Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam form a kind of buffer zone around Thailand against the onslaught of the illegal wildlife trade that has engulfed Southeast Asia’s forests. If animals like the Indochinese tiger are to be saved from extinction, Thailand may be its only hope. It might sound nihilistic and harsh to describe Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (Indochina) as forming a kind of buffer zone against the onslaught of snaring and the defaunation of forests that have engulfed the region, but that may be exactly what these countries represent, and even Thailand is not safe. This article is a commentary. Today its stronghold is in Thailand, with perhaps two dozen more individuals hanging on in neighboring Myanmar. The Indochinese tiger is extinct in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay. Conservationists and donors should set their sights on Thailand: if there is to be a regional recovery of wildlife, Thailand is where it will start.

National Park At Tha Li

That is the end of the story for the species. They are now gone, victims of an unprecedented snaring campaign that has blanketed the Indochinese peninsula with millions of high-grade industrial snares that even the poorest villagers know how to construct cheaply. When found, they are finished off with a rifle or club, and the meat is sold to wild game restaurants of the provincial capital of Senmonorom, as well as to the north in Ban Lung, capital of Ratanakiri province. If the Indochinese tiger is to be saved from extinction and, through some miracle, allowed to disperse back throughout the rest of its range, Thailand is its only hope. But most villagers-at least those in the sprawling EPL-aren’t looking to snare tigers and leopards; they’re going for wild pigs, hearty animals that can survive a week in a wire trap. Same for the Indochinese leopard which was hunted out of Vietnam and Laos over a decade ago, but a few hung on in the Eastern Plains Landscape (EPL) of Mondulkiri province in Cambodia until somewhat recently.

Snares for them are laid far and wide, yet they’re taking everything else down with them. The last place that offers any refuge or hope in Mondulkiri is a place that Mongabay recently reported on: Ko Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, a place which is already getting hammered and, as one of my contacts put it, is “next in line” for the devastation wrought across Mondulkiri. Bokor National Park in Kampot province is essentially being leveled to make way for a luxury home development. Clouded leopards are now considered the last “king of the jungle” in Cambodia, and even they are in serious trouble in the Kingdom. Clouded leopards also remain in Nam Et-Phou Louey in Laos, but this is probably one of the last places. The result of this blanket snaring is that golden jackals and dholes have now become rare, the Indochinese leopard went locally extinct recently, and clouded leopards are ‘finished’ in the EPL.

• Koh PhaNgan
• Phon Phop Waterfall
• Tham Yai Waterfall
• Taste ‘New Latitude’ Wines

The only other feasible place where clouded leopards could remain in Laos is at the very foot of the country in an utterly neglected. Virachey Park has been a lucky holdout, as its steep topography provides a natural deterrent to poachers and road-building, which is much unlike Mondulkiri’s flat EPL, which was essentially steamrolled by the snaring campaign carried out by both Vietnamese and local Cambodians-again, all so that city folk from Phnom Penh can drive up to the cool highlands of Senmonorom and dine on wild boar. The only other place in Cambodia that has a viable population of clouded leopards would be the massive Cardamom Rainforest Landscape, which receives protection from the Wildlife Alliance, National Park at Bang Kruai (her comment is here) which coordinates with the Royal Cambodian Forestry Department. NGPPA is contiguous with Cambodia’s Virachey National Park, a spectacular ecosystem covered by Mongabay a few years go. Unexplored patch of hilly jungle called Nam Ghong Provincial Protected Area (NGPPA). My team has camera trapped clouded leopards walking atop the high mountains which serve as the wild and unguarded international border between Laos and Cambodia, so it is feasible that they-as well as Asian elephants-which we rediscovered in Virachey after an absence of 10 years, make excursions into NGPPA, much of which still retains healthy forest cover.