Bokor National Park

Formerly a Khmer Rouge base, Preah Monivong 'Bokor' National Park has been resurrected as a national park. Established by Cambodian Royal decree in 1993, Bokor is one of 23 protected areas in the country. With an area of 1,400 square kilometers spanning four southern provinces in the Cardamom Mountain Range, it contains a unique range of habitats and supports a rich diversity of flora and fauna.

Wildlife Alliance's Surviving Together team has worked with the Cambodian government to enforce Bokor's protected area status and to establish the park as a national training center for staff from other protected areas across the country.Though Bokor is not yet completely safe from loggers and poachers, Wildlife Alliance's system of effective patrolling has curtailed their activities to the extent that they can no longer plunder the park with impunity.

Bokor rangers patrol the park continuously on a rotational  basis, surveying local villagers' needs and monitoring wildlife with camera traps. In response to gaps in ground patrols, aerial patrols are performed whenever possible.

Bokor rangers are trained through a Wildlife Research and Monitoring Course as well as a Gibbon Suvey Ranger Training Course. These courses teach rangers wildlife identification (sighting, tracks, and signs) and field data collection. Camera traps have also been an excellent source of wildlife data in the past; allowing identification of rare or nocturnal species. For example, recently a camera trap photo was taken of a clouded leopard, a rare wild cat frequently poached for its skin, teeth and bones.

Now abandoned, Bokor Hill station, situated 1000 meters above sea level, used to be a 1920's French colonial hotel and casino. Wildlife Alliance trained rangers now patrol this elevated area of Bokor National Park, ensuring that the natural beauty of the park is preserved while also protecting its wild habitants and forests from poachers and urban development projects.

For many impoverished Cambodians, the national parks and protected areas of the country were once seen as convenient sources of free wood, food and land. The park has come under increasing pressure from landless migrants who have moved to the area in recent years and become involved in many of the logging, encroachment and poaching incidents in and around Bokor. Wildlife Alliance's work to convince skeptical villagers living around Bokor of the need to protect the park is also beginning to show results. Rural development work focusing on four high priority villages has resulted in successful mushroom farming programs to reduce dependence on the forest as well as restoration of important water sources and even the construction of a local school.

Additionally, now that park officials have the authority to follow cases of illegal logging and wildlife crimes outside of the park's boundaries, they plan to build criminal cases against the organizers behind the scenes. Wildlife Alliance is commited to reducing illegal wildlife poaching and timber harvesting within protected areas. These species are irreplaceable and provide essential resources to local communites throgh their ecological processes. The ST program recognizes the links between the park's environmental conditions and the communities' needs, and works with surrounding communities to educate, build support and offer alternatives to poaching and illegal timber harvesting.