The cardamom mountain: Have forest, have life

Banteng (ទន្សោង)

Ancestor of domestic cattle this species is globally endangered and restricted to southeast Asia. The world's largest population occur within the Eastern Plains Landscape of Cambodia.

Voice of The Forest in Nepal: Forever Green

Flooding Report: Flood in Cambodia

Flood destroy rice field along the road from Seam Reap

Rising global temperatures could greatly exacerbate flooding in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, as well as parts of Africa and South America, a new study by the University of Tokyo has found.

The study, produced by the university’s Institute of Engineering and published in the British science journal Nature Climate Change yesterday, warns that the world’s 29 major rivers, including the Mekong, face escalating risks of mass flooding if climate change continues apace.

Employing 11 different climate models, researchers found that with a mere rise of 3.5 degrees by the end of the century, 42 per cent of the earth’s land surface would face an increased risk of flooding, affecting 100 million people.

From mid Sept to October 04, 2013, Floods from Mekong River and heavy rainfall have claimed at least 39 lives and affected 100,334 families in Cambodia in less than three weeks, in 09 Provinces in Cambodia are flooding; Prah Vihear, Banteaymeanchey, Stungtreng, Kratie, Kampong Cham, Kandal, Odormeanchey, Prey Veng, Ratanakiri. the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said Thursday.

About 10,000 families have been forced to flee their houses for higher grounds as some 89,200 houses, 533 schools and 291 Buddhist pagodas have been submerged, a NCDM's report said.

In addition, approximately 100,000 hectares of rice seedlings are also inundated, the report said.Thirteen out of the kingdom's 24 cities and provinces are being hit by the Mekong River and flash floods, it added.

The country has suffered from the impact of low pressure system and tropical storm Wutip that had caused heavy rainfall in the Mekong River basin and in Cambodia.

"The government would like to advise concerned ministries and authorities to be on high alert and prepare rescue measures to evacuate people to safe grounds so that fatalities and property damage by floods will be reduced," he said in a directive.

Floods usually hit Cambodia between August and October. In 2011, the country was hit the worst from floods, killing up to 250 people, according to the NCDM.

Last year, floods killed only 14 people.

Eastern Plant Lanscape

Cambodia and its people

First video edition by Siveun

Cambodia located in Southeast Asia shared the borders with LAO, Thailand and Vietnam.
Cambodia has a rich of natural resources and oldest culture in the world.
But there are some remaining challenges and problem to be question and asked for help.
About million people live under poor line, malnutrition, can't access to clean water, education, health care information and opportunity to improve the living condition.

Watch the video and share me your ideas!!!

Discovery of Giant Ibis

subscribed to www.youtube.com/ WWF-Cambodia

Small savings making a difference

Subscribed to www.youtube.com/UNDP Cambodia

Gaur (ខ្ទីង)

The gaur (/ˈɡaʊər/, Bos gaurus), also called Indian bison, is the largest extant bovine and is native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. The species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986, as the population decline in parts of the species' range is likely to be well over 70% during the last three generations. Population trends are stable in well-protected areas, and are rebuilding in a few areas which had been neglected.

The gaur is the tallest species of wild cattle. The Cambodian called Khting (ខ្ទីង). 

Gaur / Bos gaurus 

Conservation status

 Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)

Characteristic 

The gaur is a strong and massively built species with a high convex ridge on the forehead between the horns, which bends forward, causing a deep hollow in the profile of the upper part of the head. There is a prominent ridge on the back. The ears are very large; the tail only just reaches the hocks, and in old bulls the hair becomes very thin on the back. In colour, the adult male gaur is dark brown, approaching black in very old individuals; the upper part of the head, from above the eyes to the nape of the neck, is, however, ashy grey, or occasionally dirty white; the muzzle is pale coloured, and the lower part of the legs are pure white or tan. The cows and young bulls are paler, and in some instances have a rufous tinge, which is most marked in groups inhabiting dry and open districts. The tail is shorter than in the typical oxen, reaching only to the hocks. They have a distinct ridge running from the shoulders to the middle of the back; the shoulders may be as much as 12 cm (4.7 in) higher than the rump. This ridge is caused by the great length of the spinous processes of the vertebrae of the fore-part of the trunk as compared with those of the loins. The hair is short, fine and glossy, and the hooves are narrow and pointed. The gaur has a head-and-body length of 250 to 330 cm (8.2 to 10.8 ft) with a 70 to 105 cm (28 to 41 in) long tail, and is 165 to 220 cm (5.41 to 7.2 ft) high at the shoulder. The average weight is 650 to 1,000 kg (1,400 to 2,200 lb), with an occasional large bull weighing up to 1,500 kg (3,300 lb). Males are about one-fourth larger and heavier than females.

Gaur do not have a distinct dewlap on the throat and chest. Both sexes carry horns, which grow from the sides of the head, curving upwards. Between the horns is a high convex ridge on the forehead. At their bases they present an elliptical cross-section, a characteristic that is more strongly marked in bulls than in cows. The horns are decidedly flattened at the base and regularly curved throughout their length, and are bent inward and slightly backward at their tips. The colour of the horns is some shade of pale green or yellow throughout the greater part of their length, but the tips are black. The horns, of medium size by large bovid standards, grow to a length of 60 to 115 cm (24 to 45 in).

The cow is considerably lighter in make and in colour than the bull. The horns are more slender and upright, with more inward curvature, and the frontal ridge is scarcely perceptible. In young animals the horns are smooth and polished. In old bulls they are rugged and dented at the base.

Gaur are among the largest living land animals. Only elephants, rhinos, the hippopotamus and the giraffe consistently grow heavier. Two species that naturally co-exist with the gaur are heavier: the Asian elephant and Indian rhinoceros.

Distribution and Habitat

Gaur is historically occurred throughout mainland South and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Today, the species is seriously fragmented within its range, ad regionally extinct in Sri Lanka.

In Cambodia, gaur declined considerably in the period from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. The most substantial population of the country remained in Mondulkiri Province, where up to 1000 individuals may have survived in a forested landscape of over 15,000 km² (5,800 sq mi). Results of camera trapping carried out in 2009 suggested a globally significant population of gaur in the Mondulkiri Protected Forest and the contiguous Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary. 

1. Channa, P., Sovanna, P., Gray, T. N. E. (2010). Recent camera trap records of globally threatened species from the Eastern Plains Landscape, Mondulkiri. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2010 (2): 89–93.

Ecology and behavior 

Where gaur have not been disturbed, they are basically diurnal. In other areas, they have become largely nocturnal due to forest molestation caused by people. In central India, they are most active at night, and are rarely seen in the open after 8 o'clock in the morning. During the dry season, herds congregate and remain in small areas, dispersing into the hills with the arrival of the monsoon. While gaur depend on water for drinking, they do not seem to bathe or wallow.

In January and February, gaur live in small herds of eight to 11 individuals, one of which is a bull. In April or May, more bulls may join the herd for mating, and individual bulls may move from herd to herd, each mating with many cows. In May or June, they leave the herd and may form herds of bulls only or live alone. Herds wander 2–5 km (1.2–3.1 mi) each day. Each herd has a nonexclusive home range, and sometimes herds may join in groups of 50 or more.^[20] The average population density is about 0.6 animals per square kilometre (1.5 animals per square mile), with herds having home ranges of around 80 km² (31 sq mi).

Gaur herds are led by an old adult female, the matriarch. Adult males may be solitary. During the peak of the breeding season, unattached males wander widely in search of receptive females. No serious fighting between males has been recorded, with size being the major factor in determining dominance. Males make a mating call of clear, resonant tones which may carry for more than 1.6 km (0.99 mi). Gaur have also been known to make a whistling snort as an alarm call, and a low, cow-like moo.

In some regions in India where human disturbance is minor, the gaur is very timid and shy. When alarmed, gaur crash into the jungle at a surprising speed. However, in Southeast Asia and South India, where they are used to the presence of humans, gaur are said by locals to be very bold and aggressive. They are frequently known to go into fields and graze alongside domestic cattle, sometimes killing them in fights. Gaur bulls may charge unprovoked, especially during summer, when the intense heat and parasitic insects make them more short-tempered than usual. To warn other members of its herd of approaching danger, the gaur lets out a high whistle for help.

Feeding 

Adina cordifolia (Haldina) tree leaves

Wild gaur graze and browse on a wider variety of plants than any other ungulate species of India, with a preference for the upper portions of plants, such as leaf blades, stems, seeds and flowers of grass species, including kadam.

During a survey in the Bhagwan Mahaveer Sanctuary and Mollem National Park, 32 species of plants were identified as food for gaur. They consume herbs, young shoots, flowers, fruits of elephant apple with a high preference for leaves. Food preference varies by season. In winter and monsoon, they feed on preferably fine and fresh grasses and herb species of the legume family, such as tick clover, but also browse on leaves of shrub species such as karvy, Indian boxwood, mallow-leaved crossberry, East-Indian screw tree and chaste tree. In summer, they also feed on bark of teak, on fruit ofgolden shower tree, and on the bark and fruit of cashew. Gaur spent most of their daily time feeding. Peak feeding activity was observed between 6:30 and 8:30 am and between 5:30 and 6:45 pm. During the hottest hours of the day, 1:30 to 3:30 pm, they rest in the shade of big trees.

They may debark trees due to shortages of preferred food, and of minerals and trace elements needed for their nutrition, or for maintaining an optimum fiber/protein ratio for proper digestion of food and better assimilation of nutrients. They may turn to available browse species and fibrous teak bark in summer as green grass and herbaceous resources dry up. High concentrations of calcium (22400 ppm) and phosphorus (400 ppm) have been reported in teak bark, so consumption of teak bark may help animals to satisfy both mineral and other food needs. Long-term survival and conservation of these herbivores depend on the availability of preferred plant species for food. Hence, protection of the historically preferred habitats used by gaur is a significant factor in conservation biology.

Reproduction 

Gaur have one calf (or occasionally two) after a gestation period of about 275 days, about nine months, a few days less than domestic cattle. Calves are typically weaned after seven to 12 months. Sexual maturity occurs in the gaur's second or third year. Breeding takes place year-round, but typically peaks between December and June. The lifespan of a gaur in captivity is up to 30 years.

Natural Enemies

Due to their formidable size and power, gaur have few natural enemies. Leopards and dhole packs occasionally attack unguarded calves or unhealthy animals, but only the tiger and the saltwater crocodile have been reported to kill a full-grown adult. The habitat of gaurs and saltwater crocodiles seldom overlaps in recent times due to the decreasing range of both species. Tigers hunt young or infirm gaur, but have been reported to have also killed healthy bulls weighing at least 1,000 kg (2,200 lb).  When confronted by a tiger, the adult members of a gaur herd often form a circle surrounding the vulnerable young and calves, shielding them from the big cat. A herd of gaur in Malaysia encircled a calf killed by a tiger and prevented it from approaching the carcass.  InNagarahole National Park, upon sensing a stalking tiger, a herd of gaur walked as a menacing phalanx towards it, forcing the tiger to retreat and abandon the hunt. Gaur are not as aggressive toward humans as wild Asian water buffaloes.

There are several cases of tigers being killed by gaur. In one instance, a tiger was repeatedly gored and trampled to death by a gaur during a prolonged battle. A large male tiger carcass was found beside a small, broken tree in Nagarahole National Park, having been fatally struck against the tree by a large bull gaur a few days earlier. 

Treat 

In Laos, gaurs are highly threatened by poaching for trade to supply international markets, but also by opportunistic hunting, and specific hunting for home consumption. In the 1990s, they were particularly sought by Vietnamese poachers for their commercial value.

In Thailand, gaurs are highly threatened by poaching for commercial trade in meat and trophies.

Conservation 

Bos gaurus is listed in CITES Appendix I, and is legally protected in all range states.

1.  Duckworth, J.W., Steinmetz, R., Timmins, R.J., Pattanavibool, A., Than Zaw, Do Tuoc, Hedges, S. (2008). "Bos gaurus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2.International Union for Conservation of Nature.

More information: Click Here

CMDG scoredcard Goes Local

ពិន្ទុគោលដៅអភិវឌ្ឍន៍សហ្សសវត្សប្រើប្រាស់នៅថ្នាក់មូលដ្ឋាន

ប្រភព៖ UNDP Cambodia

Cambodia MGD Scorecard

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Khmer  | English

Endangered Giant Ibis found in new Cambodia habitat

(AFP) / 20 August 2013

Jubiliant conservationists expressed hope Tuesday for the survival of the critical-endangered Giant Ibis after a nest of the bird species was discovered in a previously unknown habitat in north-eastern Cambodia.

Habitat loss and poaching has pushed the Giant Ibis to the edge of extinction, with around only 345 of the reclusive creatures — distinctive for their bald heads and long beaks — left anywhere in the world, 90 percent of them in Cambodia.
A farmer in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province discovered the nesting site a few kilometres inland in the biodiverse Mekong Flooded Forest area last month, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a statement.

An inspection team from the WWF later saw an adult bird sitting on the nest with two eggs.
“The discovery of the Giant Ibis nest on the Mekong is extremely significant because it provides hope for the species’ survival,” said Sok Ko, Forestry Administration official and Bird Nest Project officer with WWF.
The Giant Ibis — or Thaumatibis gigantea — was listed on the Red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1994 as critically endangered, the group said, with its habitat limited to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
“For Giant Ibis to survive ... it is key to secure breeding groups in more places. This one nest is part of securing the future for the species,” Gerry Ryan, WWF’s Research Technical Advisor, told AFP.
The group warned that threats remain as the species’ lowland forest habitats continue to be drained and stripped for agriculture, while its eggs are sometimes poached by villagers.
But conservation efforts in the Mekong area where the nest was discovered have brought some reward, Ryan added.
“Giant Ibises don’t like to be disturbed and are very shy — they tend to live far from human settlements,” he said.

“The presence of Cambodia’s national bird is further proof that efforts in managing and conserving the area and its biodiversity are worthwhile and having an effect.”

Click here to go to the Original Link

Peaceful butterfly

Why Trees?

Tole Sap Lake and Living

Giant Snakes Set Free (Cambodia biodiversity conservation documentary

What is Infrastructure linked to livelihood development of minority people?

The road to access my target Community in Mondulkiri, Photo by Siveun

The Role of Community Organizers

Objectives:

SWOT analysis 

• identify the people to be involved in the organizations
• develop the relationship among the people that make the organization effective
• Data gathering
• Research 
• Participatory strategic planning
• Forming the organizations
• Responsive and effective leadership from the community 
• Leadership development is critical every member is encourage to take leadership roles;
• Members and leaders make organizational decisions – from by laws to slogans

Steps to CO

• Data gathering
• Research
• Participatory strategic planning
• Forming the organizations
• Formation stage 
• Community organizations should be democratic in governance, open and accessible to community members, concerned with the general health of the community rather than a specific interest or service function. 

Developing community leaders

• Responsive and effective leadership from the community
• Leadership development is critical every member is encourage to take leadership roles;
• Members and leaders make organizational decisions – from by laws to slogans
• Members raise and select organizational issues based on self interest of the group.

Process of community Organization

What is a Community organizer? 

• Organizer must thoroughly understand the characteristics and power patterns of the communities through intensive interviews and discussion with community members.
• Organizer is a listener, He identifies and trains potential leaders, through listening, issues and problems that are of importance to the communities are identified.Must be able to agitate the community to act. 
• People must understand that only them who must do something and they can do these is they organize themselves. Make people realize that they can only do these if they are organized

Phase of Intervention

Roles and responsibilities of COs

Challenge people to act on behalf of their interest 

               1- Facilitate dialogue to understand and share responsibilities and interests,

Develop new relationship

  1- linking people together

  2- Linking the group to another networks

Community organizers build community by developing leadership

1.Focus on developing leaders

2.Enhancing their skills, values and commitment

3.Focus on building strong communities 

Basic Community Organizing

1. What is a community?
- A group or individual having the same interest, having the same culture

  

Participatory Village mapping

2. What is community organizing ?

• Is a process by which the people organize themselves to take charge of their situation and thus develop a sense of being community together…
• To determine for themselves the actions they will take to  deal with issues in their community.
• Organizing people to working together to get things done
• People most often low income people are brought together in an organization to jointly act on interest of their communities. They take greater responsibility for the future of their communities.
• One of the common goals of community organizing is to build structures, processes, methods, values that promote liberate relations not only politically but economically
• E.g. build projects that can benefit more members of the community 
• Convene meetings
• Conduct action research
• Analyze public issues
• Develop a common vision for self development
• Implement plan to address and resolve important  issues and problems
• Reduction in health hazards 
• Is a strategy to build grassroots leadership, community initiative, and constituent influence in neighborhoods and  communities that are often forgotten by those who are in power

3. Why do we need to organize communities?
One of the common goals of community organizing is to build structures, processes, methods, values that promote liberate relations not only politically but economically
E.g. build projects that can benefit more members of the community 

Teaches people to:

1. convene meetings
2. conduct action research
3. analyze public issues
4. develop a common vision for self development
5. implement plan to address and resolve important  issues and problems 

Reaches out to involve people:

1. to effect changes in policies
2. create new jobs in the community
3.  reduction in health hazards

Protecting Natural Resources

Local fisher at Sre Pok Photo by Sviveun

Cambodia is blessed with many natural resources. Forests cover about half its land area, providing natural biodiversity, and timber resources. Its lakes and rivers provide fish to sustain around 80% of the population, as well as the potential hydro power. Most Cambodians rely on these resources for subsistence livelihoods in agriculture, fishing, and forestry. 

Illegal Timbers photo by Siveun

But resources need to be managed sustain-ably and transparently to ensure they can continue to provide long term economic benefits, through tourism, for example. Overuse can damage people’s livelihood as well as the natural environment.Illegal logging increases erosion, sedimentation and the risk of serious flooding.

Mekong dolphin 

Deforestation also contributes to land degradation and the loss of natural habitat. Declining water quality from increased pollution and over fishing are serious threat to Tonle Sap fisheries on which Cambodia depends. They are also endangering species such as Irrawaddy or Mekong Dolphin. 

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Our Forest Our Future 

Published by: FAO 

សហគមន៍ព្រៃឈើ និងយន្តការ REDD

ការណែនាំស្តីពីយន្តការ REDD+ (Introduction to REDD+)

Climate Change

Climate Change – what is it and why is it important?

Climate Change Educational Poster by UNDP

Throughout history, the Earth’s climate has constantly changed. But the extent to which our planet has warmed since the second half of 20th Century is beyond the natural cycle of climatic variation.

This dramatic change is largely due to the increased amount of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) generated by human activities – in particular land use change, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels in the shift towards industrialisation. The increase in global temperature leads to changes in climatic patterns and melting of ice caps at the Poles. These in turn lead to phenomena such as sea level rises, changes in rainfall patterns, heat and cold waves and increasing droughts and floods. These changes are already having a negative impact on the environment and on the lives and livelihoods of communities across the world.

The effects of climate change are cumulative, irreversible and global. In addition, there is an inverse relationship between responsibility and impacts. Those in less and least industrialised countries who did not cause human-induced climate change are to be impacted most and earliest as they are least equipped to cope with the impacts. The “readiness” to cope with the impacts correlate with the level of economic and human development, as well as with the level of knowledge and information on climate change. Short-term disasters and the longer-term effects of climate change threaten people’s ability to lead long and healthy lives, to have access to education, to have a decent standard of living, and to participate in community life with dignity and self-respect.

The economic implications of climate change are extremely high due to the cost of damage and the need to prepare for further impacts, as well as investment needs for inevitable mitigation measures. It is all the more the case for developing countries like Cambodia.

What does climate change mean to Cambodia?

It’s not just about floods and droughts, but about the country’s capacity to cope with the challenges– and its ability to identify and build on opportunities.

Climate change is real and happening in Cambodia, and its impacts are unavoidable. The country is considered highly vulnerable due to its high levels of poverty and lack of infrastructure to cope with natural disasters and other longer-term effects of climate change, but by increasing society’s capacity to respond and adapt well, the impacts can be minimised.

However, climate change is not only about impacts and threats – how Cambodia responds to climate change also presents opportunities that lead to healthy economic and social development. Acting on climate change, reducing poverty and pursuing sustainable development can – and must – go hand in hand.

The first ever study on Cambodia’s vulnerability to climate change, conducted in 2001, projected that the country’s temperature would increase 1.35-2.5 degrees celsius by 2100. It also predicted annual rainfall would increase between three and 35 percent above current levels, also bringing more erratic, intense rain patterns, and unpredictable seasonal changes. For centuries, Cambodians have skillfully adapted their livelihoods to align with seasonal changes – such as rain-fed agriculture and fishery cycles synchronized with seasonal floods. But unpredictable seasonal changes, including potential changes in the Mekong flood pulse patterns, mean these centuries-old methods are under threat. Combined with short-term natural disasters, the long-term and gradual changes in climate can lead not only to economic losses but also to various human development challenges - such as food insecurity, health impacts, unemployment, migration and reduced access to education due to economic pressures on households.

According to recent studies, Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change impacts in the region. Contributing factors include a heavy reliance on rain-fed farming in low land areas, an undiversified agricultural base, a lack of appropriate infrastructure and technology to respond to effects, and low human development levels. If the country’s key sector, agriculture, were to be affected by a natural disaster, leading to the failure of major crops, issues such as food insecurity, unemployment and social instability would follow. Affected families may migrate to new places in search of better livelihood opportunities. Increased occurrence of water- and air-borne diseases will have significant health and economic implications in the country, which already suffers from a large number of malaria and dengue cases every year. On the coast, sea level rises will affect coastal communities and prime development locations. It is predicted that if there were to be a rise of one metre, 56 percent of Koh Kong city would be submerged.

Enabling prosperity

While there are significant threats, climate change is also about opportunities. An increasing amount of development assistance and various financing schemes are being made available for Cambodia, both to prepare for imminent impacts and to help prevent further global warming. With this assistance, Cambodia can harness opportunities, such as introducing low carbon measures that lead to positive development. Developing countries such as Cambodia can choose to avoid unsustainable, and often polluting, conventional ways of development. This is an option that most of today’s developed countries didn’t have when they started their economic growth. The schemes that are available for Cambodia to take advantage of include: carbon financing schemes; transferring to new clean technologies; and increasing energy efficiency.

Involvement of private sector is central to the success of this approach, and there is a need to create good public-private partnerships to encourage businesses to contribute to low-carbon “green growth”. Through such partnerships, Cambodia can reduce the effects of climate change while ensuring sustainable development and economic growth.

Source: www.un.org/undp

Defining CBNRM

1- CBNRM is both a conservation and rural development strategy, involving community mobilization and organization, institutional development, comprehensive training, enterprise development, and monitoring of the natural resource base "IUCN".

2- CBNRM is a bottom up approach to the integration of conservation and development "Cornell International Institute for Food and Agriculture and Development".

3-CBNRM came about, to a large extent, as the result of two difference processes. Firstly, It is a grassroots, bottom up  agenda, inspired by the goals of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation, gradually broadening and transforming itself to also include a social agenda and the becoming a broad social movement of sort. The second process is micro level, top down effort spearheaded by multilateral funding agencies, bilateral donors, and  above all, international NGOs and organization devoted to practical work and research.' In addition, the many actors, that is stakeholders, and agendas that constitute these two process are increasingly meeting, somewhere in the middle, aligning their experience, realizing that they have the same goals, and that they stand greater chance of making a difference by joining hands, as well as their often different means of resource "World Bank".

4- CBNRM is the management of natural resources under a detailed plan developed and agreed to by all concerned stakeholders. The approach is community based in that communities managing the resource have the legal right, the local institutions and the economic incentives to take the substantial responsibility for sustained use of these resource. Under natural resource managing plans, communities become the primary implementers, assisted and monitors by technical services "USAID".

5- CBNRM addresses interaction among the factors that influence natural resource access, use and management patterns. The participation and leadership of local people are essential   in CBNRM's approach as innovations must be built on voluntary improvement to local knowledge and practice, rather than imposed from outside. It also require recognition of the heterogeneity and multiple interest of different community members and outside resource users "IDRC".

Note: CBNRM= Community Based Natural Resource Management

Rescue the cutest Leopard cat

By Rohit Singh

Leopard cat, Photo by Rohit

It was early morning, things were as usual and I was leaving for office when I received a call from a community member living near the Mondulkiri Protected Forest. This forest area is part of the larger protected area complex of the Eastern Plains Landscape and one of the best wildlife sites in Cambodia. The caller is my usual informant who helps us in gathering valuable intelligence on wildlife poaching. He informed me that the villagers have seen a baby cat what looks like a leopard cub in the farm. The landscape supports approximately 4 leopards/100 km2, so the possibility of a leopard cub cannot be completely ruled out.  However the chances were very low. I decided to go to the village and see for myself.

I left the town with my team to the village. After driving approximately 40 km on dusty roads we arrived at the ranger station. The ranger station is the entry point to the Mondulkiri Protected Forest, my informant was already waiting there. He took us to the farm where the animal was seen. It was one & half kilometer walk in cassava plantation and we could see the forest all along the boundary of plantation.  On the way many villagers joined us, there were kids, old men, women and young men, all were looking forward to see the leopard cub. Some were even saying it’s a tiger cub. At-last we arrive to the farm where the cub was sighted for the first time, there was a small bush at the corner of the farm. I requested villagers to stay far from the area because I didn’t want to cause any stress to the animal.  We could hear the call of the kitten so it was definitely some cat species.  I went into the bush and saw a small and one of the cutest animals I have ever rescued. It was a baby leopard cat.

I lifted her in my arms and started walking back towards the village. All of the villagers were so excited they wanted to have glance of the animal we rescued. Everyone who saw her said only one word “Saat Nas (means most beautiful and cutest)” at that moment, we decided to give her the name Saat, we took her to the ranger station. She was so cute that every ranger wanted to hold her and have a photo with her, some took out their cell phones and started taking pictures. Saat didn’t like this celebrity treatment and gave an unpleasant expression; she was hardly one month old but clearly had enough wild traits.

We didn’t have anything to feed her at the ranger station so we gave her some water and brought her to the town. For two days I took care of her and was with me all the time. We fed her with milk and baby food. We knew that she was too small to be released back into the wild and we didn’t have any facility to keep her in therefore we decided to move her to the rescue center in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. It was a long 350 km journey, so we decided to take her to the mid-point from where the national wildlife rapid rescue team (WRRT) can take her and bring to rescue center. WRRT has better knowledge and equipment to deal with handling of wild animals. Next day we left to the Snoul 150 km from the provincial town of Mondulkiri. We handed Saat to WWRT teams. It was an emotional moment as I had spent three days with her.

Leopard cat facts: Common name: Leopard cat Scientific name: Prionailurus bengalensis IUCN Status: Least Concern Threat to the survival: Poaching Distribution: Afghanistan; Bangladesh; Bhutan; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia; China; Hong Kong; India; Indonesia (Jawa, Kalimantan, Sumatera); Japan (Nansei-shoto); Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Malaysia; Myanmar; Nepal; Pakistan; Philippines; Russian Federation; Singapore; Taiwan, Province of China; Thailand; Viet Nam Source: IUCN website

After six months I got an opportunity to visit the rescue center and first thing I did there was looked for Saat. The zoo keeper took me to the enclosure where they had many leopard cats, I asked which one is Saat. He said he is not sure. I was bit depressed but when I saw closely all were like Saat, as beautiful as Saat.

After the rescue of Saat, we rescued several leopard cat babies and other animals but the lesson I learned from Saat’s rescue will always remain with me.

Thanks to Mr. Rohit Sign

Law Enforcement Technical Adviser (WWF-Cambodia)