode her elephant into Vietnam to bring back food and herbal medicine. But she sold her elephant several years ago to help her family and help pay for her education. Phnong are historically known as expert elephant captors. In their religion, the Phnong pray to elephant gods for good health, abundant harvests and safe journeys. The Phnong are forbidden to kill or eat the animals. A domestic elephant is honored in death with the same traditional funeral burial as a human.

''When an elephant dies, the Phnong do not eat the dead elephant," Yun Mane said. "A few Phnong might, but very few. The elephant is considered sacred, even in death. We bury a deceased elephant, especially the elephant that I personally love."

Melbourne scientists plan to run DNA tests on elephant dung sent from Cambodia to help work out numbers and monitor wild populations. Rangers have collected almost 600 samples of elephant dung from the Cardamom Mountains in the country's southwest.

Elephant biologist Joe Hefferman said getting a more accurate picture of population size would help conservationists work out how many elephants were being poached.

A sickening taste: Taste for tiger

Killed for man’s pleasure: Pelts of tigers and other big cats confiscated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Demand for tiger products is pushing the species to the brink. – REUTERS

Tuesday May 29, 2007
Taste for tiger

A plan to farm tigers for their body parts is troubling wildlife groups.

Stories by Tan Cheng Li
chengli@thestar.com.my
The Star (Malaysia)

TIGERS, under threat in every single country where they roam, now face an alarming new peril – rekindled trading of their body parts.

China, insisting that selling tigers would save the species, proposes to lift a 14-year-old domestic trade ban and seeks legal sale of farmed tiger body parts. The issue will be raised next week at The Hague, The Netherlands, where 171 nations will gather from June 3 to 16 for talks under the world’s biggest wildlife treaty, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Justifying its stand, China argues that conserving tigers in their natural habitat has not been effective; neither has the trade prohibition. It believes legitimising sale of meat, bones, organs and claws from farm-raised tigers would stem poaching of wild tigers. Officials in Beijing are thought to be under pressure from tiger farm owners – who have an estimated 4,000 tigers – to put a commercial price on the carnivore.

China has an ally in Barun Mitra, director of the Liberty Institute, a pro-free-market think tank in New Delhi, India. Mitra has been making the case for farmed tiger trade in newspaper editorials and public appearances worldwide. He has argued that if the market were flooded by farmed tiger products, prices would drop sufficiently to make poaching and smuggling no longer attractive or worth the risk.

But wildlife experts think otherwise. They fear that lifting the trade ban, in place since 1993, would spark an open season on the world’s remaining wild tigers, which number fewer than 5,000 across 13 countries.

Dr Susan Lieberman, director of WWF’s Global Species Programme, points out that the free-market approach was what led to the endangered status of the big cat in the first place. “China once had one of the largest tiger populations in the wild and now has one of the smallest. Experts agree that this is due to the unregulated, out-of-control domestic market in tiger parts.” The Chinese plan is grave enough for 35 organisations representing more than 100 environmental, zoo, animal protection groups worldwide to unite under the International Tiger Coalition (ITC) and oppose it. The ITC argues that legalising trade in farmed tiger products will not curb poaching of wild tigers or stem demand for their body parts.

“Since wild tiger bone is thought to be superior medicinally, people would still prefer it. Products from wild tigers cannot be distinguished from farmed products, so legalising trade would provide a ‘cover’ for illegal tiger products,” says the ITC, which included groups such as Animals Asia Foundation, Conservation International, Environmental Investigation Agency, Global Tiger Patrol, Save the Tiger Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Association of Zoos and Aquarium, Zoological Society of London and WWF.

Far from satisfying demands for tiger products at low prices, the ITC says the cost of regulating trade in farmed tiger products would drive up their price, making the lower costs of poaching tigers even more attractive.

Chris Shepherd, programme officer of wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, says tiger-farming might well open the door for laundering of wild tigers, especially with the history of inadequate enforcement and weak regulations in tiger range countries in Asia.

“It will always be easier and cheaper to poach wild tigers and pass them off as captive-breds since chances of getting caught are slim, and right now there is no way of differentiating between the two,” he says. “Reopening trade will drive up demand for tiger meat and parts, as it will attract new users who think it is okay to consume such products since the animals had been reared.”

Bred for business

Wildlife experts say raising wildlife commercially, in many cases, has not benefited wild populations. Take the case of bear farming, which China started in the 1980s, to reduce pressure on wild stocks. The exact opposite is true. Wild bears are still poached, sometimes to replenish farms.

Indonesia’s sulphur-crested cockatoo is another example. Although bred in farms, it is still trapped in the wild and is now critically endangered. In markets, wild-caught birds are passed off as captive-breds and often, priced cheaper than farmed ones. The Siamese crocodile shares a similar story. It breeds well in captivity but wild populations in Thailand still face extinction risks due to opportunistic trappings.

Cites only allows trade of bred Arowanas but it is still profitable to catch wild stocks since there is little chance of detection. Shepherd says these are sold to breeders who grow the fish until they reach a size suitable for insertion of identifying microchips, thus legalising the aquarium trade.

His covert work in Indonesia – where exports of totally protected species are prohibited except for some species which are captive-bred – shows traders passing off wild caught reptiles as farmed ones by falsifying export permits. A commonly exploited species is the green tree monitor lizard.

“Some view captive-breeding as a conservation tool but without enforcement, regulation and monitoring, it is actually a threat to conservation of wildlife,” asserts Shepherd. “Countries like Malaysia, with a small and declining tiger population, should be wary of this and not support tiger-farming.”

Claims that farmed tigers will one day be placed into the wild will not happen as it would be too difficult and expensive. Scientists say released captive tigers lack hunting instincts and tend to venture into human settlements, leading to dire consequences.

Also, tiger farms breed for production rather than a healthy gene pool. At Xiong Sen Tiger and Bear Farm, in China, tiger experts found cross-breeding of the Amur, South China and Bengal tigers.

Garnering support

Pressured by farms with exploding captive tiger populations, and which want trade to resume, China is earnestly seeking support for its plan. Early this month, a delegation headed for India, home to the world’s largest wild tiger population. The Indian media reported lukewarm response from local officials. India has the most to lose if tiger trading is rekindled. It lost more than half of its big cats in the past decade to a growing thirst for pelts by ethnic groups in Tibet and Southern China.

If China gets its way, many think it will almost certainly hasten the species’ march toward extinction. Asia has already lost three of its nine tiger species – the Caspian, Balinese and Javanese tigers. The South China tiger appears to be next, with only 20 to 30 believed left in the wild.

Urging for the trade ban to stay, wildlife groups say the restriction has helped slow down illegal trade and in Russia, aided the Siberian tiger population to recover. “Without the bans, wild tigers would be worse off than they are today.

Existing bans can be even more effective with stepped-up, intelligence-led enforcement,” says the ITC.

For Dr Eric Dinerstein, chief scientist of World Wildlife Fund, a better way to conserve tigers is the simplest. “We have seen rapid recovery of fast-breeding tiger populations wherever they and their prey are protected and given adequate space.”

It is also vital to dispel beliefs that tiger products are needed for health and sacred cultural practices, for if the nouveau riche of China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia start acquiring a taste for tiger wine, penis and skins, then even all the tiger farms in China may not be able to satiate their appetites.

Those demands must be wiped out if wild tigers are to continue prowling the forest.

Cambodian rangers trained to protect vulnerable bears

Wednesday April 25, 2007

(Kyodo) - More than 20 Cambodian rangers are being trained with methods for surveying the presence of bears and on the situation facing bears in Cambodian forests, according to a statement released Wednesday by an Australia-based international nongovernmental organization.

The five-day course, which runs from Monday to Friday, began at Phnom Tamao Zoo and Wildlife Rescue Center where 78 rescued bears currently live. The trainees will then move to several other parks in the country.

Tamao Zoo is located some 50 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, the capital.

The course, which is called "The Bear Sign Survey," is "to bring together the region's most experienced bear experts to train local rangers to collect valuable information about bears in the wild. It is the first time this kind of training course has ever been held in Asia and it has generated a lot of interest," says Matt Hunt, Southeast Asia program manager for Free the Bears Fund.

The Bear Sign Survey course is being led by international experts Gabriella Fredriksson, who has spent years tracking and rehabilitating bears in the forests of Borneo, and Robert Steinmetz from WWF Thailand, who has recently discovered a method for distinguishing between Malayan sun bears and Asiatic black bears by measuring the claw marks they leave on trees.

A number of international experts from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are observing the course with a view to replicating it in other countries throughout the region, the statement said.

Despite increased law enforcement efforts, three bear cubs have been confiscated or donated over the past month alone in Cambodia. These cubs are currently being cared for by Free the Bears Fund staff in Phnom Penh, and at Phnom Tamao.

The training is facilitated by Free the Bears Fund and Conservation International, with support from Perth Zoo, the Bokor Conservation Project, Forestry Administration and the Cambodia's Environment Ministry.

Bears throughout Southeast Asia face an uncertain future in the wild. Large numbers of animals continue to be hunted to supply the demand for their body parts to be used in traditional medicine, and cubs are captured for the pet and restaurants traders, the statement said.

Cambodia is thought to hold important populations of Asiatic black bears and sun bears, both of which are considered to be vulnerable according to the World Conservation Union's Red List of threatened species.

Unlike species such as the tiger, little is known about the habits and status of Southeast Asian bears in the wild. They are one of the least-studied groups of large mammals in the region.

Six of the world's eight species of bear can be found in Asia. More than 10,000 bears in China and 4,000 bears in Vietnam are kept under inhumane conditions in tiny cages, where their bile is extracted and used for traditional medicine.

A glimpse at wildlife and its preservation in Mondulkiri

In this undated photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a tiger roams the jungle forest in southern Mondulkiri province of Cambodia. Once a hotspot on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War, the area and its wildlife are now protected against hunters. (AP Photo/Wildlife Conservation Society)

In this undated photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a tiger walks in the jungle forest in southern Mondulkiri province of Cambodia. Once a hotspot on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War, the area and its wildlife are now protected against hunters. (AP Photo/Wildlife Conservation Society)

In this undated photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a wild elephant roams the jungle forest in southern Mondulkiri province of Cambodia. Once a hotspot on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War, the area and its wildlife are now protected against hunters. (AP Photo/Wildlife Conservation Society)

In this photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Cambodia soldiers set a camera trap Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006, in the jungle forest in southern Mondulkiri province of Cambodia. Once a hotspot on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War, the area and its wildlife are now protected against hunters. (AP Photo/Wildlife Conservation Society)

In this photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society taken on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007, confiscated chain saws are shown to the media. The saws were taken from Cambodians who were caught illegally logging in the southern Mondulkiri province of Cambodia. Once a hotspot on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the area is protected against hunting and logging. (AP Photo/HO/Wildlife Conservation Society)

In this undated photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Cambodia soldiers patrol the jungle forest in southern Mondulkiri province of Cambodia. Once a hotspot on the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War, the area and its wildlife are now protected against hunters. (AP Photo/Wildlife Conservation Society)

Cambodian Vulture Nests Offer Hope For Species

This slender-billed vulture nest is one of several recently discovered by conservationists in the forests of Cambodia. The breeding colony is currently the only one known in Southeast Asia. (Credit: WCS Cambodia Program)

Science Daily — Working in the remote forests of Cambodia, conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have just discovered Southeast Asia's only known breeding colony of slender-billed vultures, one of the world's most threatened bird species.

Found in heavily forested country just east of the Mekong River in Cambodia's Stung Treng Province, the colony also represents one of the only known slender-billed vulture nesting areas in the world, and therefore one of the last chances for recovery for the species, now listed as "Critically Endangered" by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

"We discovered the nests on top of a hill where two other vulture species were also found, one of which--the white-rumped vulture--is also 'Critically Endangered'," said Song Chansocheat, manager of the Cambodia Vulture Conservation Project, a government project supported by WCS, BirdLife International, World Wildlife Fund, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. "Amazingly, there were also a host of other globally threatened species of birds and primates. It's a very special place."

Chansocheat's team immediately set-up 24-hour protection measures against poaching and egg collecting, and are now working with local communities to ensure that they are involved in--and support--longer-term conservation measures. "We already have a successful WCS model working in the Northern Plains where local people benefit from conservation activities. I think we have a good chance of making it work here if we can find the support."

The slender-billed vulture is one of several vulture species in Asia that have been driven to the brink of extinction across its entire range due to Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug used for cattle that is highly toxic to vultures. Diclofenac has lead to global population declines as high as 99 percent in slender-billed and other vulture species. Diclofenac is now being slowly phased out in South Asia, but not at a pace that assures the recovery of the vultures. Because Diclofenac is almost entirely absent from use in Cambodia, the country remains one of the main hopes for the survival of the species. However, these birds are still endangered from other threats, such as a lack of food due to the over-hunting of large-bodied mammals, loss of habitat, and sometimes direct hunting.

The Cambodia Vulture Conservation Project has already been successful in helping stem the decline in Asia's vultures in Cambodia through a combination of scientific research, direct protection, food supplementation and awareness-raising. Satellite-collaring of animals has lead to a greater understanding of which areas are important to the two most threatened species, while simultaneous vulture 'restaurants' across the country provide both an additional food source for the birds and a chance to undertake coordinated counts to monitor the size and structure of the population.

Chansocheat remains optimistic, adding "We have the backing of local people and of the Government. If we can find financial support to extend what we know is already a successful strategy, then we should be able to conserve these species forever."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Wildlife Conservation Society.

Asian wildlife faces extinction over China's appetite [and high-ranking Cambodian officials' collusion]

02/12/2007
Agence France-Presse

PHNOM PENH -- Cambodian forestry officials making a routine stop of vehicles last year were happily surprised when the Mercedes Benz they pulled over in the southwestern town of Pursat revealed a haul of clouded leopard pelts and bones.

With tigers hunted to near extinction, poachers have turned to this highly endangered big cat -- there have been only three confirmed sightings in Cambodia since 2001 -- for its parts, which are used to make traditional Chinese medicine.

The discovery was unexpected in this dusty town on the plains stretching from Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains, a region of lush forest where wildlife officials have, at best, a very long slim chance against poachers and animal traffickers.

But even this minor victory in the war against wildlife traders quickly turned sour when a court ordered the release of the three men detained over the leopard parts amid threats "by alleged bodyguards and associates of powerful figures in Phnom Penh," said the group Conservation International.

The case against a fourth man, whom conservationists say is a key figure in the illegal animal trade, collapsed in October because officials didn't know what charges to bring against him.

The intimidation and legal blunders that doomed these cases highlight some of the difficulties in stemming a massive wildlife trade "that is often underestimated and largely overlooked as a 'soft' issue," says James Compton, regional director for the monitoring network TRAFFIC.

The trafficking of animals and animal parts, for food, medicines or pets, is a multi-billion-dollar global business eclipsed for profitability only by narcotics smuggling and arms dealing.

Fueled largely by China's inexhaustible appetite for exotic animals -- and exacerbated by growing affluence in neighboring countries -- the trade has inflicted untold devastation, with some species like the tiger and the Javan rhino threatened with extinction in many Southeast Asian nations.

This has forced poachers and traffickers to turn to neighboring countries and the result is an ecological disaster resembling a domino effect of plunging wildlife populations.

"Vietnam's wildlife is becoming so scarce and there's such a huge demand in Vietnam that they're having to get it from outside the country," says Tim Knight, communications director for Wildlife at Risk (WAR), a non-profit group based in Ho Chi Minh City.

"A lot is smuggled in from places like Laos and Cambodia for consumption in Vietnam," he adds.

Vietnam and Thailand, where poachers have cleared the forests of the most profitable species, have emerged as the key transit points for wildlife smugglers who are often better equipped than those trying to stop them.

"The battle against animal trafficking is very tough. The people who run the illegal wildlife trade are very sophisticated and have more money," says Tassanee Vejpongsa, spokeswoman for WildAid in Bangkok.

"They just have far more resources and perhaps better international networks."

Other less obvious countries also play a key role in the trade, says TRAFFIC's Compton.

"Singapore is one of the world's top re-export hubs, and while it has legislation prohibiting export of its native species, it acts as warehouse and freight-forwarder for wild animals and plants from this region and around the globe," he says.

"Dealers are getting more and more organized. There are now reported to be packaging operations in Malaysia to save on the trouble of live transport," he adds.

Some animals like pangolins, whose meat is eaten and its scales used in Chinese medicines, are butchered and vacuum sealed for shipment to China, he says.

Freshwater turtles are simply ground up in Indonesia and the resulting "mulch" exported for consumption as protein and medicine.

Economic development over the past three decades has brought unprecedented access to exotic wildlife for the newly rich who indulge in high-status endangered animals both for food and as pets, animal advocates say.

"The biggest problem is that there is more money being spent on medicine and on wildlife in restaurants," says WAR's Knight. "The situation is deteriorating week by week because rich people want to spend their money on something to show off their status."

High-profile animals remain big ticket items for traffickers.

"Tigers are a huge concern because their numbers are now so low that every wild tiger that is killed and sold into the trade is just a conservation disaster," Knight says.

But the emerging taste for "imperial" foods formerly found on the tables of only the very wealthy have perhaps hit lesser known species the hardest.

"Turtles and tortoises are being smuggled for consumption in restaurants, in Vietnam and China and Hong Kong, for example," Knight says.

"These species are not as charismatic as tigers or bears or monkeys, so there isn't the same amount of concern about them. But they are being hoovered up at a frightening rate."

As incomes rise, the exotic pet trade has also become an increasingly dangerous drain on wildlife populations, conservationists warn.

"There is a rise in the demand for exotic pets, particularly in Thailand and Malaysia, and to a lesser extent, Singapore," says TRAFFIC's Compton, adding that Indonesia also has a huge domestic pet market, particularly for birds and reptiles.

"This involves not only species from within the Asian region, but also from Africa, particularly Madagascar, South America and Australia," he says.

As the failed case against Cambodia's leopard smuggler demonstrated, animal protection efforts across Asia are being crippled by a lack of understanding of wildlife protection laws -- or an unwillingness to enforce them.

"There are efforts to curb illegal trading but they have not been effective," says WWF Indonesia species specialist Chairul Saleh.

"The law enforcement officers need to know what laws can be used to deal with this specific crime. They need to know what species is forbidden for international trade, they need to familiarize themselves with the international conventions like CITES," says Saleh.

CITES, or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is an international agreement between governments aimed at ensuring that trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

While most countries in Asia have CITES bans, some have been criticized for not implementing them rigorously enough or of being ignorant as to their use.

But others have won praise for coordinating their officials' activities with numerous conservation groups, although governments need to pour more resources into their anti-trafficking efforts, says WildAid's Tassanee.

"Police are very active and working very hard with NGOs, but they don't have enough people and they don't have enough budget," she says, adding that only about 40 officers are tasked with fighting Thailand's wildlife crimes.

"We just hope that one day the government will see that this is a very important issue," she says.

But perhaps a larger role should be given to public education, says TRAFFIC's Compton.

"Site-based protection of original habitats, policing of transport routes and border checkpoints, and public awareness and education to modify the behavioral patterns of consumer demand, is the only way to go to ensure the survival of Asia's unique biodiversity," he says.

"Treating illegal harvest and trade of wildlife in the same fashion as drugs, weapons or human trafficking will provide a major incentive for law enforcement officials, and the general public, to combat the destruction of ecosystems," he says.