Environment and natural resources
Biodiversity
Wildscan app to help fight animal trafficking
A Khmer version of a smartphone app to help law enforcement deal with the illegal wildlife trade was launched yesterday. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wildscan-app-help-fight-animal-trafficking
Monkey farm workers accept $16 pay raise
Employees of a controversial monkey breeding farm in Pursat City who protested earlier this week for higher wages have accepted their employer’s offer of a $16 monthly wage increase, authorities said on Thursday. ...
Phan Soumy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monkey-farm-workers-accept-16-pay-raise-115492/
Two trapped gaurs die in sanctuary
Two rare gaurs, a mother and calf, have died after being found trapped in a snare in the Cardamom Mountains’ Samlot Protected Area, according to the sanctuary’s chief and an official from the Maddox Jolie-Pitt (MJP) Foundation, a wildlife NGO founded by Angelina Jolie. ...
Pav Suy
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26899/two-trapped-gaurs-die-in-sanctuary/
Elephant herds spotted in Wildlife Sanctuary
Researchers have released new photos offering a rare glimpse of endangered elephant herds seen traveling with calves through the Tonle Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri province earlier this month. The photos are part of a conservation supervisory project undertaken by Winrock International and the World Wildlife ...
Safiya Charles
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26631/elephant-herds-spotted--in-wildlife-sanctuary
Wildlife meat seized in Kratie
Authorities seized 100 kilograms of endangered wildlife meat this weekend on Kratie province’s National Road 7. The haul, which contained 60 kg of wild pig and 36 kg of deer meat, was discovered after a local environmental NGO stopped an SUV traveling in Chit Borei’s Sambok ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26280/wildlife-meat-seized-in-kratie/
Slight increase in dolphin numbers
Cambodia’s freshwater Mekong dolphin population has increased by four, adding a quartet of calves in the first five months of 2016 while also seeing a drop in the mortality rate compared with last year. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26288/slight-increase-in-dolphin-numbers/
Tigers and tubers—secrets of Bunong healers
When French pharmacologist Francois Chassagne set out to catalogue traditional medicine used by Cambodia’s Bunong ethnic minority group in 2013, he came across a surprising remedy for burns: tiger breastmilk. ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tigers-and-tubers-secrets-of-bunong-healers-114163/
Conservationists caution road through sanctury may harm birds
Conservationists have warned a new road could threaten endangered bird species in Stung Treng’s Siem Pang wildlife sanctuary. ...
Kong Meta and Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/conservationists-caution-road-through-sanctury-may-harm-birds
Species in ‘dramatic decline’ in east: WWF
Multiple animal species are in “dramatic decline” on Cambodia’s Eastern Plains as a result of habitat loss, road incursion, insufficient law enforcement and poaching, the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement yesterday. ...
Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/species-dramatic-decline-east-wwf
Conservation NGO blamed for death of endangered crocodile
An environmental group has been accused of complicity in the decline of the critically endangered Siamese crocodile in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, mainly due to traps that are believed to have killed the last breeding-age female in the area. ...
Janelle Retka
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/conservation-ngo-blamed-for-death-of-endangered-crocodile-113521/
Customs bureau saves 700 Kgs of turtles, snakes near border
A major haul of wild turtles and snakes was found abandoned on Saturday morning on the banks of a small river near a checkpoint along the border with Vietnam in Kandal province, according to customs officials. ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/customs-bureau-saves-700-kgs-of-turtles-snakes-near-border-113519/
Mekong dam a threat to rare dolphins - and villagers too
The Don Sahong hydroelectric dam threatens the last 80 Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River – as well as the livelihoods of the people downstream in Cambodia, who depend heavily on the river’s resources. ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Mekong-dam-a-threat-to-rare-dolphins--and-villager-30286974.html
Meat seized after wild chase
About 100 kilograms of pig and dear meat was seized on Wednesday night after police chased down a luxury car in Kratie town’s Orusey commune, deputy chief of the Provincial Economic Police Unit Major Rin Veansa said. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25478/meat-seized-after-wild-chase/
Cambodia scouts for tigers before relocating big cats from India
Before it takes action on ‘relocating’ Indian tigers, Cambodia’s forestry administration is on a special mission – scouting for signs of indigenous tigers in its dense jungles, where according to reports they are “functionally extinct”. ...
Community ravaged by drought steps up to save monkeys
Touch Tren used to fish the Tonle Sap Lake’s flooded Ek Phnom district for a living, but after finding the bodies of 30 black monkeys, dead from thirst in the nearby Veal Don Om forest earlier this year, he had a change of heart and ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24763/community-ravaged-by-drought-steps-up-to-save-monkeys/
Rare ‘costumed ape’ sighted in forest
Robin Loveridge had rolled out of his hammock at dawn to go on a walk along the Sekong River in Siem Pang forest when he saw three bright gold faces peering down at him from the tree canopy. ...
Jonathan Cox
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24674/rare----costumed-ape----sighted-in-forest/
Heat, water shortages affecting rare bird life
Conservationists are expressing concern that some of the Kingdom’s endangered birds are not reproducing this year due to extreme heat stress, inability to find enough food and habitat loss from wildfires and human encroachment. ...
Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/heat-water-shortages-affecting-rare-bird-life
Endangered animals freed by police
Five endangered polecats were rescued yesterday morning after provincial military police in collaboration with Wildlife Alliance staff stopped a man on a motorbike who was attempting to sell them at the Veal Ring market in Preah Sihanouk’s Real Rinh commune, according to Prey Nob district ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24611/endangered-animals-freed-by-police/
Monkey business stopped at border
More than 40 monkeys were rescued by customs officials at the Cambodia-Vietnam border in Memot yesterday, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Chuon Phally, the Deputy Commander at Tbong Khmom military camp. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24316/monkey-business-stopped-at-border/
Cambodia’s Royal Turtle nearly extinct as fewer than 10 remain in wild
Cambodia’s Royal Turtle is nearly extinct, with fewer than 10 left in the wild, because increased sand dredging and illegal clearance of flooded forest have shrunk its habitat, a conservationist group warned Monday. ...
The Star Team
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/04/25/cambodias-royal-turtle-nearly-extinct-as-fewer-than-10-remain.html
Men detained after killing endangered ox
Four farmers were arrested and charged yesterday over allegations of killing an endangered banteng, considered to be one of the most beautiful species of wild ox, in a protected forest in Mondulkiri, according to officials. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24152/men-detained-after-killing-endangered-ox/
Social media users in a flap as hundreds of bats die
Hundreds of dead bats were found inside Siem Reap’s Phnom Bouk temple in Banteay Srey district after district police and environmental officers were notified by local residents on Tuesday. ...
Pav Suy
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24097/social-media-users-in-a-flap-as-hundreds-of-bats-die/
Hornbill rescued in Seima protected forest
A patrol in Seima Protected Forest in Mondulkiri last weekend found a young great hornbill near an illegal logging site. Hornbill sightings have become rarer as the bird’s population drops. ...
Jonathan Cox
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23925/hornbill-rescued-in-seima-protected-forest/
Expert says tiger reintroduction plan sure to fail
A leading Indian conservationist and tiger expert is warning that a multimillion-dollar scheme to reintroduce the big cat to Cambodia will be a “tragic failure” that could cost lives, and that its advocates will come to rue the attempt. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/expert-says-tiger-reintroduction-plan-sure-to-fail-111330/