WHERE WE REPORT


Translate page with Google

Story Publication logo October 28, 2022

Silent Forest: Post-Epidemic Wildlife Business Threatens Human Health and Forest (Khmer)

Authors:
author image
Audrey Tan
Southeast Asia RJF Advisory Committee Member
maket with wild animals
English

South-east Asia’s forests are becoming eerily silent as animals fall prey to snares and traps; a...

author #1 image author #2 image
Multiple Authors
SECTIONS

This story excerpt was translated from Khmer. To read the original story in full, visit Southeast Asia Globe. Our website is available in English, Spanish, bahasa Indonesia, French, and Portuguese.


While hunting has long been practiced in Southeast Asia, increasing trade pressures and low-cost hunting methods are accelerating the extinction of wildlife, affecting human health and the environment.


Editor's note: This article is the first report on The Silent Forest project, a collaboration between the Southeast Asia Globe and The Straits Times which explores wildlife ventures in Southeast Asia that affect biodiversity and future epidemics.

Instead of being kept in cages as usual, the captives were taken to a wildlife rescue center in a net bag like fresh meat waiting to be sold on a biting scale.

Four ferret badgers are still alive and trying to move while making a croaking noise as staff from Save Vietnam's Wildlife conservation group work to release them from snares and animal traps.

Local police confiscated the wildlife from a restaurant and sent them to the Vietnam Wildlife Rescue Conservation in Cuc Phuong National Park, about two hours from Hanoi.


Image by by The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Cambodia, 2022.

Four rescued ferret badgers were brought to a wildlife rescue center in Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam, after being rescued from a meat-eating dinner. Image by Mark Cheong and Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

Four rescued Ferret Badgers were brought to a wildlife rescue center in Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam, after being rescued from a meat-eating dinner. Image by Mark Cheong and Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.
Video by The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe.

Root traps are more affordable, easier to use for trapping wildlife, and more to the country. Across Indochina, the 2020 report estimates that there are more than 12 million traps in protected areas in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Image by Mark Cheong and Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

Root traps are more affordable, easier to use for trapping wildlife, and more to the country. Across Indochina, the 2020 report estimates that there are more than 12 million traps in protected areas in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Image by Mark Cheong and Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

Root traps are more affordable, easier to use for trapping wildlife, and more to the country. Across Indochina, the 2020 report estimates that there are more than 12 million traps in protected areas in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Image by Mark Cheong and Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

"When animals are hunted in large numbers," said Tran Van Truong, coordinator in charge of capturing animals detained at the Vietnam Wildlife Rescue Center's wildlife rescue center in Cuc Phuong National Park. In this way, it calms the forest. Image by Mark Cheong/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

The Vietnam Wildlife Rescue Organization operates a rescue center in Cuc Phuong National Park, the oldest national park in Vietnam, about two hours from Hanoi. The center is home to many endangered species, including ants. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

The Vietnam Wildlife Rescue Organization operates a rescue center in Cuc Phuong National Park, the oldest national park in Vietnam, about two hours from Hanoi. The center is home to many endangered species, including ants. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

The Vietnam Wildlife Rescue Organization operates a rescue center in Cuc Phuong National Park, the oldest national park in Vietnam, about two hours from Hanoi. The center is home to many endangered species, including ants. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

The Vietnam Wildlife Rescue Organization operates a rescue center in Cuc Phuong National Park, the oldest national park in Vietnam, about two hours from Hanoi. The center is home to many endangered species, including ants. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

The wildlife market in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam is rich in animals from wild boars to snakes and birds. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

The wildlife market in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam is rich in animals from wild boars to snakes and birds. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

The wildlife market in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam is rich in animals from wild boars to snakes and birds. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

A farm in Buon Ma Thuot, the coffee capital of Vietnam in its central highlands, civets in coffee farms are fed coffee cherries. The seeds found in their droppings are used to make Ca phe chon, a type of coffee that can fetch a pretty penny. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

A farm in Buon Ma Thuot, the coffee capital of Vietnam in its central highlands, civets in coffee farms are fed coffee cherries. The seeds found in their droppings are used to make Ca phe chon, a type of coffee that can fetch a pretty penny. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

A farm in Buon Ma Thuot, the coffee capital of Vietnam in its central highlands, civets in coffee farms are fed coffee cherries. The seeds found in their droppings are used to make Ca phe chon, a type of coffee that can fetch a pretty penny. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

Chickens are sold at a morning market in Hanoi, Vietnam. Image by Mark Cheong/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

A morning market in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Image by Mark Cheong/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Cambodia, 2022.

The skulls of two banteng are kept at BeTreed Adventures in Preah Vihear province. This is the skull of an animal that died after being trapped. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Cambodia, 2022.

Ben Davis joins Chhuon Phirum and other community rangers in patrolling Cambodia's Phnom Tnaot Wildlife Sanctuary. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Cambodia, 2022.

Community rangers patrol Phnom Tnaot Wildlife Sanctuary in Preah Vihear province. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Cambodia, 2022.

Video from a wildlife camera for capturing animals in Cambodia's Phnom Tnaot Wildlife Sanctuary. Video courtesy of BeTreed Adventures.

Demand for wildlife and meat is always present in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which is seen as a common hunger in cities throughout Southeast Asia. Image by Mark Cheong/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Vietnam, 2022.

Chhuon Phirum used to walk through Phnom Tnaot Wildlife Sanctuary for the first time as a hunter. He now patrols protected areas in Preah Vihear province as a community ranger protecting wildlife from poachers. Image by Anton L. Delgado/The Straits Times and Southeast Asia Globe. Cambodia, 2022.

RELATED CONTENT