Conservation in Cambodia

Cambodia is home to some of the richest ecosystems on the planet, yet sees some of the fastest rate of deforestation. Vast chunks of forests and wetlands are turned into commercial plantations and real estate developments, while poaching and logging degrade forests and empty them of wildlife. The situation is aggravated by socioeconomic conditions found in rural areas and land rights issues.

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Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri, Eastern Cambodia.

Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary

Prek Toal is a world-class bird sanctuary and Ramsar site located within the Tonle Sap biosphere reserve. Efforts from conservation groups, the ministry of environment and local rangers have led to a steady increase in the number of birds coming to roost in the sanctuary.
Featured in Wayne McCallum’s Mekong Solitaire (Howl press, 2021).

Phnom Kulen National Park

Located to the northeast of the Angkor temples, the Phnom Kulen range was revealed in 2015 to be the seat of a large ancient city. In spite of being a National Park, the forest has largely been cleared for cashew plantations, with now only about 20% in good condition located in community protected areas.
I have been following the situation on Kulen since 2017, partly covering the work of ADF Kulen & HUMY.

Phnom Ta Kho, one of the most well-known scenic spot of Phnom Kulen, overlooks a deforested valley.

1^st row: a hiker examines a wild honeycomb; one of Phnom Kulen remaining giants in a CPA; one of the most preserved temple on the mountain. 2^nd row: mixed cultivation of sugarcane, banana, pineapple and cashew on the edge of a CPA; fallen tree near Kbal Spean whose use by APASRA authority was granted by the NP; recently cleared are and mixed cultivation. 3^rd row: Riverine forest; Remains of a poached Crested serpent eagle in a CPA; a ranger extinguishes a fire set in a tree trunk to collect resin, a widely-collected NTFP.

In recent years, archaeologists teamed up with local communities and the National Park to create Community Protected Areas around the last pockets of healthy forests remaining near the villages and developing community-based ecotourism.

1-7: Training of community rangers from two of Phnom Kulen’s CPA taking place in BeTreed in Preah Vihear province. 8-12: Opening ceremony of Popel village’s ecotourism center.

Community-based ecotourism in Keo Seima

Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary is home to the largest populations of both the endangered Southern yellow-cheeked gibbon and the critically endangered Black-shanked douc. The Jahoo research & ecotourism project is located in the buffer zone of the sanctuary on land collectively owned by an Indigenous Bunong community. “Far from an idealized wild nature, pathways to protect ecosystems with their inhabitants, humans and non-humans, are complex and intertwined in many ways with the ‘modern world’ that lies beyond the forest’s edge.” – The Jahoo living forest.
Part of the 2023 Pulitzer Center-supported exhibition ‘Pray for Prey’ in Phnom Penh & Conservation Optimism’s 2023 Nature Recovery exhibition in Oxford, UK.

Left: Kyle from the Jahoo project shows a cashew tree seedling growing out of elephant dung. The wild elephants living within Keo Seima forest sometimes go to look for food into the plantations located on the forest’s edge, a pattern relatively common across Asia. Middle: the Koki tree is native to Southeast Asia and valued for the quality of its wood. This one was felled several years ago when the community decided to use it to build the village school. Right: Veasna and Long, from the Bunong community of Andoung Kralong, guide visitors into the forest of Keo Seima. They are able to spot, identify and track even the smallest of animal from far away.

Wildlife of Jahoo, 1^st row: Siamese red-necked keelback; Southern yellow-cheeked gibbon matriarch with her baby; juvenile White-lipped pit viper; 2^nd row: the elusive Sunda colugo or ‘flying lemur’; longhorn beetle; Black-crested bulbul.

The mangroves of Prey Nup

Not far from Sihanoukville, at the foot of the Bokor plateau, lies the Prey Nup mangroves, a rich network of flooded forest, mudflats and waterways thriving with a high diversity of bird and endangered mammals species.
Drone shoot for a private conservation initiative.

Marine ecosystems

Cambodia’s marine environment faces a number of anthropogenic threats, among them overfishing, the omnipresence of marine debris and the poaching of protected species. At the same time, the country is increasing its number of Marine Protected Areas.

1^st row: Nudibranch; Dried seahorses on sale on Koh Sdach’s main street. 2^nd row: ghost nets collected on the coral reefs by Kuda Divers; Urchin; fishing boat under the monsoon sky; 3^rd row: Foreign squid fishing fleet in the gulf of Thailand, seen from Koh Rong Samloen; Fishing boat; Marine blue sponge. All pictures unless stated taken in the Koh Sdach archipelago.

Wetlands & Birds

Cambodia has a large number of wetlands – the floodplain of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong – but these are rapidly disappearing to farmland, plantations and new developments, especially around Phnom Penh. Meanwhile bird hunting is rampant in these habitats, mainly driven by poverty and demand for wild meat.