Cardamom National Park, Cambodia Progress Report, 2019-2020

Cardamom National Park consists of over 800,000 hectares of dense monsoon forest, melaleuca wetlands, mangroves, and a vast network of estuaries and rivers. In fact, the Cardamom rainforest has the greatest watershed value of any forest in Cambodia, with a staggering rainfall of 3,500-4,500mm per year due to its dense evergreen forest cover and its position along the Gulf. 

This fragile forest is home to a number of endangered wildlife species, including Malayan sun bears, elephants, gibbons, clouded leopards, Indian civets, banteng, dholes, gaur, and Sunda pangolins. In all, the park hosts more than 60 globally threatened animals and 17 globally threatened trees, many endemic to Cambodia. 

The sheer abundance of water in the Cardamoms makes it one of its most important natural resources, with the forest receiving a staggering 3.5 to 4.5m of rainfall annually that supply 22 major waterways. In turn, the Cardamom Mountains supplies water to 16 hydro-power dams across the country that generate an estimated 20% of Cambodia’s electricity. Wildlife Alliance is protecting 1.4 million hectares of the Cardamom Rainforest Landscape, one of Southeast Asia's last great rainforests. Photo and caption courtesy WA.

However, despite being legally protected since 2016, illegal land clearing and wildlife poaching continue to threaten this park. Cambodia faces some of the highest deforestation rates of any country in the world: over 15% of its forest has been cleared over the past 10 years.

An increasing demand for wildlife from China, such as pangolins, turtles, and hornbills, is causing a rapid decline in Cambodian wildlife. The tiger has already been driven to extinction in Cambodia, though the Cardamom Mountains are slated to be the first tiger re-introduction site.

Thmor Rung station rangers seized a van carrying illegal firewood, as well as a chainsaw. Wildlife Alliance - Ministry of Environment rangers are constantly fighting the threat of illegal logging to protect the Cardamom Rainforest Landscape. Photo and caption courtesy WA.

To protect this park, Global Conservation is supporting the non-profit Wildlife Alliance (WA) to deploy new technologies for increasing the effectiveness of forest and wildlife protection in the southern Cardamoms. Wildlife Alliance builds rangers’ professional capacity and provides full support for their livelihoods. 

Effective and well-managed patrolling is vital to stop commercial poaching, often involving deadly snares laid on the forest floor to catch wild animals on their way to drink in the rivers. Effective enforcement also deters illegal logging operations and forest clearing for agriculture and other land uses. It's absolutely critical that surveillance, patrolling and law enforcement are conducted on a daily basis.

In March 2020, a raid by Wildlife Alliance’s Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT) exposed the dark underbelly of Cambodia’s illegal wildlife trade. After receiving a tipoff from the Wildlife Justice Commission, WRRT raided a carving factory suspected of holding illegal wildlife products in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. The suspect was found with 6.58kg of ivory, 5.5kg of tiger bones, 1 tiger tooth, 1.03kg of pangolin scales, and 103 dead seahorses. A Chinese national was arrested and has been put on pre-trial detention. Photo and caption courtesy WA.

In 2019 and the first part of 2020, Wildlife Alliance has made substantial progress toward accomplishing their objectives.

Key Objectives and Progress

Objective 1: Implement Global Park Defense in Southern Cardamom National Park by focusing 100% on wildlife poaching in the Veal Thapou hotspot.

A cellular trailcam mounted on a tree to detect illegal activity.

Progress 

• Wildlife Alliance and GC deployed GPD across 50% of Cardamom National Park, including aerial surveillance, cellular cameras, targeted patrolling, and new ranger bases in high-threat areas.
• Wildlife Alliance installed 20 cellular trailcams at strategic trail locations.
• WA purchased 3 drones and a laptop to process drone footage into maps. Two drones were allocated to the Veal Thapou Hotspot, and the third drone to the Sre Ambel ranger station for monitoring forest fires. These fires are a huge problem almost weekly, destroying the protected melaleuca forest due to land grabbing for private ownership.

WA staff fly a drone in order to map critical conservation areas.

Objective 2: Secure the area with the goal of eradicating poaching.

Progress

Without immediate response to camera alerts, along with systematic patrolling by well-motivated anti-poaching rangers, poachers will continue coming into the park. As the wildlife population is progressively rebounding, the area will be more targeted by the poachers. Ranger’s constant presence is continuously needed. The six-ranger unit will be operating out of Stung Proat Ranger Station, constantly moving between the Stung Proat river and the villages of Veal Thapou, Trapeang Rung and Andong Teuk, covering a patrol quadrant of 30,000 hectares. 

A WA-Ministry of Environment ranger with poachers that were arrested with illegal contraband.

From January-June 2019, rangers:

• Conducted 215 patrols and 46 night ambushes
• Covered 8,905 km
• Prosecuted 2 cases in court
• Removed 2,859 snares
• Directly saved the lives of 11 wild animals
• Stopped 11 land encroachments
• Seized 33 chainsaws and 6 guns

Wildlife Alliance – Ministry of Environment rangers are on the ground everyday protecting of Southeast Asia’s last great rainforests. Recently, Chambok station rangers put a halt to a significant amount of illegal logging activity in their patrol quadrant when they confiscated 12 chainsaws, as well as three minivans and six mini tractors carrying illegal timber. Photo and caption courtesy WA.

From January-March 2020, rangers:

• Conducted 88 patrols and 9 night ambushes
• Covered 3,425 km
• Prosecuted one court case
• Removed 381 snares
• Removed 110m of nets
• Directly saved the lives of 5 wild animals
• Seized 28 chainsaws and 3 guns

In total, in 2019 and 2020, rangers:

• Made 542 arrests
• Seized 12,000 cubic meters of timber
• Dismantled 3,400 hectares of illegal settlements
• Destroyed 1075 illegal hunting/logging camps

Objective 3: Completely eliminate the sale of illegal wildlife meat in the restaurants in Anduong Teuk and Trapeang Rung, again through ranger patrols. WA aims to reduce illegal wildlife meat selling at these restaurants by 60%, with a sharp downward trend to 100%.

Pangolins are a common victim of the illegal sale of wildlife for meat and medicine. Photo courtesy WA.

Progress

• Ranger patrol unit has been performing routine operations to search for illegal wildlife meat in the areas in which the restaurants are located. In 2018, 5 restaurants were known to be selling illegal wildlife meat. In January 2020, only 6kg of wild pig meat were seized. 

Another common problem in Cardamom is the capture of animals for the illegal wildlife trade. These Indian roller chicks were rescured from traders, who raid nests for chicks and eggs to sell. WA's nursery keepers at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre are very busy providing their expert care to give them the best chance of survival and future release. Photo and caption courtesy WA.

Conservation International Partnership in the Central Cardamom Mountains National Park

In September 2019, we partnered with Conservation International (CI) to launch a project in the Central Cardamom Mountains National Park (CCMNP).

Since then, CI has made great progress restructuring the management of CCMNP. To help with this, they performed inventory assessments of ranger stations and worked with the Ministry of Environment to equip 30 rangers with essential patrolling equipment (hammocks, GPS units, boots, first aid equipment, helmets, etc.). CI also provided them with funds for fuel and food, as well as salary supplementations.

Rangers in the CCMNP continue their patrols even through the tedious wet season.

CI also conducted trainings on best practices in law enforcement, on strengthening law enforcement and court cases, on patrol strategy, and on GPS and SMART patrol data collection. They also educated local communities on protected area law, so that they understand what they may and may not collect from the forest.

Illegal forest destruction documented by rangers in the CCMNP.

From October 2019 to June 2020, rangers in the CCMNP:

• Conducted 480 patrols across 24,605km
• Arrested 4 suspects, fined 15 people, and wrote warnings to 30 who had committed offenses in the protected area
• Confiscated 40.5 cubic meters of illegal timber, one axe, and 87 chainsaws
• Confiscated 12 air guns, one rifle, and one home-made gun
• Confiscated 12 sticks of dynamite and 4 batteries used for electro-fishing
• Removed 595 leg snare traps, 3 drift nets, and one small mammal trap
• Confiscated 3 cars, 3 carts, 18 tractors, 12 motorbikes, and 11 trucks for transporting illegal timber
• Recorded 33 hectares of illegal land encroachment
• Destroyed 29 illegal camps
• Recorded numerous signs and sightings of 12 large wildlife species

Illegal timber and chainsaws confiscated by CCMNP rangers.

Carbon for Forests in Cardamom National Park

With Carbon Offset Financing, there is a high potential for the entire Cardamom Mountains to be protected, securing clean water, ecosystem services, tourism revenues and better livelihoods for millions of Cambodians. Read more about Carbon for Forests here.

Clouded leopards are one of the many species that are protected by GPD in Cardamom National Park.