ASEAN SMART Patrol, a hope for the region’s forests
As a park chief himself, Soeung Khemarak, the deputy director of the Oyadav National Park in Rattanakiri province, fully understands the problems faced by Cambodia’s Kulen Prum Tep Wildlife Sanctuary and adjacent parks near the border with Thailand where bombs, illegal logging and poaching are part of daily life.
The situation is similar further inland in Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary, a last bastion for Cambodia’s tigers and to which the big cats are about to be reintroduced to replenish the population.
Khemarak has long hoped that these threats to Cambodia’s forests could be offset if Thai and Cambodian park rangers were to jointly patrol the protected areas close to the border, but has yet to see such cooperation become a reality.
