Short Communication Gajah 45 (2016) 35-38
A Decade of Zero Elephant Poaching in the Cardamom Rainforest Landscape, Cambodia
Thomas N.E. Gray1*, Hort Sokun1, Eduard Lefter1, Romica Grosu1, Kong Kimsreng2, Keo Omaliss3 and Suwanna Gauntlett1
1Wildlife Alliance, Chamcamon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2Ministry of the Environment, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 3Forestry Administration, Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries, Phnom Penh, Cambodia *Corresponding author’s e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Case study
Elephants are facing a global crisis with African The CRL was historically remote and one of elephant Loxodonta africana populations tropical Asia’s great rainforests supporting a estimated to have declined by 111,000 individuals complete megafauna including tiger Panthera in the past decade largely as a result of poaching tigris, gaur Bos gaurus and, in all likelihood, for the illegal wildlife trade (Thouless et al. 2016). rhinoceros spp. Dicerorhinus / Rhinoceros along- Similarly the Asian elephant Elephas maximus is side Asian elephants. The landscape’s forbidding now restricted to a tiny portion of the species’ topography, combined with civil unrest historic range and, alongside human elephant throughout much of the 20th century, prevented confict and habitat loss, poaching is the biggest extensive settlement or natural resource threat to their survival and is a particular issue exploitation. However following the defeat in mainland South East Asia (Ling et al. 2016). of Democratic Kampuchea in 1979 the region Given this insidious global threat to elephant became increasingly settled by migrants from persistence, and the trend in increasing elephant lowland Cambodia, large areas were designated poaching particularly in Africa, identifying and as logging concessions, and infrastructure and replicating successful anti-poaching initiatives is road development, which accelerated from the critically important. late 1990s, was initiated.
Asian elephants are patchily distributed across The wide availability of fre-arms and extremely Cambodia’s remaining forests but viable limited rule of law, particularly regarding populations likely occur only in Mondulkiri environmental management, created conditions province, eastern Cambodia (likely population for extensive wildlife trade and poaching for ~300 individuals; Gray et al. 2014) and the high-value wildlife products. Market surveys Cardamom Rainforest Landscape (CRL) in the across Cambodia during the 1990s documented southwest. The CRL, part of the Indo-Burma a cornucopia of threatened species openly for biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al. 2000), is a sale including live wild caught tigers and tiger ridge-to-reef conservation landscape comprising skins, bones, and skulls together with elephant 18,000 km2 of largely contiguous forest cover skin, hair, teeth, bones, and both carved and raw (Fig. 1). The landscape forms a Global 200 tusks (Martin & Phipps 1996; Sun 2000). In the Ecoregion (Cardamom Mountains Rain Forests), CRL elephants were poached for both tusks and a secondary Endemic Bird Area (i.e. an area for meat. Settlers opening up the rainforest often containing at least one restricted-range endemic viewed elephants as an easy target and a good bird species), and was listed as a Level I Tiger communal meal (local resident pers. comm. Conservation Unit by Wikramanayake et al. to TNEG, 2016). The high level of poaching, (1998). combined with a lack of law enforcement, likely led to the extirpation of tiger and leopard
© 2016 The Authors - Open Access 35 Panthera pardus from the CRL – a minimum critical locations within the landscape (Fig. 1) of 29 tigers were poached from the landscape and staffed by multi-agency government law between 1999 and May 2005 (Weiler 2006) and enforcement offcers with both legislative and there have been no subsequent records despite judicial authority. Until early 2016 the southern camera-trapping and surveys. During a similar portion of the CRL was under the management period (2000 to 2004) at least 38 Asian elephants of the Forestry Administration of the Cambodian were poached, in the CRL (Weiler 2006). The Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries detections of elephant poaching were obtained (MAFF). Patrol teams were therefore comprised from community informant networks set up by the of Forestry Administration offcers, with Judicial Cambodia Community Wildlife Ranger Program Police authority to enforce Cambodia’s Forestry (Weiler 2006). Without strong law enforcement and Wildlife Law, and Military Police Offcers and protected area management interventions it providing armed backup and the authority to was clear that elephants would also be lost from apprehend government employees (e.g. police / the landscape. army) involved in illegal activity. Between 12 and 14 (approximately 2-4 Forestry Administration In response to this poaching crisis the conservation and 10-12 Military Police) rangers, generally op- NGO, Wildlife Alliance
1. Protected area management and law enforce- Standard operating protocols for law enforcement ment patrolling and case-management were developed and relationships built with provincial judiciary Following a strategic threat assessment, 7 to ensure rapid and transparent management of ranger patrol stations were constructed at infractions and prosecutions. Patrol operations
Figure 1. Protected areas, approximate elephant distribution and ranger patrol stations in the CRL.
36 and planning were largely threat-based using As a direct result of such focused conservation intelligence and information from informants effort no Asian elephant poaching has been and communities. Patrol efforts mainly focused detected in the landscape since 2006. We are on hotspots of illegal activity and strategic confdent this represents close to zero hunting access routes into the forest. The majority of mortality due to a) the extensive network of patrols were conducted on foot but motorbikes community level intelligence and informants and speedboats were also used to allow rapid which are likely to provide timely information access to certain areas. Monthly helicopter and b) no elephant carcasses attributable to aerial surveys were employed to detect land poaching have been detected during the extensive encroachment and habitat loss. Patrol and GPS- patrolling or other surveys in the landscape. track logs were collected and managed using Camera-trapping provides some evidence of a ArcGIS; there is a plan to transfer to SMART recovering population with multiple images of Conservation Software in 2017. As a result of this adults with calves (Fig. 2). Whilst population unstinting focus on effective and professional estimates and demographic data on the law enforcement patrolling, over 24,500 multi- population have yet to be collated or analysed agency law enforcement patrols have removed feld data collection for a faecal DNA capture- more than 180,000 snares and sent 370 offenders mark-recapture study was conducted across the to court since 2006. landscape during the 2015/2016 dry-season by Flora and Fauna International and a population 2. Community outreach estimate is expected by early 2017.
Interventions targeted communities of largely Formal protection of the entire landscape lowland Khmer settlers, known to be heavily was confrmed in May 2016 when the Royal engaged in the illegal wildlife trade most notably Government of Cambodia declared the Southern around Chi Phat commune; a hub of wildlife trade Cardamom National Park, formally various and elephant poaching (Weiler 2006). Whilst a logging concessions, a new protected area number (<10) of other, largely ethnic minority, (Souter et al. 2016). Consequently management communities exist across the landscape Chi Phat of the landscape has moved from the Ministry was selected for targeted interventions as it was of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries to the a known hunting hotspot and forests accessed Ministry of the Environment and most Forestry by community members overlapped with Administration law enforcement offcers have extensive areas of Asian elephant home-range. transferred to the Ministry of the Environment. Programs were developed to compensate for the opportunity costs of reducing illegal activity and Discussion unsustainable natural resource use most notably a highly successful Community Based Ecotourism Our experiences in the Cardamom Rainforest project (CBET;
37 wildlife, elephant poaching crises can be averted Wild Animal Trade in Cambodia. TRAFFIC and populations may start recovering. However Bulletin 16: 45-60. success requires dedicated law enforcement capacity combined with supportive governments Myers N, Mittermeier RA, Mittermeier CG, and engaged communities. Considerable Da Fonseca GA & Kent J (2000) Biodiversity conservation investment for on-the-ground law hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: enforcement is also required. Law enforcement 853-858. in the landscape costs approximately 200 US$ per km2 per year, which is similar to estimated Naidoo R, Fisher B, Manica A & Balmford A costs for effective African elephant protection (2016) Estimating economic losses to tourism (Naidoo et al. 2016). It is therefore likely that in Africa from the illegal killing of elephants. such an extensive law enforcement model, and Nature Communications 7: e13379. similar levels of funding, will be required in elephant poaching hot-spots globally (e.g. central Reimer JK & Walter P (2013) How do you know and eastern Africa) if we are to save the planet’s it when you see it? Community-based ecotourism largest land mammal. in the Cardamom Mountains of southwestern Cambodia. Tourism Management 34: 122-132. Acknowledgements Souter NJ, Simpson V, Mould A, Eames JC, We thank the Royal Government of Cambodia for Gray TNE, Sinclair R, Farrell T, Jurgens JA & support particularly the Forestry Administration Billingsley A (2016) Will the recent changes in of the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and protected area management and the creation of Fisheries, the Ministry of the Environment, and fve new protected areas improve biodiversity the offce of the Koh Kong provincial governor. conservation in Cambodia? Cambodian Journal Large numbers of dedicated law enforcement of Natural History 2016(1): 1-5. offcers and station supervisors, living in often harsh feld conditions and working 24/7, allowed Sun H (2000) Status of the Tiger and Its us to achieve Zero Poaching of elephant in the Conservation in Cambodia. MSc Thesis. landscape. Funding came from various sources University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. including (in alphabetical order) Anderson- Rogers Foundation, Aspinall Foundation, Thouless CR, Dublin HT, Blanc JJ, Skinner DP, Barbara Delano Foundation, Critical Ecosystem Daniel TE, Taylor RD, Maisels F, Frederick HL & Partnership Fund, Tamaki Foundation, Wallace Bouche P (2016) African Elephant Status Report Research Foundation, USAID, and United States 2016: An Update from the African Elephant Fish and Wildlife Service. Database. IUCN / SSC African Elephant Specialist Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. References Wikramanayake ED, Dinerstein E, Robinson Gray TNE, Vidya TNC, Potdar S, Bharti DK & JG, Karanth U, Rabinowitz A, Olson D, Mathew Prum S (2014) Population size estimation of an T, Hedao P, Conner M, Hemley G & Bolze D Asian elephant population in eastern Cambodia (1998). An ecology‐based method for defning through non-invasive mark-recapture sampling. priorities for large mammal conservation: The Conservation Genetics 15: 803-810. tiger as case study. Conservation Biology 12: 865-878. Ling LE, Arrifn M & Latifah Adb Manaf (2016) A qualitative analysis of the main threats to Asian Weiler H (2006) Cambodia Community Wildlife elephant conservation. Gajah 44: 16-22. Ranger Tiger and Elephant Conservation Pro- gram. Final Report to United States Fish and Martin EB & Phipps M (1996) A review of the Wildlife Service, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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