This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn was a fellow. Names have been changed to protect sources who said they feared reprisals from the authorities. KOH KONG, Cambodia “I think there’s a 30% chance we’ll have trouble with the police,” said Ly Chandaravuth, an environmental activist with […]
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia In July, conservationists in Cambodia sounded the alarm over a regulation that saw eight protected areas in Koh Kong province collectively lose territory twice the size of Phnom Penh, the country’s capital. Officials said the move, affecting nearly 127,000 hectares (314,000 acres) under Sub-decree No. 30, was meant to grant land […]
Crocodylus siamensis), and Cambodia’s largest concentration of Asian elephants (
Elephas maximus).
Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) are critically endangered. Image by Frendi Apen Irawan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SS 2.0).
The first biodiversity survey of the Cardamom Mountains in 2000 found that although they cover just 6% of Cambodia’s land mass, they account for most of Cambodia’s large mammal species and half of Cambodia’s known bird, reptile and amphibian species. On the coast, the Cardamom Mountains connect to Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary, which encompasses some of the largest remaining pristine mangrove forests in the Gulf of Thailand and part of one of four Ramsar sites in Cambodia.