Cardamom Mountains

The Steung Proat Patrol Unit was traversing the forest on motor bikes and by foot when they found a live civet trapped in a snare. Carefully, the rangers freed the civet from the poacher’s snare and found it was unharmed. After rescuing the animal, the rangers released the civet back into the forest, giving it a second chance at life. On the same day, the rangers collected 223 snares from the forest. Snares are particularly detrimental because they are easy to set, are a low cost and provide a high reward for poachers. After the trap is set, the poachers can leave, and the snares can trap any animal that crosses it, including critically endangered animals. These animals will spend hours struggling to break free, often chewing away at their trapped foot, before they die of exhaustion. Each year, Wildlife Alliance’s forest rangers remove approximately 30,000 snares from the forest – saving countless lives. The rangers also dismantled two illegal camps in the protected area. The camps were likely set up by poachers or illegal loggers. Unfortunately, the offenders were not in the area when the camps were discovered or searched so they could not be apprehended.

The Southern Cardamom Forest Protection Program (SCFPP) consists of 6 ranger stations that each patrols an average of 100,000 km of forest per year. In 2015, the forest rangers went on 2,592 patrols, removed 27,714 snares, removed 473 illegal camps, submitted 65 cases to court, and seized 240 cubic meters of illegal timber. To help the SCFPP rangers patrol the forest and protect it from poachers and illegal loggers, visit our donation page and select ‘Forest Protection’ from the list.