2018 Annual Report
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Annual Report 2018 Cardamom Rainforest Protection Cardamom Rainforest Landscape Cambodia 8,350 km2 Protected by Wildlife Alliance since 2001 A critical part of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot supporting >50 IUCN threatened species 19,986 snares removed 7 ranger stations 110 forest rangers Cardamom Judicial Actions Rainforest Protection and Prosecutions Wildlife Alliance are effectively, and are motivated and led by Effective judicial action and prosecutions demoralizing for law enforcement rangers. the leaders in the Direct inspirational supervisors. This leadership against wildlife criminals are necessary Protection of Forests and and supervision which we provide is to back up the on-the-ground work of Wildlife Alliance works intensively, and Wildlife in tropical Asia. The critical. We create a culture of excellence in forest rangers. Not only do prosecutions face-to-face, with the Cambodian judiciary, 110 rangers of our Rainforest Protection conservation, high performance, and zero and custodial sentences act as a deterrent including judges and prosecutors, to Program safeguard 8,350-km2 of the tolerance for corruption. to future poaching and illegal activity but ensure that serious criminal poachers face Cardamom Rainforest Landscape: the they are also important for the morale of maximum punishment under Cambodian Amazon of Asia. Our approach is not During 2018 our ranger field teams: field rangers. Witnessing poachers that law. This requires precision, persistence, that of a traditional conservation NGO » Conducted 3,229 patrols which they have arrested being let-off by the and, where necessary, making high level and we do not implement the failed covered more than 130,000-km authorities due to indifference, corruption, political interventions. model of hands-off ‘business as usual » Removed 20,000 lethal poaching or simply administrative errors is highly conservation’. Instead we are proud that snares and more than 15-km of we directly supervise and manage all law hunting nets enforcement across this vast landscape. We » Destroyed 779 illegal forest are thus responsible for the management camps and confiscated 553 Case File 008 and security of one of Asia’s greatest chainsaws tropical forest wildernesses. Our staff Date: March 23, 2018 are at the frontline of the battle against This effort is what keeps the unique Name: So Sina wildlife trade and deforestation. We forests and wildlife of the Cardamom Crime: Illegally poaching a banteng, one of the ensure our rangers are well paid, receive Rainforest standing for the benefit of future rarest mammals on earth full health and life insurance, have the generations of Cambodians and for the Political Connection: Military police officer – equipment and capacity to work safely and world. nephew of high-ranking general Wildlife Alliance Intervention: Gathering all evidence, hiring prosecution lawyer, direct communication with Military Police command and investigating judge Case File 017 Verdict: 1-year imprisonment with no bail Date: November 12, 2018 Name: Heng Santera and Senglay Sengly Crime: Illegal sale and possession of elephant ivory and bear and leopard skins Political Connection: Working for three star general Wildlife Alliance Intervention: Undercover surveillance and raid on property, rapid filing of legal case and direct collaboration with provincial prosecutor and investigating judge Verdict: 6-year imprisonment & fine of $29,907 Combating Wildlife Trafficking Wildlife Alliance have been fighting the addressing the transcontinental wildlife Illegal Wildlife Trade in Cambodia since trafficking links and the Vietnamese 2001 and the interventions of our Wildlife criminal trafficking syndicates shipping Rapid Rescue Team continue to make major high value African wildlife products impacts on the domestic wildlife trade. through Cambodia. Gone are the days when wildlife for sale could be found everywhere: in markets, Working with trusted government partners restaurants, homes, and even on sidewalks. in Cambodian Customs we have been building connections with key government WRRT action in 2018: and civil society partners across Asia and » 3,231 live animals rescued from the Africa including in Mozambique, Tanzania, illegal trade Kenya, and Vietnam. These partnerships » >1 ton of wildlife meat destroyed are being used to actively investigate » 101 wildlife traders apprehended criminal trafficking networks and provide » 12 court cases prosecuted the evidence needed for effective judicial action. However, in an increasingly globalized world, and one in which the shadow We have also been working with the of China looms large over the region, Cambodian government to strengthen the Cambodia is at the heart of the global underlying legislation preventing wildlife illegal wildlife trade, acting as a source- crime. In August we ensured that all transit-and final destination for wildlife African elephant, rhinoceros, and pangolin products from across the world including species were added as protected species elephant ivory, rhino horn, and tiger skins. under Cambodia’s wildlife law. Case Study In 2018 Wildlife Alliance’s award-winning wildlife trade work expanded to begin In December 2016 Cambodian Customs, in collaboration with Wildlife Alliance and US Cambodia Homeland Security, made a major seizure of ivory and other wildlife products originating CITES and United States Government from Mozambique and hidden in hollowed-out logs. Information obtained from the country of concern for global ivory trade consignee’s warehouse in Phnom Penh, and shared with Homeland Security agents, provided 11x important evidence directly linking this seizure with Vietnamese criminal syndicates increase in ivory availability in operating in West Africa. Subsequent operations by US government agents resulted in Sihanoukville in the past 36 months multiple arrests in the Ivory Coast including one Vietnamese national. In December 2018 a new shipment of 3.4 tons of ivory originating from the Mozambique port of Nacala was 25 seized. Wildlife Alliance has shared key information from this seizure with government seizures of African wildlife products in and civil society partners in Africa, the United States, and Asia. This included evidence Cambodia since 2014 that the ivory was obtained from a theft of Mozambique’s national stock-pile. As a direct 3.4 result of this information and collaboration, a court case against the shipper (an employee tones of ivory seized in Phnom Penh in of the Mozambique Revenue Authority) has been filed by the Attorney General’s Office in December 2018 Mozambique. Care and Release of Rescued Wildlife Wildlife Alliance’s approach to the illegal methodology has led to the successful wildlife trade is holistic and we provide release of many species, including care for any animal rescued by our law binturongs, pileated gibbons, and Critically enforcement efforts. Endangered Sunda pangolins. Care for Rescued Wildlife Angkor Forest Release Program Animals not fit for immediate release are The Angkor Temple Complex, a UNESCO taken to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue World Heritage Site and Cambodia’s Center, a government-owned facility biggest tourist attraction, contains some of situated in 2,300 hectares of regenerating the country’s oldest forests. Pileated gibbon forest outside of Phnom Penh. Our Care were fully extirpated from this forest due for Rescued Wildlife program provides to over hunting in the twentieth century. It refuge and care for over 1,400 rescued is now well protected so Wildlife Alliance, wild animals, including Asian elephants, in partnership with the Cambodian tigers and pileated gibbons. Our team Forestry Administration and APSARA, have of specialists provide care and medical endeavored to repopulate the forest by treatment to prepare as many animals as reintroducing gibbons and other species. possible to return to the wild and provide In 2018, we released silver langurs and lifetime care to those that are not. Eld’s muntjac deer and have brought a third pair deer, Leopard cat, sambar, red muntjac, of gibbons to a pre-release enclosure to and golden jackals have been reintroduced acclimatize to the forest. As the released to the forest surrounding the facility. populations grow, we hope the Angkor Complex will eventually serve as a safe Wildlife Release Station refuge for much of Cambodia’s Endangered Species more suitable to be released in and Critically Endangered wildlife species. a protected rainforest habitat are taken to our Wildlife Release Station situated within the Cardamom Rainforest RIGHT Populations of Landscape. The Wildlife Rehabilitation Pileated Gibbons Station focuses on ‘soft’ release projects (Hylobates pileatus) that allow animals to become acclimated in Cambodia – the world’s stronghold for to their new environment before release. this species – are in Wildlife Alliance has demonstrated that decline due to habitat loss and poaching. acclimation, provision of supplementary Wildlife Alliance food and post-release monitoring is reintroducing gibbons to the forests increases survival rates dramatically. This surrounding the iconic temples of Angkor. Photo by Jeremy Holden Environmental Education Wildlife Alliance began addressing leader in environmental education, and the widespread lack of environmental we are regularly called upon to conduct awareness in Cambodia in 2005 by creating education and outreach in their respective the Kouprey Express, which travels across project areas. We continued to work the country building capacities