The Babbler 49 and 50

The Babbler

Number 49/50 (January - June) 2014

Black-necked storks Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus taken at Western Siem Pang Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

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The Babbler 49/50

CONTENTS

The Babbler

Number 49/50 (January - June) 2014

In this issue Feature Page 4

Regional News Page 7

IBA News Page 21

Rarest of the rare

Western Siem Pang, towards a vision for biodiversity conservation in the dry forests of Cambodia: Phase II

Project Updates Page 34

Cambodian Jewel Protected New projects for BirdLife Cambodia Programme

First ever trip made by the Rare Bird Club to Myanmar WWF's petition to help save the Irrawaddy dolphin As Forests Fall, Carbon Credit Plan Faces Collapse Untouchable? Wildlife crime kingpin Vixay Keosavang Massive Ivory Haul Seized in Sihanoukville

Personal Profile

Nick Marx's receives ‘Royal Order of Sahametrei’

Western Siem Pang Virachey National Park Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary Natmataung National Park White-browed Nuthatch

Page 41

Staff News Page 42

Just Published Page 43

Marriage of Project Officer, Neab Samneang BirdLife Cambodia Programme team members obtain their Masters of Science degrees The Birds of Cambodia - An Annotated Checklist 30 Years of Birdwatching in Vietnam Routes of Extinction: The corruption and violence destroying Siamese rosewood in the Mekong

Page 32

To visit the official website of the organisations featured in this document, please click on the organisation logo as required.

BirdLife International Cambodia Programme Office #2, Street 476, Sangkat Toul Tum Poung I, Khan Cham Kamorn, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. P.O.Box: 2686 Tel/Fax: +855 23 993 631

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COMMENT

With the publication of this issue we have now reached the milestone of having published 50 issues of The Babbler. It was back in March 2002 we published the very first issue compiled by Vu Thi Minh Phuong. Produced in A4 format it was only 8 pages long.

Although the compilers over the last 12 years, Ananda, Phuong, Huong and Tracy have each brought their own style and left their mark, it has grown in length and depth and remains the only publication of its kind in the region. All 50 issues of The Babbler can now be found on Issuu and in future they will all be available on a dedicated page on the BirdLife International website. We also now have a dedicated Facebook page for the BirdLife International Cambodia Programme as we hope this medium will help bring The Babbler to a wider audience.

On 24 January 2014, Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen signed the sub-decree establishing the 67,000 ha Siem Pang Protected Forest. For those who had worked to accomplish this, we allowed ourselves a brief congratulatory moment. We were wise to keep it short. In March widespread commercial logging for rosewood began within Siem Pang Protected Forest and the adjacent area also a high conservation value forest but under a controversial Economic Land Concession. BirdLife and our Forestry Administration colleagues have spent most of the last four months trying to contain the impact of this logging. In the face of such a large well-organised operation the impact of a dozen enforcement rangers could only ever be expected to have limited impact. The name of the company buying the wood is well known. Indeed, the head of the company is infamous across Cambodia for the impact he is having on the forests of the nation.

This company operates beyond the law and no one has yet stepped forward to challenge its activities. Arguably this company alone poses the biggest threat to Protected Forests throughout Cambodia. Why can this company operate with impunity and who is benefiting from the profits it generates? It is certainly not the government exchequer or Cambodian citizen. Let us not forget that it is international donors and NGOs that underwrite conservation in Cambodia.

Although the operating environment becomes ever more difficult in Cambodia, our donors continue to have faith in our work. The first two quarters of 2014 have been very productive for project fund-raising and we have secured well over one million dollars for our programme. In this issue of The Babbler we are happy to announce the start of several new projects funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and the MacArthur Foundation. I would like to take this opportunity to particularly thank the MacArthur Foundation for showing such faith in the Cambodia Programme by awarding us such a large grant, which will be used to establish the Siem Pang Protected Forest.

Insert: the first ever The Babbler published, Photographs: above Tracy Brookshaw, left Aldo Pekeur.

The Babbler is the quarterly newsletter of BirdLife International Cambodia Programme.

The 49th/50th edition of the Babbler was compiled by Tracy Brookshaw and edited by Jonathan C. Eames.

The views expressed are those of contributors and are not necessarily those of BirdLife International.

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FEATURE Western Siem Pang, towards a vision for biodiversity conservation in the dry forests of Cambodia: Phase II

NEW PROJ ECT

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This is a new four-year project with a budget of US$ 800,000 funded by the MacArthur Foundation and follows the completion of the phase 1 project.

The issue this project seeks to address is how to achieve the conservation of globally irreplaceable biodiversity in a weak state, which offers opportunities for market-based solutions. The project will address the conservation need at Western Siem Pang IBA by increasing the capacity of government and civil society organizations in conservation planning and innovative site based management, the sustainable management of a representative example of the dry forest landscape and through stable or increasing populations of globally threatened species. It will provide a model for effective conservation management at a site of global conservation importance, which may be replicated at other sites in the Lower Mekong region.

The southern part of the site is threatened by the development of an Economic Land Concession and the newly designated Protected forest in the northern part requires protected area infrastructure to prevent illegal logging, hunting and encroachment.

The geographic scope of the project is located within Siem Pang District, Stung Treng Province, Cambodia. Project activities will be confined to three communes, Prek Meas, Thma kev and Santepheap. The northern and western boundaries of the site are the international border with Laos, including Xe Pian National Protected Area. The eastern boundary of the site is Virachey National park, Cambodia. Project activities will take place in Western Siem Pang Forest. Western Siem Pang Forest comprises two sectors, which are currently under different jurisdictions. The newly declared Siem Pang Protected Forest lies north of the O’Khampa River and is managed by the Forestry Administration. The area south of the O’Khampa River is currently part of an Economic Land Concession held by Green Sea Industries Ltd. It is under the jurisdiction of the Forestry Administration however. This sector is sometimes referred to as the “overlap area”.

The thematic scope of the project is to conserve and effectively manage a Key Biodiversity Area and Important Bird and Biodiversity Area in Siem Pang District. The project will do this by reducing pressures on biodiversity through the provision of protected area infrastructure and personnel within the Siem Protected Forest and the area of overlap with the Green Sea Industries Economic Land Concession (ELC).

Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

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FEATURE

Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

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The project will pursue the advancement of a conservation concession in the contested area or the expansion of the Siem Pang Protected Forest. The project will support the revision of the boundaries of the ELC to conform to the area granted. Currently the boundaries claimed are significantly larger than the area granted. If the project goal is ultimately achieved and a safaribased tourism enterprise established, the resort and private conservation concession would provide jobs, both skilled and semi-skilled which would provide employment opportunities for local communities.

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FEATURE

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The overall project goal is to permanently manage a representative example of the dry forest ecosystem of Central Indochina in Cambodia, which supports livelihoods and economic development, with enhanced levels of biodiversity as a model for replication and to inform wider forest management policy.

The project purpose is as follows: 1. Increased capacity of government and civil society organizations in conservation planning and innovative site based management.

2. The sustainable management of a representative example of the dry forest landscape and stable or increasing populations of globally threatened species.

3. A model for effective conservation management of a site of global conservation importance is developed and initiated, which may be replicated at other sites in the Lower Mekong region.

The project will have three outcomes: 1. Western Siem Pang Forest secured for conservation.

2. Management systems for the Siem Pang Protected Forest established and operational.

3. Threats to the Western Siem Pang forest are reduced.

This project has 16 conservation targets. They are as follows. In relation to Outcome 1 there are four conservation targets depending on the route taken to achieve the outcome. This cannot currently be known so the targets must be presented as an either or scenario: Either a comprehensive feasibility study including legal study is completed and investment secured for the safari-based tourism project or the ELC will be bought and returned to Forestry Administration jurisdiction and the area incorporated into an enlarge Siem Pang Protected Forest.

Outcome 2 will have been achieved when Siem Pang Protected Forest management structure is in place, essential equipment is purchased, staff have been recruited, the enforcement team has been established and trained, the effectiveness of forest law enforcement team has been regularly reviewed and infrastructure has been established.

Outcome 3 will have been achieved when a biodiversity monitoring system is in place to inform management, the management plan has been implemented, populations of Critically Endangered and Endangered species are stable or increasing, there has been no further loss of riverine forest long the Sekong River, there has been no further selective logging along the O’Khampa and Stung Tinh Hiang rivers and key foraging habitat of Critically Endangered and Endangered species is maintained.

Source: BirdLife International Cambodia Programme

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REGIONAL NEWS

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New hope for spoon-billed sandpipers as hand-reared bird heads for breeding grounds Good news this World Migratory Bird Day; the first of a hand-reared group of critically endangered birds has been spotted migrating back towards where it was hatched by conservationists.

The tiny spoon-billed sandpiper – the only bird in the world to hatch with a spoon shaped beak – could be down to fewer than a hundred breeding pairs. Aviculturists led by WWT’s Roland Digby reared nine chicks by hand in 2012 at the breeding ground in northern Russia, to ensure they survived through the crucial early days. The birds migrated 5,000 miles away to south Asia and there’s been a 2 year wait to see if they would return north to breed.

Now one of the group has been spotted and photographed on its way back to Russia by Chung-Yu Chiang and Chin-Shi Hsu at Kinmen Island, Taiwan, off the east China coast. At 2 years old, it’s now ready to breed and could become the first hand-reared spoon-billed sandpiper to produce offspring and add to the species’ fragile population.

WWT aviculturist Roland Digby said: “Two years ago I reared and released nine spoon-billed sandpiper fledglings on the Russian tundra. Theoretically all could return to breed for the first time this summer, but the odds are severely stacked against them. Illegal bird-trapping and the destruction of wetlands mean that very few birds survive to maturity.

“It tells us that hand-rearing works and these birds behave and migrate normally. What’s more, reports of individual birds like this one, who we know, give us an indication of the proportion of young birds that are reaching breeding age.”

The leg ring shows this bird hatched on 14 July 2012 from an egg of a clutch collected for artificial incubation on 22 June.

After fledging it was released on 10 August and was last seen on the Russian breeding grounds on 17 August 2012.

Pavel Tomkovich of Birds Russia, who marked the bird said: “During the coming summer we’ll look for this bird back on the breeding grounds and hope to see it in the area where it was raised and released. All that remains of the spoon-billed sandpiper population is thought to be fewer than 100 breeding pairs. So seeing this one individual, who we know is just reaching maturity and returning to breed for the first time, is hugely significant.”

Nigel Clark wader expert from the BTO said: “This is a huge reward for the team that toiled to rear these birds on their arctic breeding grounds. The pictures of Lime 8 show that it is growing its breeding plumage feathers right on schedule showing that headstarted young that have successfully integrated into the wild population.”

Roland Digby and Pavel Tomkovich are due to return to the spoon-billed sandpipers’ Russian breeding grounds this month for a further season of field surveys and hand-rearing.

The project is part of a multi-pronged international attempt to save the spoon-billed sandpiper. In case the birds in the wild suffer further losses, the only reserve flock in the world is being reared in a biosecure facility at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre. In the near future, eggs from the Slimbridge flock could be flown to Russia to be hatched and released as an insurance against the species falling into extinction quicker than it can be saved in the wild.

Source: www.wwt.org.uk 10 May 2014

Photograph: Martin J McGill

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REGIONAL NEWS

Myanmar explored

First ever trip made by the Rare Bird Club

Between 14 – 27 January 2014, BirdLife’s Rare Bird Club made their maiden voyage to the Golden Land of Myanmar. Organised by Gilly Banks, the tour was lead by Thiri Htin Hla of Wildbird Adventure Travels and Tours and Jonathan C Eames. The itinerary covered Mount Victoria in Natmataung National Park in the Chin State, the dry zone forests around Pagan, Inle and the forests around Kalaw in the Shan State.

Photographs: Jonathan C. Eames

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REGIONAL NEWS

Group photograph of The Rare Bird Club taken at Natmataung National Park

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Sesan II Reservoir a Laundry for Illegal Timber SESAN DISTRICT, Stung Treng province – Filthy trucks loaded with luxury timber rule the red-earth roads in this heavily deforested district. Each day, dozens of 10-wheelers bounce along the pot-holed roads, carting logs of the much-sought Thnong timber. And while some of the cargo is legal, much of it is not. A powerful conglomerate, headed by Australian-educated tycoon Kith Meng, chairman of Royal Group, has carte blanche to fell and sell timber inside a 36,000-hectare reservoir here.

That reservoir is set to become the catchment area of the 400-MW Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in 2017, when a 75-meter-high wall is completed about 1.5 km downstream from the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers and the cleared land becomes a water basin. But, for now, forest monitors here say little—if any—clearing of land is happening inside the Sesan reservoir. Instead, they say, the forests to the north are being looted, with the reservoir used as a vehicle to launder illegally sourced wood.

“Sometimes, I can count 30 trucks in one day bringing timber across the river from Siem Pang [district] and into the reservoir,” said Srekor commune chief Siek Mekong, who lives inside the reservoir and devotes much of his time to monitoring the movements of illegal loggers. “The wood is stored in depots here and once it is inside, there is no way to tell where it has come from,” he said, adding that the depots were guarded by plainclothes men armed with AK-47 assault rifles. Mr. Mekong, who was elected as a Sam Rainsy Party commune chief, estimated that each truck carries at least 10-cubic meters of timber. Good quality Thnong can fetch up to $800 a cubic meter in Cambodia, before being fashioned into furniture or ornaments.

In January 2013, the Royal Group, which in partnership with China’s Hydrolancang International Energy company will construct the Lower Sesan II, signed off on a deal for another Kith Meng firm, Ang & Associates Lawyers Company, to jointly clear the land with a company owned by Sok Vanna, the brother of Sokimex founder Sok Kong. The deal stipulated that the land would be cleared over three years: 10,000 hectares in 2013, and 13,000 hectares each in 2014 and 2015. However, a comparison of satellite images of the Sesan II reservoir from March 2013—before the first reports of trees being cut—and May 2014 shows no evidence of land being cleared.

“Inside the reservoir, we see no clearing of land,” said Meach Mean, coordinator of the 3S Rivers Protection Network. “But we know that they export wood [outside of the reservoir] because we see many trucks leaving with a lot of wood,” he said, adding that at least 10 truckloads of luxury timber were leaving the Sesan II reservoir each day. It used to be much more but it has slowed down. Maybe the wood in the forest is almost finished.” Like Mr. Mekong, Mr. Mean says that much of the illegal timber comes from Siem Pang district, where the majority of the land is split three ways—almost equally—between a land concession owned by businessman Mong Reththy, mining exploration concessions held by Angkor Gold and the protected Virachey National Park.

Siem Pang district is located just north of Sesan district. In Siem Pang district’s Sekong commune—on the western bank of the Sekong River and just a few kilometers from the southern limits of Virachey—teams of men rest in hammocks, waiting for the next shipment of timber to appear on the opposite bank. When it does, it is loaded onto boats, shipped across the river and then dragged up the steep muddy incline before being loaded onto trucks and carted away for laundering through the Lower Sesan II reservoir, according to Mr. Mekong and Mr. Mean. Most of the men working in the log-retrieval teams declined to say who they were working for, where the timber was going or where it had come from.

But at one of the camps, where about a dozen slabs of Thnong had just been pulled up the slippery bank via truck-mounted winch, a man who spoke English but declined to give his name claimed to be working for timber magnate Try Pheap. “We will take this wood to a depot in Stung Treng for Okhna Try Pheap,” he said.

However, Yok Meng, Try Pheap Import Export’s representative in Stung Treng province, said that his company did not bring any wood across the Sekong River. He said the only logging that the company does in Siem Pang district is in Mr. Reththy’s rubber concession located to the west of the Sekong River. “Those allegations are completely wrong,” Mr. Meng said of the man who claimed to be bringing timber across the river for Try Pheap. These are middlemen and opportunists who hide behind Mr. Okhna’s [Try Pheap’s] company name to do their own logging business.”

Forestry Administration officials in Siem Pang district declined to comment on the source, destination or legality of the timber being shipped across the Sekong River. Chheang Tola, chief of the Stung Treng Forestry Administration cantonment, and Tith Samnang, head of the forestry office in Sesan district, also declined to comment on issues relating to Royal Group or the reservoir.

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REGIONAL NEWS

SIGN WWF's PETITION

Sesan II Reservoir a Laundry for Illegal Timber continued.....

Mr. Meng, the Royal Group chairman, is known to be close with Prime Minister Hun Sen and often accompanies government officials on high-level diplomatic trips abroad as the president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce.

In the National Assembly last month, CPP lawmaker Loy Sophat, the former governor of Stung Treng province, said local level officials in the area dare not interfere with the activities of powerful business moguls, and described illegal logging in the area as “out of control.”

“Some powerful people escape the law and take the opportunity to cut wood inside Virachey National Park and other areas and then transport them to this area [Sesan II],” Mr. Sophat said.

In response to Mr. Sophat’s claims that powerful people were using the Sesan reservoir to launder illegally sourced timber, National Assembly President Heng Samrin has requested that Mr. Hun Sen summon Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem for questioning at the Assembly on June 19.

Attempts over the past two weeks to track down statistics, or even acknowledgement, of logging in or around the Sesan II reservoir proved fruitless. Chan Ang, executive secretary general of Sokimex and assistant to Sok Vanna, who was granted the right to clear the reservoir and sell the timber, said: “This is a misunderstanding. Sok Vanna is not involved in clearing any reservoir, we work with petroleum.”

Keo Sorithya, director of Ang & Associates, which was to share the job of clearing the reservoir, said: “Tom Pianka is in charge of that. He is the [Lower Sesan II] project manager.” Mr. Pianka claimed he was not the project manager, though revealed that he does work for Royal Group. “Talk to Meng, that’s all I can say,” he said.

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The clock is ticking. Mega First, the developers, have scheduled construction of the Don Sahong to begin later this year. So we must act now. Click on the photograph below for the link to the petition and tell Mega First that you won't let Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins be dammed.

Source: www.wwf.org

Mr. Meng twice hung up on reporters, and then referred questions about his private company to a government body: “Please talk to the Ministry of Mines and Energy,” Mr. Meng said via text. Mines and Energy Minister Mr. Sem and other ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

Back inside the reservoir, where Mr. Mekong can hear the rumble of the loggers’ trucks from his timber home, the commune chief was unsurprised at the lack of accountability surrounding the pillaging of another of Cambodia’s forests.

“No one can stop the loggers,” Mr Mekong said. “There is no enforcement of the law. At local level we cannot stop them. At provincial level, they just take bribes from the company.

“Every month, we meet at the district level to discuss how logging is out of control but there is nothing we can do,” Mr. Mekong said. “Ministers, Council of Ministers, Prime Minister—the logging network goes all the way to the top.”

Written by Matt Blomberg and Phann Ana Source: The Cambodia Daily 6 June 2014 Stung Treng Villagers Caught in Forestry Racket

Photograph: WWF

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REGIONAL NEWS

Untouchable? Wildlife crime kingpin Vixay Keosavang Vixay Keosavang is one of the most ruthless and prolific wildlife criminals operating in Southeast Asia today. Some call him the “Pablo Escobar of animal trafficking”. Others describe him as the “Mr Big” of wildlife crime in Laos, the tiny one-party communist state bordered by Myanmar, China, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam that continues to harbour him. The criminal syndicate he oversees, dubbed the “Xaysavang network” after the name of an import/export company he established in 2008, has been implicated in the smuggling and slaughter of thousands of animals including pangolins, primates, reptiles, snakes, rhinos, elephants, lions and tigers.

The US Government calls the Xaysavang syndicate “one of the most prolific international wildlife trafficking syndicates in operation” and, late last year, issued a US$1 million reward for information “leading to the dismantling” of the network. But despite this – and despite overwhelming evidence of its criminal activities – the network continues to ply its deadly trade and Vixay remains utterly untouchable, protected by the Lao PDR Government and the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats he has so ably cultivated.

I spent two years investigating and documenting the syndicate’s involvement in the grisly trade in rhino horn and lion bones from South Africa. In the course of my research, I amassed hundreds of pages of documents including CITES permits, invoices and emails detailing Xaysavang’s activities. In all, Vixay’s name appeared just 16 times. He remained largely in the shadows, a distant puppet-master reaping the rewards of the killing but rarely dirtying his own hands.

The tangled web of evidence led from South Africa to Kenya, Thailand, Vietnam and finally to a house in Paksan, a small town situated on the banks of the Mekong River in central Laos.

A rare photograph of wildlife crime kingpin Vixay Keosavang, left, with his former lieutenant, Chumlong Lemtongthai. Chumlong is currently serving a 30year prison sentence in South Africa. Photograph supplied by Julian Rademeyer

A 2003 Thai police intelligence report on wildlife traffickers lists Vixay by name and includes some details of wildlife transactions in which he was involved. Four years later, a Vietnamese journalist, Huong Quoc Dung, published a series of articles on the illegal primate trade and unearthed documents showing that Xaysavang had exported more than 80,000 animals, including 7,000 monkeys, 13,000 snakes and 60,000 turtles. The monkeys went to a Vietnamese company called Trung Viet.

Documents I obtained during my investigations shed light on other wildlife trafficking operations. One, dated March 2009, was a sales agreement between Xaysavang and a Vietnamese company called ThaisonFC. In terms of agreement, Vixay promised to supply the company with more than 100,000 live animals including 40,000 rat snakes, 20,000 monocellate cobras, 10,000 king cobras, 20,000 water monitors and 20,000 endangered yellow-headed temple turtles. The price: US$ 860,000.

In 2009, Kenyan customs officials seized 280kg of elephant ivory and two unmounted rhino horn “trophies” weighing 18kg. The consignment, which had originated in Mozambique, was on its way to Paksan and the Xaysavang Trading Export Import Company Limited. Late in 2011, an undercover team from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) visited a neglected farm on the outskirts of Paksan. It found 575 macaques in cages. They were starving. Many were on the brink of death and others lay dead in their pens. The farm belonged to Vixay.

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The Babbler 49/50 Elsewhere, other pieces of the jigsaw were falling into place. There were seizures in Thailand.

The Bangkok-based Freeland Foundation, headed by Steven Galster, uncovered evidence which ultimately led Galster to conclude that Vixay is “the Mr Big in Laos”. “He seems so well-protected and we haven’t met any law enforcement officers in Laos who are able, or willing, to take this on,” he told me later.

In July 2011, the South African Revenue Service dealt what was believed at the time to be a hammer-blow to the syndicate. Two of Vixay’s closest lieutenants, Chumlong Lemtongthai and Punpitak Chunchom, were arrested. On Chumlong’s laptop, investigators discovered a treasure-trove of digital photographs, video footage and documents. It gave a unique insight into the activities of a transnational wildlife crime syndicate.

A key syndicate figure, Chumlong Lemtongthai, poses with the carcass of a rhino that he shot. The trophy was later shipped to Xaysavang Trading in Laos. Chumlong is currently serving a 30 year prison sentence in South Africa.

The photographs and videos were hard to look at, graphically detailing the sham rhino hunts the syndicate had conducted to ensure a steady supply of rhino horn trophies to Laos where they would be cut up and sold for thousands of dollars. There were also images of lion carcasses being stripped of flesh for the bones. And there were photos documenting the pay-offs to South African game farmers who had thrown in their lot with the syndicate. One farmer posed for the camera with his wife and daughter, grinning stupidly over a huge pile of cash.

Chumlong was subsequently sentenced to 40 years in prison. The sentence was reduced on appeal to 30 years. Charges against Punpitak Chunchom and two alleged accomplices, game farmer Marnus Steyl and a professional hunter, Harry Claassens, were withdrawn after Chumlong pleaded guilty and claimed they had no knowledge of the crimes. Punpitak quickly slipped out of South Africa and returned to Thailand. How he did so remains a mystery. His passport was still in the possession of the South African Police Service at the time. Today he is a wanted man, with an Interpol Red Notice hanging over his head.

Steyl – who continues to maintain his innocence – was later rearrested and charged with 29 counts of fraud relating to the acquisition of rhino hunting permits and two counts of illegally hunting white rhinos. One of those instances was filmed by Chumlong with a GoPro camera.

This week, Steyl approached a South African High Court to request a permanent stay of his prosecution. Should he fail to obtain it, he will be back in court in March.

An alleged member of the Xaysavang syndicate poses with a set of lion bones. Photograph supplied by Julian Rademeyer

The initial joy over the arrests and convictions was short-lived. Like a hydra, the Xaysavang syndicate quickly sprouted other heads. In early 2013, the Freeland Foundation identified a young woman named Loy Chanthamvonga as Vixay’s possible replacement for Chumlong. She was linked to a rhino horn shipment smuggled into Thailand by a Vietnamese national. Two police officers

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were also implicated in the smuggling attempt and arrested, but Loy managed to evade capture. She speaks a number of languages, is believed to be the holder of both a Vietnamese and a Laotian passport and has travelled frequently to Mozambique in southern Africa.

Since the US Government announced its $1 million bounty, the sign outside the house that once served as the headquarters of the Xaysavang syndicate in Paksan has been taken down. Vixay’s family still live there, but he is now believed to spend much of his time in the Laotian capital Vientiane. Compelling evidence gathered recently by Kenya-based wildlife crime investigator Karl Ammann suggests that Vixay is active in a tiger-breeding farm and receives “tons” of lion bones which are smuggled to Vietnam.

There, in traditional medicine shops and back-alley dealerships, they are passed off as tiger bones. Vixay continues to boast to potential clients that he can obtain rhino horn, although he has said it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so.

There are rumours too of his involvement in a bizarre scheme to smuggle heroin, concealed in consignments of dogs being trucked through Thailand and Laos into Vietnam.

It seems astonishing, given the amount of evidence gathered, that the Xaysavang network is still in business. It illustrates the daunting challenge that exists in bringing transnational wildlife crime networks to book. Syndicates like the Xaysavang network can adapt far faster and are better financed than many of the investigative agencies arrayed against them. The latter are largely out-gunned, out-manoeuvred and hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape. Investigations stop where borders begin.

A key syndicate figure, Chumlong Lemtongthai, poses with the carcass of a rhino that he shot. The trophy was later shipped to Xaysavang Trading in Laos.

Chumlong is currently serving a 30 year prison sentence in South Africa.

The Laotian Government – which sent a delegation to this week’s wildlife crime talks in London – remains silent about Vixay’s activities and there seems to be little interest or will on its part in taking any action against him. His political ties – which, in the past, have reportedly even seen him accompany a former Laotian Prime Minister on an official state visit to Vietnam – have held him in good stead.

The terrifying truth is that Vixay is one of very few wildlife crime “kingpins” that we have been able to identify. That he was identified at all was largely thanks to his own hubris and the arrogance and rank stupidity of key figures in the Xaysavang network who left behind a damning digital trail of evidence.

We know where Vixay lives. We know who works with. Yet he remains untouchable. If we can’t reach him, then who can we reach? There are countless other syndicate bosses whose names we don’t know. They remain well below the radar and continue to feed a seemingly insatiable market for contraband wildlife products.

In South Africa, where I live, more than 2,600 rhino have been lost to poachers since 2008. That is 10 times the number poached in South Africa in the preceding 27 years.

Elsewhere in Africa, tens of thousands of elephants are being slaughtered every year. The killing is relentless. Lions, tigers, pangolins, reptiles, primates, birds and forests – to name but a few – are being cut down on a frightening scale.

Time is fast running out. In fact, it has run out.

Written by Julian Rademeyer Source: www.eia-international.org 14 February 2014

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As Forests Fall, Carbon Credit Plan Faces Collapse Community forest chiefs and rights groups in Oddar Meanchey province say logging is now so rampant they have finally given up hope that a U.N. backed scheme to generate millions of dollars worth of carbon credits for the area and the country will ever get off the ground. They say the project is effectively dead, and that some of the very people who spent years trying to conserve the area have finally lost hope and joined the loggers. “The program here for carbon trading is dead,” said Din Heng, chief of the Andong Bor community forest. “The government was first committed to protecting these forests for carbon trading, but they are not doing anything to help us fight the illegal logging.” His is one of 13 community forests covering a combined 68,000 hectares across Oddar Meanchey province anchoring what the government still nominally hopes will be Cambodia’s first forest-based carbon trading scheme, better known as REDD, for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.

Backed by the U.N., the plan aims to find environmentally conscious companies abroad who want to offset their carbon emissions by paying Cambodia to keep its carbon-hungry trees standing. Over 30 years, the project could potentially earn tens of millions of dollars to be split between state coffers and local communities. After years of effort, however, the government has yet to lock in a single buyer.

The trees it is trying to sell, meanwhile, are being logged at an ever-increasing rate by everyone from desperate cassava farmers to soldiers, according to community forest members.

In mid-2012, locals said that half of Andong Bor’s 6,114 hectares were already gone. Mr. Heng, the community forest’s chief, said another 2,000 hectares were cleared this year alone to make way for new cassava fields. With grants from the NGO Pact, Mr. Heng and other community forest members were being paid modest stipends to patrol the project area on a regular basis and, with the help of local authorities, keep the trees standing. When Pact ran out of funding for the project and had to stop the stipends nearly a year ago, some of the members pooled their own money to keep the patrols going.

But Mr. Heng said their money—and patience—has run out, leaving the loggers, soldiers and desperate farmers unchecked. “Some of the community forest chiefs are fed up with being ignored by local authorities when they try to fight illegal logging in the protected forest,” he said. “Finally, some of the community forest officials are now chopping down trees also.”

Malis Hoeut, chief of the 6,016-hectare Romdoul Veasna community forest along Oddar Meanchey’s border with Thailand, said his forest has been cleared almost completely. “The local authorities have indulged villagers from other provinces who moved in and cleared the forest,” he said. “Now I can see that the carbon credit program has collapsed for sure, because almost all of this forest has been chopped down.”

The government and Terra Global Capital, the U.S. firm hired to broker the carbon sales, have years worth of satellite images they are using to track the change in forest cover across the project area, but are refusing to share it. If Mr. Hoeut and Mr. Heng are right, though, the project has lost nearly 12,000 hectares in just two of the community forests, roughly 18 percent of the entire project area. And they say the same thing is happening in the other 11 community forests that make up the project.

Srey Naren, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, agreed. He said the project was beyond saving. “The REDD project in Oddar Meanchey for carbon trading has collapsed without being pushed.

Deforestation and land encroachment are out of control,” he said.

Earlier this year, military officials said they received orders to build bases and outposts inside the community forests in order to beef up the army’s presence along the Thai-Cambodian border, and have taken over thousands of hectares. Pact said the pace of deforestation across Cambodia, among the fastest in the world according to independent analysis of U.S. satellite data, was worrying. But it declined to comment on the likely fate of the REDD project in Oddar Meanchey. Deputy provincial governor Vath Paranin admitted to some logging but rejected the dire assessments. “The REDD project has not collapsed because there are still a lot of trees standing,” he said. “We are not ignoring these cases [of logging], but there are some opportunists moving in to build houses.”

Terra Global said it had not measured the extent of deforestation in the project area recently, because it formally verified forest cover only every two years. “The reports from the FA [Forestry Administration], communities and local partners would be a better source of information before the current deforestation dynamics in the project areas,” said Leslie Durschinger, Terra Global’s managing director, in an email.

Ms. Durschinger also said that there are still no buyers for carbon credits generated by the Cambodian project areas, due to what she characterized as an oversupply of sellers in the carbon trading market.

According to Pact, two companies prepared to buy the first $1 million worth of carbon credits from the project walked away after the government failed to sign off on the deal in May 2013 because it could not work out the bureaucratic details in time. The Agriculture Ministry’s cabinet chief, Thun Sarath, said the government was now close to reaching deals with a few other companies, but he could not provide details. He said he did not know how much of the community forests in Oddar Meanchey were left, but said that the Forestry Administration’s last project report, in April, was positive.

“The report said that the REDD program is going well,” he said. “They mentioned that the project in Oddar Meanchey is going well, not any problem.”

Written by Kuch Naren and Zsombor Peter Source: The Cambodia Daily 29 May 2014

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New app to build awareness and information on illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia From bear paw soup to pangolin scales, people can now report suspected illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia using a smartphone app developed by the Taronga Conservation Society Australia in partnership with TRAFFIC. The ‘Wildlife Witness’ app enables users to report suspected illegal wildlife in trade in the region easily and quickly by taking a photo, pinning the exact location of an incident and sending these important details to TRAFFIC. Reports by app users will be analysed by a Wildlife Crime Data Analyst and over time, the information will help build data and enrich understanding of illegal wildlife trade across the region, help prioritise response action and highlight areas in need of increased enforcement resources.

Wildlife Witness will also feature information on species threatened by trade, how they are often traded, as well as tips for reporting wildlife crime safely.

Its current focus is the Southeast Asian region which serves as source, consumer and transit hub in both the legal and illegal trade of wildlife. It is hoped app users will include the growing number of tourists to Southeast Asia as well as the region’s own smartphone users and over time will expand on what is known about illegal trade here.

“With just a few taps on their smartphones, users can do two important things—learn how their purchasing decisions influence the illegal trade that threatens wildlife and contribute reports that will help build a more informed picture of this threat,” said Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC’s Regional Director-Southeast Asia. “Being aware, and ensuring you are not supporting the illegal trade in wildlife is essential if people are to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem,” he added.

“Wildlife Witness is the first global community action tool to tackle illegal wildlife trade. The app makes reporting these activities simple for both tourists and locals and will help give TRAFFIC the information they need to help address this global wildlife crisis,” said Taronga Community Conservation Manager, Dr Kira Husher.

The Wildlife Witness app was developed with funds from the Vodafone Foundation’s App Aid competition. The app has been developed for both iPhone and Android devices. Wildlife Witness is now free to download from the App Store. It is expected to be available for Android smartphones in the near future. Click on the photograph for the link to the download.

Source: www.traffic.org 9th April 2014

Suspected illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia can now be reported with a smartphone app. Photograph: TRAFFIC

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Massive Ivory Haul Seized in Sihanoukville Sihanoukville customs officials on Friday seized more than three tons of ivory-the biggest ever haul in Cambodia-from inside two container ships supposedly transporting beans from Malaysia. “We confiscated about three tons of ivory hidden in two containers of beans around 8 a.m. Friday,” said Bun Choeu, deputy director of the customs office at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port. “This is the biggest ever haul of ivory seized by officials in Cambodia,” he added. Mr. Choeu said the ivory was being kept by customs in storage at the port as officials continued to investigate.

Pen Sitha, deputy director of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said Friday that standard screening of the two containers had led his team to dig through the beans and find the elephant tusks. “Customs scans of the containers that were carrying beans from Malaysia were so strange that we suspected something and checked inside the containers,” Mr. Sitha said. Customs then opened the containers and found 3,008 kg of elephant tusks of all sizes, bound in 108 separate packages of five tusks or more. Mr. Sitha said shipping records at the port showed that the two containers had been consigned by a shipping company called Olair Worldwide Logistics.

Olair is listed in the Yellow Pages and a number of business websites as having offices in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh.

But people who answered calls to phone numbers accompanying those listings Friday claimed not to know the company.

Tep Asnarith, communications manager for the WWF in Cambodia, said that Friday’s haul was further evidence that ivory dealers were increasingly using Cambodia as a transit point between Africa, the source of most of the ivory, and Vietnam and China, the biggest markets for its sale, where it is believed to have mystical medicinal properties and can fetch upwards of US$ 2,000 per kg.

According to the WWF, on average, mature elephants tusks weigh around 30 kg. each. At those numbers, Friday’s haul could have a street value in the tens of millions. “This is huge,” Mr. Asnarith said. “And very concerning. This is probably the biggest haul ever in Cambodia. We don’t know a lot about the trafficking of ivory, but we do know that Cambodia is being used as a transit point by traffickers."

In March, military police in Svay Rieng province seized more than 250 kg of elephant tusks stashed inside 10 suitcases in a van headed for Vietnam. In February, two Vietnamese men were caught attempting to board a flight from Siem Reap International Airport with 79 kg of African elephant ivory. Customs officials said at the time that smugglers were increasingly using Cambodia to move ivory to China and Vietnam as a result of then-Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s 2013 pledge to crack down on the illegal trade. One of the biggest-ever recorded hauls of confiscated ivory came in Port Klang, Malaysia, in December 2012, when authorities there found more than 2,300 pieces of ivory weighing upwards of 6 tons stashed inside two shipments of mahogany.

The ivory in Asia is fueling a surge in elephant poaching in Africa. According to the WWF, some 30,000 elephants were slaughtered there last year, leaving the African elephant on the verge of extinction.

Written by Khy Sovuthy and Matt Blomberg Source: The Cambodia Daily 10 May 2014

Thai authorities seize 1,200 snakes Police and officials from Thailand's National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department have arrested three smugglers and seized more than 1,200 snakes and other wild animals worth over Bt1 million en route to the Lao PDR and Vietnam.

Nong Khai provincial police and officials at the provincial wildlife checkpoint, in a combined operation, have arrested three smugglers identified as Saichon Sapimol, 34, a Lao, Thao Thongdaeng Panlang, age 30, 30 years old Lao and one Thai teenager age 17.

The three men were carrying 214 plastic baskets from their car to the Mekong River the provincial seat's Pako subdistrict.

Inside the plastic baskets, the authorities found 792 Indochinese rat snakes, 462 cobras, 30 black marsh turtles, eight softshelled turtles--altogether 1292 wild animals valued at more than Bt1 million.

They told the authorities that they were hired to transport the animals from Phichit, en route to Lao and Vietnam.

Source: Pattaya Mail, 26 January 2014

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Rhino horn smuggling ringleader jailed for 70 months Wildlife trafficker Zhifei Li has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for his role in trafficking 30 rhinoceros horns and numerous other rhino horn and elephant ivory artefacts from the US to China. The sentence is one of the longest ever handed out in the US for wildlife crime. Zhifei Li, who owns an antique business called Overseas Treasure Finding in Shandong, China, admitted he was the “boss” of three antique dealers in the US whom he paid to obtain wildlife items and smuggle them to him via Hong Kong.

His arrest in January 2013 happened when he was caught purchasing two endangered black rhinoceros horns from an undercover US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) agent during “Operation Crash”. This was a US nationwide effort led by the USFWS and the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute those involved in the illegal wildlife trade. “Li was the ringleader of a criminal enterprise that spanned the globe and profited from an illegal trade that is pushing endangered animals toward extinction,” said Sam Hirsch, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “As this case clearly demonstrates, rhino trafficking is increasingly organised, well financed, and a threat to the rule of law. The United States is resolved to bring wildlife traffickers to justice.”

All species of rhinoceros are protected under United States legislation and commercial trade in rhinoceros horn is also not permitted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Li caught on a hidden camera with a rhino horn.

Photograph: Reuters

USFWS Director Dan Ashe said: “The sentence handed down today serves notice to other organised trafficking and poaching rings that their crimes will not go unpunished. We will relentlessly work across the US government and with the international law enforcement community to destroy these networks, while strengthening protections for rhinos in the wild and reducing demand for horn in consumer countries.”

Source: www.wildlifeextra.com 6 May 2014

Discovery of the Roosevelt’s Barking Deer (Muntiacus rooseveltorum) in Vietnam Minh Le, Thanh V. Nguyen, Ha T. Duong, Ha M. Nguyen, Long D. Dinh, Tuoc Do, Hai D. Nguyen, George Amato Conservation Genetics February 2014 Abstract - Distribution and taxonomic status of the Roosevelt’s Barking Deer (Muntiacus rooseveltorum) have remained poorly understood after more than 80 years since its description. All records of this species so far have been reported only from Lao PDR. During recent surveys in central Vietnam, we found several specimens from local hunting trophies morphologically resembling this species. Our molecular data, including both mitochondrial and nuclear genes, based on collected materials confirm for the first time that M. rooseveltorum is distributed in Vietnam. In addition, the phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that the Roosevelt’s Barking Deer represents a distinct evolutionary lineage closely related to the Truong Son Muntjac, in central Vietnam, and the Leaf Muntjac in Myanmar. Given the rarity of this species and the escalating hunting and habitat loss in the region, it is important to conduct field research to assess its population status. Such information is critically needed to design a conservation plan for this highly elusive and threatened taxon.

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A confirmed record of Large-toothed Ferret Badger Melogale personata from central Laos suggesting syntopy with Small-toothed Ferret Badger M. moschata C. N. Z. COUDRAT1 and C. NANTHAVONG2.

Small Carnivore Conservation Vol 49: 48-50.

Abstract - Large-toothed Ferret Badger Melogale personata and Small-toothed Ferret Badger M. moschata overlap in distribution over much of their range. Precise distributions are little known because visual distinction of the two species seems possible only through clear inspection of their skull and dentition. Thus, large parts of their joint range lack authenticated records for one or both species. A skull photographed in a poacher camp in July 2011 is the first record of M. personata from Nakai–Nam Theun NPA (and only the second precise locality record for Laos). A recent M. moschata record from similar altitude and habitat only 12 km away strongly suggests syntopy of the two species. The full article can be read here.

A phylogeny of softshell turtles (Testudines: Trionychidae) with reference to the taxonomic status of the critically endangered, giant softshell turtle, Rafetus swinhoei Minh Le & Ha T. Duong & Long D. Dinh & Truong Q. Nguyen & Peter C. H. Pritchard & Timothy McCormack Organisms Diversity & Evolution http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13127-014-0169-3 Abstract - Several important aspects of the evolution of the softshell turtle (family Trionychidae) have not been addressed thoroughly in previous studies, including the pattern and timing of diversification of major clades and species boundaries of the critically endangered Shanghai Softshell Turtle, Rafetus swinhoei. To address these issues, we analyzed data from two mitochondrial loci (cytochrome b and ND4) and one nuclear intron (R35) for all species of trionychid turtles, except Pelochelys signifera, and for all known populations of Rafetus swinhoei in Vietnam and one from China. Phylogenetic analyses using three methods (maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference) produce a well resolved and strongly supported phylogeny. The results of our time-calibration and biogeographic optimization analyses show that trionychid dispersals out of Asia took place between 45 and 49 million years ago in the Eocene. Interestingly, the accelerated rates of diversification and dispersal within the family correspond surprisingly well to global warming periods between the mid Paleocene and the early Oligocene and from the end of the Oligocene to the mid Miocene. Our study also indicates that there is no significant genetic divergence among monophyletic populations of Rafetus swinhoei, and that previous taxonomic revision of this species is unwarranted.

Amphibian concentrations in desiccating mud may determine the breeding season of the White-Shouldered Ibis (Pseudibis davisoni) Hugh L. Wright,1,4 Nigel J. Collar,2,3 Iain R. Lake,1 and Paul M. Dolman1 The Auk 130(4):774-783. 2013 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/auk.2013.12235 Abstract - Many waterbirds reproduce seasonally in response to fluctuations in food supply. White-shouldered Ibises (Pseudibis davisoni) breed during the dry, waterdrawdown season, but, unlike other waterbirds, they do not take advantage of prey concentrated in diminishing pools. To understand how this species successfully feeds and breeds at the driest time of year, we studied its habitat use and diet, and the habitat conditions that influence intake rates and prey density at waterholes. Foraging observations, prey sampling, and landscape-scale assessment of habitat availability were undertaken (at 7, 47, and 58 waterholes, respectively) over two breeding seasons.

Although they rarely foraged in water, the birds used all exposed substrates, feeding on amphibians and small invertebrates. Amphibians were the most abundant prey in waterhole substrates and accounted for 81% of overall biomass intake. Both intake rates and density of amphibian prey biomass were greater in dry than in moist or saturated substrates. Intake rates and density of prey biomass changed little through the dry season, but exposed substrate extent increased by 74%. The White-shouldered Ibis’s use of dry waterhole substrates to exploit seasonally concentrated prey is unusual among large waterbirds, and we suggest that its breeding season may be timed to coincide with receding water levels and increasing substrate exposure. Estimated prey requirements of a breeding pair over the nesting period were equivalent to nearly two-thirds of amphibian biomass found at large waterholes. Each pair may therefore require multiple waterholes to overcome prey depletion and breed successfully, which is consistent with the noncolonial dispersed distribution of nesting pairs.

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Population size estimation of an Asian elephant population in eastern Cambodia through noninvasive mark-recapture sampling Thomas N. E. Gray, T. N. C. Vidya, Sheetal Potdar, D. K. Bharti, Prum Sovanna Conservation Genetics February 2014 Page 1-8 Abstract - The Asian elephant is a flagship species for conservation in tropical Asia, but reliable population estimates are available only from a few populations. This is because the species can be elusive and occurs at low densities in dense habitat over a large part of its range. Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary in the Eastern Plains, Cambodia, which is part of one of the largest protected area complexes in South-East Asia, is one such habitat that had not been systematically censused for elephants. We, therefore, used fecal-DNA based capture-mark-recapture sampling to estimate the population size for establishing a monitoring baseline. Five sampling sessions targeted all areas in and adjacent to Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary believed to be used by elephants. Fresh dung was collected as the source of DNA and genotyping was carried out based on nine microsatellite loci. The 224 samples collected yielded 78 unique genotypes. Using model averaging of closed population capture-mark-recapture models, the elephant population in Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary was estimated to number 136 ± 18 (SE) individuals. Our results suggest that eastern Cambodia supports a regionally important Asian elephant population.

Discovery of a relict lineage and monotypic family of passerine birds Alström P, Hooper DM, Liu Y, Olsson U, Mohan D, Gelang M, Le Manh H, Zhao J, Lei F, Price TD. 2014 Discovery of a relict lineage and monotypic family of passerine birds. Biol. Lett. 10: 20131067. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.1067

Abstract - Analysis of one of the most comprehensive datasets to date of the largest passerine bird clade, Passerida, identified 10 primary well-supported lineages corresponding to Sylvioidea, Muscicapoidea, Certhioidea, Passeroidea, the ‘bombycillids’ (here proposed to be recognised as Bombycilloidea), Paridae/Remizidae (proposed to be recognised as Paroidea), Stenostiridae, Hyliotidae, Regulidae (proposed to be recognised as Reguloidea) and spotted wren-babbler Spelaeornis formosus. The latter was found on a single branch in a strongly supported clade with Muscicapoidea, Certhioidea and Bombycilloidea, although the relationships among these were unresolved. We conclude that the spotted wren-babbler represents a relict basal lineage within Passerida with no close extant relatives, and we support the already used name Elachura formosa and propose the new family name Elachuridae for this single species.

Lessons learned from the loss of a flagship: The extinction of the Javan rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus from Vietnam Sarah Maria Brook a,*, Nigel Dudley b,c, Simon Peter Mahood d, Gert Polet e, A. Christy Williams f, J.W. Duckworth g, Thinh Van Ngoc a, Barney Long h Biological Conservation Volume 174, June 2014, Pages 21–29

Abstract - The extinction of the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) from Vietnam in 2010 was a conservation tragedy. Hunting has been the primary driver of the catastrophic decline of Javan rhinoceros throughout its range. The last individual from Vietnam was poached in 2010. To help avert repeating such outcomes with similarly imperiled species, this case study presents a state-pressure-response framework, considering the rhinoceros’s historical and current status, the pressures it faced, and the adequacy of the conservation response. The failure at the site level to protect the rhinoceros population ultimately resulted in its demise. Low political will to take decisions required to recover the species and inadequate focus from the conservation and donor community further contributed to the subspecies’s extinction, in part due to a lack of knowledge on population status. Lessons from this example should inform the conservation of other very threatened large vertebrates, particularly in Southeast Asia.

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Western Siem Pang: Villagers Caught in Forestry Racket SIEM PANG DISTRICT, Stung Treng province – For the elite few granted the right to level swathes of woodland in the north of this remote province, the timber trade is worth a fortune. For the Forestry Administration—the government body charged with policing logging—business is also booming. While commercial timber magnates such as Try Pheap chop down Cambodia’s forests at an alarming rate, local authorities here are profiting from the extortion of small-time loggers who have long relied on the forests to survive.

According to villagers in Siem Pang district, Forestry Administration officials are making a cottage industry out of arbitrarily confiscating timber from local residents and seizing their machinery, holding it for ransom until the poor farmers can muster the cash to buy it back. It’s not just the villagers who are complaining. Stung Treng’s provincial prosecutor and military police commander say these local forestry officials—often backed by the military police—are operating outside the law.

Nan Nang, a 33-year-old farmer from Sre Sambor commune, was at the Siem Pang Forestry Administration office on Wednesday to pay $600 to officials to release his tractor, which was confiscated in January. “The Forestry Administration and military police arrested me for transporting three pieces of wood and they took my tractor,” said Mr. Nang. “I wanted to use that wood to build a bed and a door for my house.” Mr. Nang had cut down the relatively small haul of luxury Thnong timber—0.7 cubic meters—from his own farmland, as he and his family have done for as long as he can remember.

But Sras Sarin, deputy division chief of Siem Pang Forestry Administration, who was sitting near Mr. Nang at the office, said times have changed. He said that with the rise of the commercial timber trade and the thinning of the area’s forests, only a select few could be permitted to cut down the most sought-after trees. “It is hard for people here who do not understand the law,” he said. “When we crack down on them, it affects their livelihoods, but we cannot allow everyone to cut down trees.”

When his tractor was seized earlier this year, Mr. Nang was told to thumbprint a document stating that the vehicle would become property of the Forestry Administration until the fine is paid. While Mr. Nang eventually gathered the $600 to get his machine back, others have not been so lucky.

On February 20, on the outskirts of Siem Pang, in Prek Meas commune, 23-year-old Thoeun Pang drove out of the forest with six slabs of Thnong loaded on his tractor. “The military police pointed their guns at me and said, ‘Please little boy, just bring the timber to the [Forestry Administration] and then you can go home,’” Mr. Pang said. “But when I arrived [at the forestry office], they took my tractor and forced me to thumbprint a document,” he said. The document gave the Forestry Administration ownership of his tractor until he paid them $1,580, he said, just less than the price of a new tractor. “They said if I don’t pay, then they will send me to court,” Mr. Pang explained, saying that the amount of money authorities were demanding was an impossible sum. “I am a farmer. Without my tractor I have no way to make the money to get my tractor back.”

Pen Sarath, Stung Treng’s provincial prosecutor, said that forestry matters are outside his jurisdiction. And while claiming no knowledge of specific disputes, Mr. Sarath said Forestry Administration officials had no authority to confiscate trucks or tractors. “According to Forestry Law, Forestry Administration officials can only confiscate the timber and fine the offender,” he said. “They have no right to confiscate the machinery.”

As the practice has become more common, farmers are getting increasingly angry. Last week, some 200 villagers stormed the Forestry Administration office here and took back two confiscated tractors and a boat. But although logging puts them at risk of temporarily losing their assets, many of the poor villagers are willing to take the chance, in exchange for cash. A number of farmers said they work informally for the Try Pheap Import Export company, whose representatives occasionally visit villages and pay $50 to take away any Thnong logs the villagers have collected. In Stung Treng City, a cubic meter of Thnong can fetch up to $800.

Try Pheap Import Export has the exclusive right to purchase all luxury timber cut in economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province, and is reportedly negotiating a similar deal with the government in Stung Treng province. Try Pheap’s company also has its own land concession in Siem Pang district—covering much of Prek Meas commune. Yok Meng, a representative for Try Pheap in the province, said that villagers have been encouraged to log inside the concession.

“I don’t know about the crackdown, but we pay many villagers who cut [trees] inside the concession,” Mr. Meng said.

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Villagers Caught in Forestry Racket continued.....

Ny Khoun, a 33-year-old from Prek Meas commune, is another villager that claims to have been sourcing timber for “the company”— Try Pheap Import Export—when local officials apprehended him.

“They pointed their guns at me and forced me to hand over my phone—maybe they were worried that I would call the company to intervene,” Mr. Khoun said. “Sometimes when they find us, they say if we are working for the company we have to give them some of the money. Sometimes they confiscate the wood and the tractors and take it to the Forestry Administration,” he added. “Now they are demanding 3.3 million riel [about $830] to get my tractor back.”

At the Forestry Administration office, hundreds of pieces of luxury wood lie stacked amongst about a dozen confiscated vehicles. The wood will now be put up for auction. Its buyer may well be Try Pheap, who last year purchased the right from the government to collect nearly 5,000 cubic meters of luxury wood confiscated nationwide.

Mr. Sarin, the deputy forestry chief, declined to discuss the issue when asked to explain how his office decides exactly who can log, and what laws allow his officers to seize machinery and demand a hefty fine for its return. “I don’t want to talk about this,” Mr. Sarin said. “You have to ask my boss.”

Despite repeated requests, Siem Pang Forestry Administration chief Ly Korn was not available for comment.

When told that his forces were allegedly aiding in the extortion of farmers found to be logging, Stung Treng Military Police commander Leng Vandy said he knew of the racket, but that military police had no business taking part in it. “The military police do not have orders to be involved in confiscations or crackdowns.

Their job is to protect forestry officials, court officials and the people,” he said. “The military police should not confiscate the wood, the machinery or anything else from the offender,” he added. “The one who gets the benefits from cracking down is the Forestry Administration.”

Written by Phann Ana and Matt Blomberg Source: The Cambodia Daily 30 May 2014

Two Charged for Raid on Government Building Western Siem Pang

A district official and a retired Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldier in Stung Treng province have been arrested and charged for allegedly leading hundreds of villagers on a raid of a local Forestry Administration building to reclaim their impounded tractors, officials said Sunday.

Sam Bunthin, deputy administration director of Siem Pang district, and Uk Savin, a retired soldier, were arrested by military police on Saturday and subsequently charged with stealing forest evidence under the 2002 Forestry Law, said Pen Sarath, a provincial court prosecutor.

Provincial military police commander Ieng Vandy said his officers arrested the two men based on evidence provided by the Forestry Administration, including photographs of them destroying a padlock on the main gate of the administration’s Siem Pang division office to let around villagers take back tractors that had been impounded for several months. The administration claims the villagers were using the tractors to transport illegally cut logs.

The division office has been raided twice in recent months, both times by about 200 villagers. Neither Mr. Sarath nor Brigadier General Vandy would say which of the raids the suspects were accused of leading. “We arrested these two men using a court warrant for forest crimes,” Brig. Gen. Vandy said.

He added that the men had already been taken to Phnom Penh for detention to preclude any protest from local villagers.

Siem Pang district governor Sy Suon confirmed the arrest of his deputy and denied any personal responsibility. “The witnesses saw these two men destroying the padlock,” Mr. Suon said. “I also regretted his act. But it is his personal business. There was no assignment from the district.”

In a separate incident, a fire completely destroyed the head office for Virachey National Park on Sunday, according to Mr. Suon. The US$ 50,000 building sits across the street from the Forestry Administration’s Siem Pang division office and was built at the World Bank’s expense.

He said the fire started at 1:40 p.m. and burned out on its own by 4:20 p.m. “The fire lasted almost three hours,” he said. “We could not put it out because there is no fire truck here.”

The building is located less than 50 meters from the Sekong River and sits opposite the Forestry Administration office raided by the villagers. “I am so regretful,” said Soth Khoeun, the head of Virachey National Park’s rangers. “It happened just minutes after I left for lunch. It started from an electrical circuit.” Mr. Khoeun said there had not yet been any formal investigation into the cause of the fire but said he suspected an electrical malfunction because witnesses reported hearing popping noises coming from inside the building.

Written by Phann Ana Source: The Cambodia Daily 23 June 2014

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HAGL called out at the UN LOMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

A DELEGATION of Cambodian NGOs to the United Nations last week used the stage to shame the World Bank’s financial arm for failing to adequately monitor investments in a Vietnamese rubber giant accused of illegal logging, forced evictions and sexual harassment. Representing 17 indigenous communities in Ratanakiri that filed a complaint against Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) in February, the Cambodian delegation requested immediate suspension of the foreign concessionaire’s activities.

“We want to see the World Bank to immediately intervene and, through communicating with the affected community, ensure the indigenous people will be given a resolution regarding their land,” said Hok Menghoin, one of the delegates. Speaking at the 13th Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in New York last week, the delegation blamed the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) for a lack of due diligence after acquiring a 5.5 per cent holding in investment fund VEIL, which invests in HAGL via intermediary Dragon Capital Group.

Last year, Global Witness reported that HAGL held at least 47,000 hectares of economic land concessions – almost five times the legal limit. The IFC’s internal watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, launched an investigation into the firm following villagers’ land-grabbing complaints. Yesterday, representatives from IFC in Cambodia said the ombudsman acts as an independent accountability measure, and denied that they had allocated funding specifically to HAGL. Rights groups working with the investigation said the dispute is just one of many involving indigenous people being forced off their land. “They are always under attack because they are living on natural resources that companies want and will pay for, and the government will not enforce the peoples’ rights,” Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia, said. But the delegation hoped it had at least raised the issue with a more receptive audience. “Our government will not listen to us, the companies will not listen to us, but we think they might listen to the UN,” Vichet Mong, director of Indigenous Peoples Health Action, said. Representatives from HAGL did not return requests for comment.

Written by Laignee Barron Source: The Phnom Penh Post, 27 May 2014

Numbered logs sit inside a rubber concession belonging to a subsidiary company of HAGL in Ratanakkiri province. GLOBAL WITNESS

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IBA NEWS

FIRE DESTROYS VIRACHEY NATIONAL PARK HQ On Sunday 22 June fire destroyed Virachey National Park Headquarters in Siem Pang town. No injuries were reported, but the building suffered extensive damage and equipment was lost. A national park employee, Mr. Thy reported that the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

Photographs and text by Neab Samneang

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IBA NEWS

Western Siem Pang: Protest outside BirdLife Forestry Administration office in Siem Pang town On Monday 9 June 2014 at 10h30, a crowd of people including from the villages of Pabang, Lakhay, Nhang Sum and Khet Svay gathered at the gates of the BirdLife/Forestry Administration office in Siem Pang to request the return of three chainsaws that has been confiscated by the Birdlife/Forestry Administration Enforcement team in the previous days. The specific reason as to why they came was a previous incident, on 2 June, during which a chainsaw belonging to Vann Dy Toung Bai was confiscated. Vann was apprehended by rangers cutting close to the vulture restaurant. This man came with his village chief to have his chainsaw returned. This was his third request to have his property returned. Another two men, also asked for their chainsaws back.

Wishing to solve this matter quickly and not risk losing a larger number of chainsaws already under lock and key at the office, a deal was rapidly negotiated between the Forestry Administration, the district civil authorities and the protagonists whereby the three chainsaws were returned immediately. The group of people then dispersed peacefully.

The office compound was defended by Police, Military Police and Forestry Administration personnel. There was no breach of security of the compound as you can see from the photographs and neither the health or safety of BirdLife or Forestry Administration personnel were threatened. This was a peaceful demonstration. This was not an angry, violent mob scenario. The total number of people involved was not accurately determined, but from photographs appears to have involved about 50 persons.

In future no confiscated equipment will be held at the BirdLife/Forestry Administration office in Siem Pang. In future chainsaws and other equipment will be transferred immediately to secure Forestry Administration offices in Stung Treng. In future the BirdLife/FA office will be for administration and accommodation only. Consequently, later that day our Forestry Administration counterparts transferred 80 chainsaws (an accumulation of several months) to their office in Stung Treng.

Although the proximate cause of the protest may have been the confiscation of three chainsaws by the Birdlife/Forestry Administration Enforcement team, the ultimate reason may be more closely connected with the logging currently underway throughout Siem Pang District. For several months Try Pheap Import Export Company have been illegally extracting rosewood and other high value timber from Siem Pang Protected Forest and elsewhere in Western Siem Pang IBA. They have done this in collusion with villagers and in some cases, elected Siem Pang District officials. We have learnt that this demonstration was orchestrated by a local government representative. The intention was to recover the three chainsaws, the villagers succeeded. If the intention was to undermine the position of BirdLife and the authority of the Forestry Administration, then the demonstration was unsuccessful since 80 chainsaws remain within the jurisdiction of the Forestry Administration.

Written by Jonathan C. Eames

Photograph by Yam Dina

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Logging crisis in Siem Pang

The ink was barely dry on the sub-decree establishing Siem Pang Protected Forest before commercial loggers moved in to cut rosewood and other high value timber. This has been met with a robust response by the recruitment of a new Enforcement Team but the scale of the problem is large and difficult to contain and there is no end in sight.

In March it was estimated that up to 300 loggers working systematically in teams descended upon areas of semi-evergreen forest in the newly established Siem Pang Protected Forest and adjacent areas of the IBA within the Green Sea Economic Land Concession. Their objective was to cut rosewood or Neang Nuon or Kror Neang Dalbergia sp. probably Dalbergia bairernsis and Tnong Pterocaprus sp. also in the family Dalbergiieae. Teams cut and spray-marked their inventory before logging trucks followed to remove the timber for storage at a newly created depot north of the Siem Pang airstrip. The loggers are drawn from the villages in Siem Pang District and from across Cambodia including Kampong Chaam Province. When asked who was buying the wood the

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answer was always the same and often given without hesitation – “Try Pheap.” Tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Co. has a licence to salvage logs from within Economic Land Concessions. Logging in Protected Forests is illegal. However when agents from Try Pheaps’ company purchase cut timber the provenance of the timber is neither clear, nor questioned.

Since the loggers are not employees of Try Pheaps’ establishing a link is not easy. The timber is moved swiftly to international border crossings with Vietnam. Anyone visiting Alibaba.com can find prices of up to US$ 8,000 per cubic metre for rosewood from Cambodia supplied by Vietnamese companies with names like Dong Hoa Timber Company limited.

In March and April, the BirdLife/Forestry Administration Enforcement Team stepped up patrols in the Siem Pang Protected Forest, especially along the northern bank of the O’Khampa and Stung Tin Hiang. Logging camps were raided and chainsaws confiscated.

At the beginning of May, a newly expanded enforcement team was fielded comprising six Military Police, three Forestry Administration rangers, two Army Soldiers and a villager.

What is happening in Siem Pang is happening across Cambodia and within several other Protected Forests and protected areas.

Article and photographs by Jonathan C. Eames

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Rubber Firm Accused of Illegal Logging Puts Work on Hold Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary

A Vietnamese firm behind several Cambodian rubber plantations accused of rampant land grabbing and illegal logging has bowed to a request from the International Finance Corporation (IFC)—which helps fund its operations—to temporarily suspend forest clearing at some of its local subsidiaries. In an April 28 decision, obtained Wednesday, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) says it will suspend all “reclamation,” or clearing, activity at three of its seven rubber plantations in Cambodia between May 1 and November 30.

Following a monthslong investigation, environmental rights group Global Witness in 2013 accused HAGL’s Cambodia plantations of breaking a raft of laws, stealing land from local communities and logging illegally both inside and outside of their concessions. The IFC, which invests in an equity fund that holds HAGL shares, accepted a complaint from 17 of those communities in February accusing it of breaking its safeguard policies.

In its decision to suspend clearing, HAGL says the move followed a meeting with the IFC’s compliance ombudsman in Phnom Penh on April 2. “During the reclamation suspension period, the subsidiaries are only allowed to tidy up and to collect the branches of trees in the already reclaimed areas prior to 28 April 2014,” it says. Nguyen Tan Anh, assistant to HAGL chairman Doan Nguyen Duc, said HAGL had agreed to the suspension to show the IFC that it was willing to resolve the dispute in good faith. “According to the suggestion of the [ombudsman]…we are volunteering joining the resolution process between the company and the complainants,” he said. “We show our willingness in this process.” He said HAGL decided to suspend operations until November 30 because it hoped to have the dispute resolved by then.

Sal Noeuy, one of the villagers who filed the complaint with the IFC, said his community was never informed of HAGL’s decision and only learned of it by noticing that the plantations around it had stopped clearing forest in April. He said the move did not go far enough and that the plantations should immediately mark their boundaries. “We are still worried about losing our farmland if they don’t mark their boundaries clearly,” he said.

Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia, one of the NGOs that helped the communities file their complaint, also said the move fell short of what HAGL ought to do. “This is a positive step, but…there are only 13 villages where they agree to stop,” he said. “But there are 17 who submitted the complaint…and 23 affected.” He said HAGL should suspend all work, including planting trees on land it has already cleared, on all the rubber plantations involved in the complaint until the dispute is fully settled.

Written by Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap Source: The Cambodia Daily, 8 May 2014 We include this report here but it covers HAGL activities not necessarily confined to the Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary IBA Ed.

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NATMATAUNG NATIONAL PARK MOUNT VICTORIA

Threatened by road widening

Visitors to Natmataung National Park are in for a surprise, as the government implements a road widening scheme throughout the park that will lead to greater disturbance and encroachment on the forest.

The quiet, shady road with which many visitors are familar, will soon be a thing of the past, making the site less rewarding for birdwatchers.

BirdLife International has decided to take no further action on this matter.

Photographs: Jonathan C. Eames

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IFC Accepts Complaint Over Ratanakiri Rubber Plantations

IFC investigated over ‘land-grabbing link’

The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems their complaint eligible for the IFC’s independent compliance body to pursue, and gives them the option of asking the ombudsman to audit the investment or help mediate a solution.

The World Bank Group's Compliance Advisor Obudsman (CAO) has launched an internal investigation into a complaint lodged against the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for investing in a Vietnamese rubber firm accused of illegal logging and land grabbing in Ratanakiri, an NGO and villager said yesterday.

Families from 17 different communities filed the complaint on February 10 accusing the IFC, the World Bank’s private investment arm, of breaking its own safeguard policies by investing in a Vietnamese firm, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), that operates several rubber plantations in Ratanakkiri that are accused of breaking a raft of local laws. The families said in their complaint that they want the company to return land it had taken from them.

Earlier this month, representatives of the CAO met with leaders from 17 indigenous communities in Andong Meas and O’Chum districts, along with representatives of Vietnam-based Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), which operates rubber plantations on economic land concessions in the Kingdom’s northeast, according to Eang Vuthy, executive director at NGO Equitable Cambodia. “This was a preliminary visit . . . the [CAO] met with community leaders [and] government officials at the company.

LOMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

According to the NGOs helping the families, the IFC has invested $27 million in a Vietnamese equity fund, Dragon Capital, which holds a 5.5 percent stake in HAGL. Now that it has accepted the complaint, the IFC ombudsman’s office will in the next 120 days draw up a report that will “clarify” the dispute and lay out how all sides perceive it, and then help the families decide what they want the ombudsman to do next. David Pred of the NGO Inclusive Development International, which helped the families file the complaint, said they could ask the ombudsman to either launch an audit of the IFC’s compliance with its safeguard policies or to mediate a resolution with the IFC, Dragon Capital and HAGL. “This decision will depend on the willingness of IFC, Dragon Capital and HAGL to cooperate in a mediation process in good faith to repair the harm caused by their investments,” he said. The IFC has defended its investments in Dragon Capital saying it was the best way to make the most of its money but declined to comment on the complaint itself. HAGL has insisted that its plantations in Cambodia have followed all local laws.

Mr. Pred said the families could ask the ombudsman to launch an audit at any time if the mediation appears to be failing, but that “would be yet another black mark on IFC’s reputation and likely result in Dragon and HAGL’s high profile shareholders being forced to divest.”

Sol Noeuy, one of the affected farmers, said he was willing to give negotiations a try. “We just want the IFC to come and talk with the company to find a solutions for the affected families,” he said. “I hope the IFC can help us, but if they don’t find justice for the villagers who have a dispute with the company we have nowhere to go because we don’t have any other land.”

Written by Zsombor Peter Source: The Cambodia Daily, 26 February 2014

LOMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

We’re very hopeful a resolution between the parties will be reached.

They say the company HAGL is willing to negotiate, so we’re hoping for a positive course of action once the IFC releases their report,” Vuthy told the Post yesterday. Sal Hnuey, 59, a community spokesman for villagers living in Andong Meas, confirmed yesterday that a team of international experts started visiting the affected areas in late March.

On February 10, villagers lodged a complaint with the CAO, the independent watchdog of the IFC, which is the World Bank’s private lending arm. The CAO’s allotted assessment period is limited to 120 working days following the submission of the complaint, “but may be completed more quickly”, CAO’s operational guidelines say.

The IFC is accused of supporting HAGL’s actions by investing millions of dollars through an intermediary fund called Dragon Capital Group since 2002. Last year, HAGL came under fire after UK-based NGO Global Witness published a report accusing the rubber giant of illegally logging outside concession areas and being in possession of at least 47,000 hectares of economic land concessions – almost five times the legal limit. The IFC did not respond to requests for comment before press time. A representative who identified himself as an employee of HAGL declined to comment yesterday.

Written by Amelia Woodside Source: The Phnom Penh Post, 23 April 2014

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Road widening in Western Siem Pang On 5th December 2013, the mining company Khmer First Mining Development submitted a proposal to the governor Stung Treng to volunteer to improve the road between Dom Kralor and Siem Pang town and a local road connecting Siem Pang town to the 101 Army base. In December 2013, Stung Treng governor responsed to this company giving approval for road improvement subject to collaboration with relevant provincial departments for further investigation.

However late December 2013, Khmer First Mining Development used this communication to proceed with the road improvements on both roads without discussion with the relevant provincial departments. Information received by BirdLife International Cambodia Programme at the beginning of January 2014, led to intervention from Stung Treng Forestry Administration with a task force put in place to request a halt to the work.

Around 25 January 2014, the mining company ceased widening the road on their own volition. Clearing with bulldozers had reached Bralay Chantros. It is not fully understood why the work was halted. It has been suggested that pressure from the Forestry Administration in Stung Treng and/or as a result of pressure on the government in general from local people via the media. There is a concern that the dredging activities are polluting the Sekong River. It is also rumoured that the dredging licence has been cancelled.

Subsequent follow-up by BirdLife on 23 March revealed that logging for luxury timber was now occurring along this road.

Written by Bou Vorsak, Country Programme Manager BirdLife International Cambodia Programme Left: New road approximately 300m from Trapeang Chhouk. Right: New road 250m from Trapeang Boeung. Photographs: BirdLife International Cambodia Programme.

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White-browed Nuthatch Sitta victoriae

This Restricted-range species occurs only in the Eastern Himalayas Endemic Bird Area.

It is a Myanmar insular endemic and most easily found on and below the summit of Mount Victoria in Natmataung National Park in the Chin State. The global population estimated at 2500–9999 individuals, all within area of 820 km² and it is believed to be decreasing. It appears locally common within its highly restricted range. Most forest on Mount Victoria has now been cleared below 2,000 m and above this altitude the forest is degraded by logging, forest fire and encroachment. The latest threat to this and the other Restricted-range species at this site is the widening of the road that traverses the mountain (see IBA News).

Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

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White-browed Nuthatch inhabits Oak-rhododendron (Quercus-Rhododendron) forest, which his found on Mount Victoria from 2,285 m to the summit at 3,053 m. A recent study recorded the species only above 2,450 m (habitat below 2450 m may now be unsuitable), with nests found at 2,510 m and 2,750 m. The species has also been recently recorded at 2,440–2,560 m at Mindat but is not known from Mount Kennedy in the northern Chin State or Mount Bwe Pa in the central Chin State. The highpitched pee pee pee given by the species is the best way to locate it which can be quite confiding when aroused.

Source: Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive

Photographs: Jonathan C. Eames

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Cambodian jewel protected

The declaration of the Protected Forest comes after years of lobbying continues on page 35

Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

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CAMBODIAN JEWEL PROTECTED The Royal Government of Cambodia has declared the creation of the Siem Pang Protected Forest. Covering an area of 66,932 hectares, the new Protected Forest covers almost half the Western Siem Pang Important Bird and Biodiversity Area.

The declaration of this new Protected Forest on 24 January 2014, comes after several years of lobbying by BirdLife Cambodian Programme and the Forestry Administration. Siem Pang was the missing part of a jigsaw of protected forests that now extends across 700,000 hectares in southern Laos, northern Cambodia and western Vietnam, together making one of the largest protected landscapes in South-East Asia.

“We congratulate the Royal Government of Cambodia for designating part of this unique Important Bird and Biodiversity Area as a Protected Forest”, said Dr Marco Lambertini, BirdLife International’s Chief Executive, “and we look forward to supporting the management of this site in the future.”

BirdLife International and Cambodia’s Forestry Administration have been working together at this site for more than 10 years, conserving its wildlife and habitats, and helping local communities to manage their livelihoods sustainably. Siem Pang is the first new Protected Forest declared in Cambodia for four years.

“Designating Siem Pang as a Protected Forest will not only provide safe refuge to wildlife but it will benefit local communities in the longer term”, said Dr Keo Omaliss, Director of Department wildlife and biodiversity of Forestry Administration. “The Royal Government of Cambodia is committed to establishing more Protected Forest in the near future” The wider site supports populations of five Critically Endangered bird species, including the world’s largest population of White-shouldered Ibis and one of the largest populations of Giant Ibis, as well as populations of three vulture species.

“We are delighted by this result and it is a crucial step to protect these species”, said Bou Vorsak, BirdLife’s Cambodia Programme Manager. “To secure the globally important populations of these Critically Endangered birds, we now must work together to start sustainable management initiatives in the adjacent area” The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Giant Ibis Transport, Stephen Martin, and the Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture of Taiwan support BirdLife’s work at this site.

Source: www.birdlife.org 1 February 2014

Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames Christopher Holtz, Asia Program Officer in Conservation and Sustainable Development for MacArthur Foundation, visits Western Siem Pang in January 2014 just prior to the new protected area status.

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PROJECT UPDATES

Securing the long-term future of Vulture conservation in Cambodia

NEW PROJE CT

BirdLife International Cambodia Programme has secured funding from Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) to implement the project Securing the long-term future of vulture conservation in Cambodia.

The project will work to strengthen local civil society’s participants in vulture conservation through the establishment of a working group for Vulture Conservation in Cambodia. The working group will be composed of all current partners of CVCP, technical expertise from outside of Cambodia thought relevant to Vulture Conservation, local NGOs, and representatives from relevant Cambodian government departments and ministries (both provincial and central level).

Food availability will be assessed through carcass surveys and household interviews at all sites. Household interviews will also be conducted to assess the risk of poison. Interviews will focus on local attitudes and behaviours regarding the use of poison, targeted species/taxonomic groups, and what types of poisons are used.

A nest finding reward scheme will also be implemented to encourage the reporting of any Vulture nests found by local communities. Additionally, targeted field surveys for vulture nests and colonies will be conducted at all sites in Cambodia over two nesting seasons. All nests will be monitored until the end of the breeding season with fledging success rates used to assess the relative effectiveness of nest protection methods.

Population monitoring will continue with Vulture Restaurants once a month.

Additional censuses (coordinated simultaneous counts) will be conducted in March, September and December each year. We will also seek to develop robust statistical methods that enable us to detect trends in the vulture population over time.

Regular quarterly meetings will be used as part of the process for developing the conservation action plan. These meetings will help to facilitate open discussions on project implementation, including any problems encountered, and will provide an environment for regular technical support to all project implementers. This will assist to ensure standardised methodology and that actions required for long-term vulture conservation are identified.

Source: BirdLife International Cambodia Programme

Re-wilding Western Siem Pang: Ecological Restoration in the Deciduous Dipterocarp Forests of Cambodia In response to CEPF’s strategic direction: safeguarding priority globally threatened species by mitigating major threats, BirdLife International Cambodia Programme will implement the project Re-wilding Western Siem Pang: Ecological Restoration in the Deciduous Dipterocarp Forests of Cambodia.

The project will select a total of 16 trapeangs for experimental manipulation of buffalo densities. To minimize human impacts on the study, the trapeangs selected will be in the north of Western Siem Pang away from human habitation. The chosen trapeangs will fit to main criteria: 1. retains water for the majority of the dry season and 2. is dominated by Sesbania sp., a woody stemmed member of the pea family that can and does form tall (>3m) dense stands at trapeangs in Western Siem Pang and is potentially limiting foraging habitats for both Ibis species. During years 2, 3 and 4, will see the application of different buffalo densities at the selected trapeangs. Four treatments (zero i.e. control, 4, 8 and 16 domestic buffalo) will be applied to the trapeangs. Each treatment will be applied over three years, with four replicates for each treatment.

Changes in vegetation and ibis foraging habitats at trapeangs will be monitored monthly.

The use of trapeangs by Ibises and other waterbirds will be monitored weekly through the collection of basic of presence/absence data. Ibises seen on or leaving from the ground will be assumed to be foraging.

Population monitoring for White-shouldered Ibis will continue at Western Siem Pang over the course of the study, though not funded as part of the CEPF project. As with Giant Ibis population monitoring this will allow the possible long-term impacts of trapeang modification/management to be assessed.

W Source: BirdLife International Cambodia Programme Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

NE CT E J O PR

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NEW PROJE CT Embedding sustainable community management practices at key Sarus Crane wetlands in the Cambodian Lower Mekong

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Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) work in collaboration with BirdLife International Cambodia Programme on the project: Embedding

sustainable community management practices at key Sarus Crane wetlands in the Cambodian Lower Mekong.

The WWT-led project will focus on providing specific expert technical advice on matters of sustainable wetland management and WWT will act as overall co-ordinator for activities at the site over the course of the three-year project, including those led by Chamroen Chiet Khmer and Mlup Baitong.

The project, co-funded by the Darwin Initiative, will fully engage local people and other stakeholders so that they continue to deepen their knowledge of the wetlands, understand how best to manage them and to build their capacity for co-management alongside Forestry Administration and other stakeholders.

Source: Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust

NEW CT E J O PR Embedding sustainable community management practices at key Sarus Crane wetlands in the Cambodian Lower Mekong: environment and livelihoods enhancement at Boeung Prek Lapouv Sarus Crane Reserve Working in partnership with BirdLife International Cambodia Programme and WWT, this Chamroen Chiet Khmer-led project will contribute strongly to the delivery of CEPF strategic direction empower local communities to engage in conservation and management of priority key biodiversity areas – by raising awareness of biodiversity conservation legislation amongst local people and the seasonal Vietnamese community. The project will amplify the community fishery initiative so to protect wetland ecosystems and supports livelihoods, working to develop co-management mechanisms for formal protected areas that enable community participation in all levels of management.

Source: Chamroen Chiet Khmer

Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

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Searching for the Endangered White-winged Duck in Western Siem Pang White-winged Duck was not recorded during these three targeted surveys. Several other globally-threatened bird species were recorded including Green Peafowl, Giant Ibis, Lesser Adjutant, Sarus Crane, Grey-headed Fish Eagle, Great Slaty Woodpecker, Red-collared Woodpecker and Siamese Fireback. Mammals observed include Yellow-cheeked Gibbon, Indochinese Silvered Langur, Long-tailed Macaque and Smalltoothed Palm Civet, the latter a new record for the site. In all three surveys human-induced disturbances were evident throughout the survey areas. Chainsaws were heard daily along the O'Cheangheang, and a group of approximately 20 fishermen were seen during 25 to 27 December 2012 survey along this stream.

White-winged Duck has not been reliably recorded in Western Siem Pang since 2006, a record that is now 8 years old. This is despite several concerted efforts to search for this species in 2010 and 2011, in addition to the multiple surveys presented in this report. All of these surveys targeted areas that contain ideal habitat for this species; slow-flowing rivers and streams with forested banks that retain pools of water for part or all of the dry season. All surveys used appropriate survey methods and included experienced naturalists familiar with the species.

Though White-winged Duck can be elusive, it is a large and sometimes vocal species of forest duck and it is unlikely, given the survey effort, that it was overlooked during these surveys.

Species Champion Steve Martin visits Western Siem Pang From 29 January to 3 February BirdLife International Cambodia Programme were delighted to host BirdLife Species Champion Steve Martin at Western Siem Pang. During the visit, they were able to show Steve the protected area, a good selection of key species and provide him with an insight into the issues faced at the site.

Steve is Species Champion for Giant Ibis.

Illegal logging is a very evident threat at Western Siem Pang, and the loss of large trees with suitable hollows/cavities that would have been used as nesting/roosting trees by White-winged Duck is very likely to have contributed to the species’s decline in Western Siem Pang. Air-guns and crossbows are frequently confiscated items by BirdLife’s Law Enforcement Team and would be suitable for hunting White-winged Duck. Based on this evidence it seems likely that hunting and egg collection is a significant threat to Western Siem Pang’s White-winged Duck population, and would have been a main cause of decline at the site.

As with any elusive species of animal, especially one that lives in forest habitats where detection can be challenging, it is impossible to conclusively state that a species is locally extinct at a site.

However, given the observations of known threats to this species at the site, which are only likely to be increasing in scale and scope as the local human population grows and pressures on natural resources increase, and the relatively high amount of targeted searches for this species, it seems very likely that White-winged Duck is now locally extinct at Western Siem Pang.

Source: BirdLife International Cambodia Programme

Above: Steve Martin with BLI Cambodia Programme team Photograph: Jonathan C Eames

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BirdLife technical staff Ty Srun, Mem Mai and Yav Net pause for a much needed break during a Giant Ibis survey conducted at Western Siem Pang IBA in March 2014. The project is lead by Ty Srun who joined BirdLife only recently after completing his master's thesis entitled Key factors potentially influencing the occurrence of the Critically Endangered Giant Ibis Thaumatibis gigantea during the breeding season (April to June) in Western Siem Pang Proposed Protected Forest, northeast Cambodia. Results from the Giant Ibis surveys at Western Siem Pang will be published in a peer reviewed journal paper.

Photograph: Jonathan C. Eames

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PROJECT UPDATES

The distribution and conservation of Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi in Myanmar Donald, P. F., Htin Hla, Lay Win, Thiri Dawei Aung, Saw Moses, Sao Myo Zaw, Tin Tun Ag, Kyaw Naing Oo and Eames, J. C. The distribution and conservation of Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi in Myanmar. Bird Conservation International, available on CJO 2014 doi:10.1017/S0959270913000518 Summary - Following a recent assessment of the distribution and habitat use of Gurney’s Pitta in Myanmar (Burma), further extensive surveys were undertaken in 2010, 2011 and 2012. These have extended the species’ known altitudinal limit to between 250 m and 300 m asl and its latitudinal limit to above 12.5°N, around 80 km north of the northernmost historical record, although the species was recorded far less frequently at higher altitudes and latitudes. Birds were recorded in a range of forested habitats, from intact primary forest to secondary and bamboo forest, with no significant difference between major forest types in the likelihood of occurrence. Niche envelope modelling (MaxEnt) suggested a total range size in Myanmar of 3,379 km 2 , and did not identify any potentially suitable areas in adjacent parts of Thailand. The species’ preference for warmer, wetter areas on flat ground, conditions ideal for growing oil palm and rubber, suggest that its distribution is likely to contract in the near future. The entire range of Gurney’s Pitta in Myanmar falls within the part of the country most suitable for commercial oil palm production, although the projected yields within its range are low to moderate. Field surveys found evidence of rapid recent deforestation and high levels of hunting and trapping in many parts of the region. The species’ range in Myanmar does not overlap with any protected areas.

The protection of southern Myanmar’s biodiversity will require substantial investment by foreign conservation interests, sympathetic land-use planning and the strengthening of environment legislation. Protection of extensive tracts of lowland forest within the range of Gurney’s Pitta, particularly the proposed Lenya National Park and the adjacent Ngawun and Htaung Pru Reserve Forests, is urgently needed. Conserving these areas will also protect populations of other globally threatened bird and mammal species.

This work was carried out with financial support of the Club 300, British Birdwatching Fair and RSPB. Photograph: Paul Hopkins

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PERSONAL PROFILE

Wildlife Alliance's Nick Marx Receives Award from Cambodian Government On May 6, 2014, the Royal Government of Cambodia awarded its prestigious Royal Order of Sahametrei to Wildlife Alliance’s Nick Marx. The ‘Royal Order of Sahametrei’ is given to distinguished individuals for providing outstanding services to the King and the people of Cambodia. This celebrated award recognises Nick Marx’s exemplary contribution to the field of wildlife conservation. His tireless efforts have revolutionized the rescue, care and rehabilitation of wild animals in Cambodia.

Accepting the award, Nick Marx was deeply humbled and honored. He expressed immense gratitude to the Royal Government of Cambodia for their continued support and cooperation in wildlife and forest conservation.

Photograph: Wildlife Alliance

As a dedicated conservationist, Wildlife Programs Director Nick Marx has devoted his life to saving endangered animals and has been running Wildlife Alliance’s Care for Rescued Wildlife program for over ten years. He oversees the care of over 1,200 animals rescued from the illegal wildlife trade at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center. He also advises the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team on dealing with human-animal conflicts, and has helped shape the team’s efforts in curbing the illegal wildlife trade. It is due to Nick’s dedication and commitment that thousands of animals have been given a second chance at life in the wild and Cambodia’s wildlife now has a more secure future.

Source: www.wildlifealliance.org

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STAFF NEWS Three members of the BirdLife International Cambodia Programme team have successfully obtained their Masters of Science degrees. Our congratulations are extended to Sum Phearun, Ty Srun and Yav Net. Abstracts of their thesises were published in the Cambodian Journal of Natural History in December 2013.

BirdLife International Cambodia Programme say a fond farewell to Technical Advisor Daniel Willcox. Daniel was part of the monitoring team at Western Siem Pang providing scientific and technical support.

He will continue his conservation work with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Cambodia. We wish him well in his new role.

Congratulations goes to Project Officer Ty Srun and his wife Pov Sereyleak on the birth of their new baby daughter Tina Sovann Arya (pictured below) born on 26 December 2013.

Congratulations to Project Officer, Neab Samneang and his new bride Ngov Ratha on their recent marriage. Their wedding ceremony, which took place in Preykabas village in Preykabas district on 11 May 2014, was attended by many of the BirdLife Cambodia Programme team.

Photograph provided by Neab Samneang

Photograph: Ty Srun

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Called Away by a Mountain Spirit: Journeys to the Green Corridor Author Gregory McCann

This book details the accounts of three expeditions into the interior of Virachey National Park in Ratanakiri Province of Northeastern Cambodia, as well as an excursion into the forests of Mondulkiri Province. The author and his Khmer-Lao and indigenous guides penetrate the remote canyons near the Laos border, a lost world of tropical jungles and remote grasslands that are known only to a handful of poachers and loggers. This book also describes the animist tribes who live on the park's periphery, including the Brao, Kreung, Tampuan and Bunong highlanders. This work of nonfiction is also concerned with the endangered wildlife that persists within the park's boundaries, such as tigers, clouded leopards, leopards, Asiatic elephants, gibbons, douc langurs, hornbills, and much more. For those interested in the natural history and indigenous cultures of Cambodia and Southeast Asia, as well as the current threats to the region, this book will be of interest.

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THE BIRDS OF CAMBODIA - AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST Though the global importance of Cambodian bird fauna is widely recognised, the sole review to date was confined to pre-1970s records. Information on Cambodian birds has grown exponentially since the 1990s, and The Birds of Cambodia – An Annotated Checklist now provides an authoritative basis for a national red data book and future conservation legislation.

The book consists of three parts – introduction, systematic section and appendices, and includes 48 colour plates illustrating major habitats, conservation threats and over 80 bird species photographed in the wild.

The introduction describes the natural geography, major habitats, protected areas, ornithological history and survey coverage, and reviews conservation successes and challenges and provides guidance for novice birdwatchers.

Author: Frédéric Goes Text source: www.fauna-flora.org Giant ibis Thaumatibis gigantea painting by Berry Mulligan, from the cover illustration of Frédéric Goes' The Birds of Cambodia - An Annotated Checklist

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IUCN: The significance of the Xe Champhone Ramsar site (Savannakhet province, Lao PDR) and its surroundings for biodiversity conservation. R J Timmins The report covers the findings from two relatively brief surveys, focused predominantly on the bird community, of what is often termed the Xe Champhone (indicated in the map as Xe Champhone) wetlands of Savannakhet Province. To review the full document, please click on the report cover.

The significance of the Xe Champhone Ramsar site (Savannakhet province, Lao PDR) and its surroundings for biodiversity conservation: Results of bird and mammal surveys, and implication for Ramsar site boundary revision R.J. Timmins

30 YEARS OF BIRDWATCHING IN VIETNAM An account of the author's birdwatching experiences in Vietnam from when the country started to open up to Western visitors in the mid-1980s to the present day. This revised edition briefly describes close to 500 bird species and contains many with new photographs by the author.

Author: Glenn Morris INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

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WWF-GREATER MEKONG 2014 Mysterious Mekong - New species discoveries 2012-2013 An extraordinary 367 new species were discovered in the Greater Mekong in 2012 and 2013. Among the species newly described by scientists are 290 plants, 24 fish, 21 amphibians, 28 reptiles, 1 bird and 3 mammals.

The Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia, through which the Mekong River flows, consists of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. The region is home to some of the planet’s most The region is home to some of the planet’s most charismatic and endangered wild species, including the tiger, Asian elephant, Irrawaddy dolphin, saola, and Mekong giant catfish—and between 1997 and 2011 an incredible 1,710 new organisms were described by science in these landscapes.

GREATER REPORT MEKONG GREATER MEKONG REPORT

2014

Adding to the fantastic bestiary of creatures living in the Greater Mekong are new characters such as the Cambodian Tailorbird, Laotian giant flying squirrel, ‘hunch-bat of Vietnam’, an iridescent-coloured rainbow lizard, a fish who is ahead of the reproduction game, the ‘Zorro’-masked water snake, a salmon-coloured orchid and a primitive whiteheaded viper. A skydiving gecko, giant flying frog, “fishzilla” (walking snakehead fish), brightly-coloured bronzeback snake, pufferfish and blind huntsman spider further add to the newly discovered assemblage.

These discoveries, painstakingly identified and recorded by the world’s scientists and compiled here by WWF-Greater Mekong, demonstrate that the region is the frontline for scientific exploration. But they also remind us of what we stand to lose if regional development is not sustainable. The recent extinction of the rhino in the region and the ongoing plight of the tiger, whose numbers in the region may be as low as 250 individuals, are poignant reminders of this. In addition, the devastating illicit trade in wildlife is now worth at least 16 billion US dollars annually.

To review the full document, please click on the report cover.

Produced by Christian Thompson (the green room), Maggie Kellogg, Thomas Gray and Sarah Bladen (WWF). Published in 2014 by WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature

WWF-Greater Mekong

MysTERiOus MEKONG

NEw sPEciEs discOvERiEs 2012-2013

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ATLAS OF CAMBODIA: Maps on socio-economic development and environment Is the remake of the Atlas that was originally published by Save Cambodia's Wildlife in 2006. The Atlas of Cambodia will provide up to date knowledge and understanding of the changing spatial structures of Cambodia’s geography and its economic and social development, especially natural resource and environment management.

Throughout 2013 the Atlas project team collected data, developed maps and worked together with the contributors to develop and complete all chapters.

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ROUTES OF EXTINCTION: ROUTES OF EXTINCTION: The corruption and violence destroying Siamese rosewood in the Mekong This is a tragic true story of high culture, peerless art forms, and a rich historical identity being warped by greed and obsession, which consumes its very foundations to extinction and sparks a violent crime wave across Asian forests.

Environmental Investigation Agency's report reveals how Siamese rosewood has been illegally logged to the brink of extinction in the Mekong region to feed the demand for luxury hongmu furniture in China.

The report is available in languages English, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese.

To review the full document, please click on the report cover.

The corruption and violence destroying Siamese rosewood in the Mekong