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The Cardamom mountains

Fauna & Flora International was the first to conduct extensive field surveys in the Cardamom Mountains of south-west Cambodia. These established the area as one of the last forest wilderness areas in mainland south-east Asia. Isolated by their remoteness and rugged terrain and forgotten during years of conflict in Cambodia, the Cardamoms have at their core a virtually undisturbed forest covering over 10,000 square kilometres.

The Cardamom Mountain Wildlife Sanctuaries Project, a joint venture of Fauna & Flora International and Cambodia's Ministry of Environment, aims to ensure the long-term conservation of a landscape of global importance and its biodiversity while reducing poverty and ensuring essential national development. The focus is to establish and maintain management systems in two protected areas in south-west Cambodia: Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary and Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Cardamom Mountains are now known to contain almost all the country’s known mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. This is partly due to the very high diversity of habitats, some of which occur nowhere else in Cambodia, such as large expanses of fire-regulated ferns, upper montane forest, high elevation marshes and blackwater rivers.

Five main efforts are ongoing to balance conservation with urgent human needs in this unique landscape:

• Improving the planning, management and regulatory frameworks for the two sanctuaries;
• Establishing and improving the government’s ability to manage and protect the sanctuaries to keep poachers and illegal loggers at bay;
• Establishing the well being and sustaining the livelihoods of those living near to the sanctuaries;
• Securing international recognition and increased national and local awareness of the importance of the Cardamom Mountains;
• Investigating options for cash-strapped Cambodia to establish a financing mechanism for the long-term management of the protected areas.