Wild-meat trades at the popularity junction point

After walking down form the checking point, there were a few ladies came to us and ask for our interest to buy the wild meat. A few species of wildlife are being sold publicity in Busra Waterfall. Wild pig, red muntjac peacock and loris were dried on the stove for the tourist.

wild-meat offers for the tourist in Busra,
Photo by Siveun

"Hello man, would you like to order wild-meat, here is very fresh and just came earlier this morning" a lady said to me. I suddenly moved my camera to shoot some interesting picture of the wildlife which is being sold by the sellers. An old lady came close to me and ask for paying attention, He is a conservationist, why do you ask him to buy wild-meat? she said. Everybody looked to me like a stranger and one came and ask me to stop to take the picture. She said, Hi young boy, that is not good to take this picture and post to the social media because some wildlife organization and forestry administration may come and confiscate us.

Without responding I left the place to reduce people's stress and concern about confiscation from the relevance environmental agency. However, I feel not really comfortable with their eye looked to me, but being a environmental opinion, I felt very bad.  Busra is a great junction point for the national and international tourists. While promoting the eco-tourism around this areas, the people really take advantage from the nature and natural resource including selling wild-meat. This is considered as a bad modelling regarding to environmental education to the people visited here.

This is also indicated that the environmental education is still limited for the local community and the people around here. However, law enforcement  were not really proper implemented in this areas. The tourism principle in tourism sector should be prohibited the wild-meat inside the nature based recreation.

In Cambodia  all wildlife shall be divided into the following three categories:
1- Endangered species;
2- Rare species; and
3- Common species.

According to the law:
Article 49 stated that: It shall be prohibited to commit the following against rare and endangered wildlife species.
1- Harass or harm any such species above or its habitat
2- Hunt, net, trap or poison
3- Process, stock or maintain as a zoo or in a family house
4- Transport
5- Trade and
6- Import or Export

Article 50 stated that: It is prohibited to commit the following activities against common wildlife species, except by a permit issued by the Forestry Administration:
1- Stock or maintain as a zoo or in a family house;
2- Transport and Trade an amount exceeding that necessary for customary use.

Loris is selling for medicine in Busra
Photo by: Siveun

Red Muntjac meat are sold in Busra
Photo by: Siveun

Wild-meat on the charcoal stove for selling to the tourist
Photo by Siveunn

A lady hand the red muntjac meat and negotiated the price
Photo by: Siveun

Cambodian children lives are under threaten

Cambodia  currently  has  a total  population  of  over  14 million  people  and  has  one  of the  youngest populations in Southeast Asia: with 41 per cent aged 18 and under, and more than a third between the ages of  10  and  24.  Three  decades  of  war  and  conflict,  a  post‐war  boom  and  an  average  low  life expectancy are reasons for this imbalance in demography. 

While economic growth has propelled in the last decade, still 28 % of Cambodians live below the poverty line, having to survive on less than $1,25 a day, with children being the most vulnerable group. At these time of  global financial  crisis, the Asian Development  Bank  estimated that  an  additional  2 million people  in Cambodia may have been forced  into  poverty  as the  cost of  living (food, fuel  and other commodities) have risen. As a consequence, an increasing number of women and children in Cambodia have been working in the informal sector in order to survive ‐ for lower wages, poorer conditions, and greater risk of exploitation and trafficking. 

Without  a formal social welfare system, there  are  concerns that the  crisis will reverse the  positive economic trends and push more Cambodian children into poverty, increasing their risk of ending on the streets.

In Cambodia, street children are primarily found in urban areas as cities are considered to have better economic  and  employment  opportunities  by  migrants  from  the  provinces.  Based  on  information gathered  by  the  Cambodia  Street  Children  Network  (CSCN) in  2008, more than 5600 street children were counted in 6 Cambodian cities in one day. This number obviously only indicates the actual number of children living and/or working on the street. However, the exact number is not known. Factors like seasonal fluctuations, regular migration and changing political and economical situations affect the actual number of street children. 

The impact of street life on children and youth is significant. Unstable lifestyles, lack of medical care, lack of education  and  inadequate  living  conditions  increase  young people’s susceptibility to exploitation, unsafe migration  and  trafficking,  substance  abuse,  chronic  illness,  sexual  violence  and  sexually transmitted diseases.

Please see the video of the Transformer Actress Roise Huntington-Whiteley talked about the child life in Cambodia:

"Seth didn't choose to live here it's all she could afford. She didn't choose every single day surrounded by phial and disease. Seth didn't have a choice but you do" Roise Huntington-Whiteley Said.