We are working hard to get a full time team of rangers out here and coordinating with another NGO, Wildlife Alliance who work in the south. We will be using their rangers (and they are in the process of recruiting .. they just had 13 new rangers who they were interviewing – passed a physical test. They are waiting on some paperwork .. we will get a couple of these new rangers we hope). They also need a lot or them as they are working in a huge area in Koh Kong province). We did just have a short stint with 4 rangers sent up temporarily – for 10 days. They were able to confiscate a tractor with timber, a chainsaw and also.. this is interesting.. intercepted a illegal wildlife trader who, unfortunately this time only had 450 tokay geckos on their way to Vietnam. We released the geckos around our house here. These traders are bad news as they aren’t always just catching lizards, but introducing a ready market for all sorts of wildlife collection – so many birds (in high demand) and easy to catch wildlife (tortoise, monitor lizards, even pangolins)are caught by villagers who are entering the forest in the guise of collecting mushrooms and resin but opportunistically take anything they find; a natural tendency if you are poor and the animal is right there and if there is no risk of getting caught. Sad, but our forests will become silent if we don’t keep at this and work to ensure that there is a risk to them for engaging in these illegal activities. Ultimately we need to work on helping them find other ways to survive but the “quick money” they get this way is always a temptation.
And here is a video of their release!
