monkey was sent to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife. Recue Center which specializes in rehabilitation and re-release of wild animals. SPF holds the largest remaining ...
Seima Protection Forest is a biodiversity hotspot.
Hello and a warm welcome from the Seima Protection Forest (SPF) team. Great news for the SPF REDD+ project. Forest cover has been measured for 2015 and levels are lower than those predicted to occur without our REDD+ project. The SPF REDD+ project will begin verification under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCBA) Alliance Standards this summer. If all goes well we will have carbon credits for sale this year.
March 2016: WCS staff received a baby blackshanked douc langur (Pygathrix nigripes, an endangered species found only in Cambodia and Vietnam) from a local villager after he was found alone at the bottom of a rubber tree in a plantation in the buffer zone of SPF. This young male, about three weeks old, still requires constant care and attention. Two days after rescue, the baby monkey was sent to the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Recue Center which specializes in rehabilitation and re-release of wild animals. SPF holds the largest remaining population of Black-shanked Doucs in the world.
Slow Loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus)
Endangered baby black-shanked douc langur.
In the same month, the patrol team came across a motorcyclist traveling at suspiciously high speeds. As they moved to intercept the suspect, the man threw a box from the back of his bike onto the side of the road and sped away. The team investigated and found a pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus, classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List). The nocturnal animal was brought back to headquarters, where it was assessed for injuries, and kept in a cool, covered cage until night-time. Having been found healthy despite its rough treatment, it was released back into SPF the same evening, and was last seen heading rapidly through the trees.
The 2016 monitoring field season began in early December with the teams heading up to the northern transects. The transect schedule is carefully planned in advance, in order to ensure that all of the difficult and hard to reach transects are completed before the rains arrive and make the roads impassable. The five field teams have been heading into the forest for between four and six days at a time. So far approximately 700km have been walked, with around 600 still left to go!
Teams stay in the forest between four and six days at time.
There have been some super results, with the number of sightings of the key primate and ungulate species increasing with every trip. There have even been sightings of wild cattle (banteng and gaur) – which are very rare. The monitoring teams have also been contributing many reports of illegal activities to the law enforcement SMART database, which will help inform the enforcement strategy for SPF. If all continues to go to plan, the monitoring teams should complete surveys on all 40 transects by June. Primate sighting numbers are up.
WCS Cambodia
To promote community involvement among members and raising REDD+ awareness, focal persons in each village are being selected. Several meetings have been held at the commune and village levels with participation of community chiefs and local authorities to discuss potential candidates and the procedure for selection. Two focal persons will be selected from each village to represent their community. They will join in trainings related to REDD+ and we hope to include them on exchange visits to other project sites.
Community meetings to select community representatives for SPF REDD+.
F Community patrol teams, formed in October 2013, are an initiative being piloted in a few communities in SPF. There are more than 150 local community members involved in community patrolling activities with support from Forestry Administration (FA) and Military Police (MP) Officials. They have significantly contributed to enforcing forestry law and collecting data on deforestation, forest degradation, and other illegal activities. Patrol activities and results are monitored and analyzed by SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) that is designed to measure, evaluate and improve the effectiveness of forest and wildlife patrols. The community patrol is currently active in four villages where they reduce threats on SPF’s wildlife and biodiversity. Trainings and exchange visit were also provided to the law enforcement and community patrol teams to improve their capacity.
Community patrolling team with confiscated chainsaw from Seima Protection Forest.
WCS Cambodia
Mr. Ngouy Mao has grown chemical free integrated vegetable gardens behind his house since he began as a cooperative farmer with Mondulkiri Provincial Department of Agriculture in 2012. However, a severe water shortage threatens Mao’s operation. He earns between $5 and $10 per day from selling produce to support his family and pay for school for his daughter. Mao starts smiling after DAP project began supporting his village of Pu Char, Sre Preah Commune, Keo Seima district, Mondulkiri Province to access adequate water for household consumption and small scale agriculture, including vegetable growing and chicken raising.
Ngouy Mao with his free chemical vegetables.
In March 2016, the ecotourism team at SPF was joined by Emiel de Lange, a Masters student from Imperial College London. Emiel will assist the team to develop a framework to monitor the impacts and successes of the ecotourism initiative at Andong Kralong village inside the SPF. With the support of USAID’s Supporting Forests and Biodiversity (SFB) Project, Andong Kralong successfully received Indigenous Community Land Title, which provides permanent protection for their land, as Camps were built at Andong Kralong Ecotourism. well as setting up one of the USAID-SFB project’s most successful ecotourism sites. Emiel’s work will help to improve management of the site, as well as inform the design of future ecotourism projects. He will also host a workshop with SPF staff and local community members.
WCS Cambodia
