03 May 2007 - Srepok,
Cambodia – The first ever photographs of
a wild leopard with young in Cambodia show
that a pioneering project is helping to
conserve wildlife and support local livelihoods
there.
The photographs were taken by the animals
themselves when they triggered camera traps
that had been set up by wildlife biologists
working with local community rangers.
“They are very secretive creatures and
incredibly difficult to see, even with the
best guides,” says Nick Cox of WWF's Greater
Mekong office.
“But in the Srepok Wilderness Area of the
Mondulkiri protected forest in north-eastern
Cambodia, our rangers have had recent encounters
with leopards that would make big cat biologists
green with envy.”
The Srepok Wilderness Area Project (SWAP)
aims to ensure that local people benefit
from conservation in a part of Cambodia
where forests are relatively intact, but
threatened by illegal logging, conversion
for agriculture and the unsustainable trade
in wildlife products.
WWF is working with the Cambodian government
and the International Institute for Environment
and Development on the project, which is
part funded by the Darwin Initiative.
The project partners are aware that conservation
in a country as poor as Cambodia will only
succeed if local people continue to benefit
economically from the Mekong River and its
surrounding forests. The area’s wildlife
has been struggling as a consequence of
decades of war, colonial mismanagement of
wildlife and civil strife.
The Srepok wilderness area was largely
unprotected until WWF began working there
in 2002. The rangers working in the forest
have provided anecdotal evidence of their
belief that the forest ecosystem is recovering,
but nothing firm until now.
Leopards will only reproduce if the conditions
are right and these photographs are an initial
positive indicator of a healty ecosystem.
Under the Darwin Initiative funded project,
Julia Chase-Grey is studying how local hunting
and farming practices affect populations
of the leopard and its prey species, such
as the dog-like dhole.
“Very little information exists on the
ecology or conservation of the leopard in
Cambodia,” says Chase-Grey, a PhD student
at Durham University, United Kingdom.
Chase-Grey spent two months working with
rangers from local communities, whose knowledge
of the area and its wildlife meant they
could advise her where to set up the camera
traps.
The SWAP has trained the rangers in an
effort to provide sustainable alternatives
to hunting.
James MacGregor of the International Institute
for Environment and Development says that
the SWAP’s innovative approach provides
a practical lesson in best practice conservation
management in genuine collaboration with
local people.
“This project highlights the importance
of involving local people in conservation
and ensuring that they have a stake in protecting
wildlife,” says MacGregor.
“The Srepok Wilderness Area Project is
helping to restore the natural wildlife
populations and provide local people with
pathways out of poverty.”
