Forest protection
Protected areas
Asian elephant footprints serve as safe spaces for frog nurseries
While wandering through northwestern Myanmar in 2016, a group of scientists stumbled on hundreds of huge tracks in the ground. According to a new paper in the journal Mammalia, these footprints, made by Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), have a lasting impact. Even when the giants that made ...
Nanticha Ocharoenchai
EU stumps up $11mln for Greater Mekong wildlife conservation
The European Union (EU) has teamed up with wildlife and conservation groups in the Greater Mekong region, Malaysia, and China to try and disrupt the flow of illegally trafficked wildlife through the region. The €10 million (about $11.14 million) project which will run through until December ...
Sreypov Men
The challenges of campaigning against wildlife trafficking in Vietnam
In late January, WildAid and the Ho Chi Minh City-based Center of Hands-on Actions and Networking for Growth and Environment (CHANGE) launched a graphic anti-wildlife trafficking campaign focused on three animals: pangolins, elephants and rhinos. In a bold move, the organizers brought a group of bloodied, weakened statues ...
Michael Tatarski
Hunting the hunters
On a cliff overlooking the southwest plains of Cambodia, there is a bullet-ridden casino. Built in the 1920s, when Bokor was a hill resort largely reserved for wealthy French colonials, during the 1970s and 1980s it became the front line in the battle between the ...
BirdLife, Ratanakkiri provincial authorities meet VN firm over wildlife conservation
Ratanakkiri provincial authorities and BirdLife International Cambodia Programme have urged Hoang Anh Lumphat Co Ltd to preserve the habitat of endangered fauna species in a protected area and discontinue forest clearing. Hoang Anh Lumphat operates on an economic land concession (ELC) within Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat Wildlife ...
The grandads fighting back against deforestation
The loss of forestlands is disastrous for the indigenous Koi people of south east Asia. The Chom Penh forest provides their homes, their food and their income. Many in this region make their living from selling resin from the trees that surround them. But their ancestral ...
Rachel Graham
Timber mischief in Vietnam
In the Southeast Asian region, loss of area under natural forests is largely driven by natural resources extraction and demand for more land for production of food and other commodities. Earlier in 2018, progress tracking of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals for Southeast Asia revealed ...
Sheith Khidhir
Cambodia’s sanctuaries under threat
Cambodia’s Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary is symbolic of the country’s poor forestry management. Around 2,000 square kilometres (sq km) – around three times the size of Singapore – is lost to illegal logging in Cambodia every year where wildlife sanctuaries – despite their name – ...
Jason Thomas
Ministry approves protected area status for Yeak Laom Lake in Ratanakkiri
The Ministry of Environment on Friday approved the registration of the Yeak Laom Lake community natural protected area in Ratanakkiri province to support the preservation of natural resources, culture and eco-tourism. The indigenous community hailed the decision, but said it had come too late to save ...
Voun Dara
Heritage site or home? Indigenous Thais fight for right to forest
Hundreds of indigenous Karen people in Thailand face evictions from a national park that authorities wish to turn into a World Heritage Site, joining millions in a similarly precarious situation as authorities worldwide push tough conservation laws. The Kaeng Krachan is Thailand’s biggest national park, sprawled ...