Cambodia Natural Resources

Kulen Nature Trail, Kulen National Park “I live, I get food from the forest”, an old man from Popel village in Kulen National Park said. “Things have changed after civil war from 1979. Hunger have led the people to do everything. Forest and culture go down. They used to cut the trees to build the houses, but a lots for they sale. Young people used to smile and dance happily, but now they fight when we have traditional event. The people are so honest and friendly with each other but now they steal and cheating…” he added. Popel Community Protected Area (CPA) is a big forest in Kulen National Park, which is protecting by Popel people and support by Ministry of Environment. Popel CPA and the village are located in the Middle East of the Park. Kulen Nature Trail is one of the livelihood and environmental sustainable program. They started to build the trail in late 2014 to attract the tourisms and support conservation. The more tourisms walk up and down in the forest will avoid th...

The trip to Monk Forest Early morning, the sun rises up, the sound of an old motorbike started and the wheel started to move from Siem Reap town to the Northern part of Cambodia where remain some Dry Dipterocarp forest. About 4 hours, I arrived Aonlong Veng district, in Ordor Meanchey province and then I headed to the West of that district about another 30 minutes more where I met an affable monk, or we can say he is an environmental hero. He is Monk Bun Saluth. With his works for more than 10 years to protect the biggest dry forest and wildlife in the Northern part of Cambodia, Monk Bun Saluth was awarded the Equator Prize by the United Nations Development Programme in 2010. The main purpose of this trip to observe a critically endangered (CR) bird. It is Giant Ibis Thaumatibis gigantea, which was recorded in one of the camera traps in 2013 in the pond. This time, a telescope with 22x and other 4 camera traps plus a few more cameras from the Monk will be used to observe tha...

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Here is a picture of Eld's Deer I shot in the last year 2012 in Ang Tropeng Thmo in Bonteay Meanchey province. These wildlife need the protected area to live and now become rare in Cambodia. We can see it between February and April. These mammal lives live in group in between 10-15 close to the river, pond with grass.

A small country in South-east Asia is Cambodia, that border to North-west with Thailand, East with Vietnam and North with Lao. This country is rich of culture and biodiversity. Natural resources support the quality of life for Cambodian and economic grow are being terminated day by day. The forests are being threatened by deforestation and economic land concessions. Some National Park and local community forest protected are also threatened by illegal logging and hunting in the area. Wildlife is also face these problem. They lost their homes, hunting for food and trade. The biodiversity survey in protected areas must do more to collect more potential information of natural resources in order to present to the government to find the solution and make the decision.