Cambodian Wildlife Running Scared from Rampant Poaching
10/20/97
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Headline: Cambodian Wildlife Running Scared from Rampant Poaching
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 10/20/97
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
PHNOM PENH, Oct 20 (AFP) - Rampant poaching in Cambodia's
rapidly depleting forests is endangering rare wildlife and the
government does not have the resources to protect them, a report
said Monday.
"Now about 50 percent of the forests have been destroyed and
about 60 percent of wild animals have been lost," the Cambodia Daily
quoted a senior environment minstry official as saying.
"The wild animals are being hunted down more and more," said
Chay Samith, acting director of the ministry's protection and
conservation department. "Poaching is increasing threefold."
Rare sun bears, tortoises, turtles, snakes and anteaters in the
remote northeastern provinces of Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri are worst
affected, the paper said, adding that most animals were exported for
medicine or food.
Environment ministry officials said a lack of funds and the
resulting susceptibility of authorities to bribery by poachers were
the main problems in enforcing a regulations on wildlife trade,
especially in rural areas.
Chay Samith said his department could arrest three to four
poachers a day if it were not for those problems.
The ministry has received only about one-third of its 521,000
dollar budget allotment for this year, other officials said. "We
have no money to carry out our taks of enforcing the law, no money
for missions upcountry," said Por Lay, the ministry's planning
chief.
Conservationists have said that Cambodia's wildlife -- much of
it undisturbed by human development for the past two decades due to
war and civil strife -- is increasingly threatened as the country
modernizes.
Large-scale logging is considered one of the most serious
threats.