Southeast Asia

Cambodia

Cambodia's eastern forests are at the centre of the Southeast Asian snare crisis. Researchers describe much of the remaining Lower Mekong forest as suffering from 'empty forest syn

Cambodia is a Southeast Asian country where WARN's planned work centres on the snare crisis in the Lower Mekong forests — funding de-snaring patrols, providing veterinary triage for snared wildlife, and supporting the rescue of pangolins, sun bears and Asian elephants caught up in cross-border trafficking.

Key Facts About Cambodia

Researchers have documented millions of snares set across the Lower Mekong region.
Significant proportion of remaining forest now functionally empty of large vertebrates.
Pangolins, sun bears, Asian elephants and clouded leopards are all bycatch victims.
Siem Reap province banned the dog meat trade in 2020.
Our planned Cambodia work funds de-snaring patrols and veterinary triage.

What is the wildlife situation in Cambodia?

Eastern Cambodia (the Eastern Plains landscape, Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri) holds some of the largest remaining lowland deciduous forests in Indochina. These forests are increasingly compromised by motorcycle-cable snares set for bushmeat. The Dog Meat-Free Indonesia / Vietnam / Cambodia coalition has driven progress on the dog and cat meat trade.

What is WARN preparing to do in Cambodia?

Three programmes: (1) funding and training de-snaring patrols in priority protected areas; (2) veterinary triage for animals found alive in snares; (3) supporting evidence collection for prosecutions and cross-border trafficking interdiction.

Why Cambodia matters

The snare crisis is the single largest contemporary threat to wildlife welfare in mainland Southeast Asia. Working at scale here also produces benefit upstream — many of the species snared in Cambodia are trafficked through Vietnam to demand markets further north.

Key Species in Cambodia

Vulnerable

Sun bear

Endangered

Asian elephant

Critically Endangered

Sunda pangolin

Critically Endangered

Indochinese leopard

Cambodia FAQ

Is the dog meat trade legal in Cambodia?

Siem Reap province banned it in 2020 and the national policy direction is toward phase-out. The trade continues in other provinces.

Why is the snare crisis so much worse in Cambodia than elsewhere?

Cambodia's snare crisis is the worst-documented in mainland Southeast Asia, but the underlying problem — cheap, indiscriminate snares set for bushmeat — exists across the Lower Mekong, Laos, Vietnam and southern China.

Latest from Cambodia

Stray dog looking out from a wire enclosure in Southeast Asia

Briefings

Ten Million Dogs and Cats: The Hidden Scale of Southeast Asia's Meat Trade

A wire snare trap hidden in long grass on a forest floor in Cambodia

Briefings

The Silent Killer: Why Snare Wires Are Emptying Cambodia's Forests

An adult Asian elephant with rounded ears and a domed forehead bathing in a forested river in northern Thailand

Species

The Asian Elephant: Endangered, Shrinking and Largely Captive

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