Program areas at Wildlife Alliance
Cardamom forest protection program: the cardamom forest protection program (cfpp) provides on-the-ground protection to one of asia's last remaining elephant corridors. The cardamom mountains rainforest is home to over 55 iucn threatened Wildlife species and is a 200 global ecoregion and therefore one of the most significant conservation places on the planet. Located in the indo-burmese peninsula, an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot, the cardamom mountain range is the region's most important watershed and carbon sink. Cfpp provides direct protection to over 830,000 hectares of tropical forest and addresses the local drivers of deforestation through (1) zoning and demarcation of protected forestland; (2) advocacy at all levels (see schedule o)
Wildlife rehabilitation:wildlife Alliance's Wildlife rehabilitation programs are designed to rehabilitate animals victimized by the Wildlife trade and provide them with the support and care necessary to ready them for release back into the wild. Care for rescued Wildlife the thousands of live animals rescued every year need first aid intervention on the road to reduce mortality and professional care once they arrive at the Wildlife rescue center. In response, Wildlife Alliance created its care for rescued Wildlife program (crw) that provides veterinarians, animal husbandry specialist (see schedule o)
Alternative livelihood development:wildlife Alliance works with the most disadvantaged, landless poor in southwest cambodia to build technical, leadership and management skills. Communities are empowered to transform their own lives yielding a higher standard of living for individuals, effective local management of natural resources, and increased economic opportunities in sustainable livelihoods. Wildlife Alliance provides access to increased income, land, markets, and food security; and provides capacity development and skill building in agriculture, ecotourism and reforestation; small enterprise development and finance to change the course of these communities and their surrounding habitat. Support for civil society development ensures villagers feel (see schedule o)
Counter Wildlife trafficking:wildlife Alliance's counter Wildlife trafficking program is unique in that they do not address just one aspect of the illegal Wildlife trade-cracking down on illegal Wildlife shipments, confiscating live animals, bush meat and vehicles and providing care and rehabilitation for the animals but we cover every aspect of the illegal trade as thoroughly as possible. Wildlife Alliance has developed successful release programs throughout the rainforests, lakes and wetlands of cambodia with emphasis on the southern cardamom mountain range which is the best protected wilderness of the region. Wildlife Alliance chose cambodia as a focus of its conservation work because of the rampant illegal trade to china that is decimating endangered and threatened Wildlife population and because cambodia is emerging as a transit hub and final destination for trafficked ivory and rhino horn from africa. The illegal trade is the most pressing threat to Wildlife in southeast asia. Wildlife rapid rescue team in 2001, Wildlife Alliance partnered with the cambodian government to implement an urban law enforcement team, known as the Wildlife rapid rescue team (wrrt) that cracks down 24/7 on the rampant Wildlife trade on cambodia's borders and throughout the region. The ongoing presence of the wrrt has disrupted the Wildlife trafficking by up to 75% in cambodia and ensured that Wildlife is no longer eaten at 90% of the restaurants in the nation's capital. The wrrt is comprised of royal gendarmerie (military police) and forestry administration officials, overseen by Wildlife Alliance project managers. Wildlife Alliance provides training, supervision, logistical financial and technical support to the team. The wrrt conducts operations acting on information from a vast informant network and the general public, the team maintains a known and stern presence throughout the country. Wrrt provides humane care to confiscated Wildlife while in transit and, if deemed suitable, immediately releases the animals back into their natural habitat in appropriate and safe location. Wildlife which is injured, sick or habituated to humans is transported to phnom tamao Wildlife rescue centre (ptwrc).the wrrt's success was recognized in 2011, when the royal government invited us to serve as cambodia's national task force for the association of southeast asian nations Wildlife enforcement network (asean-wen). Founded in 2005, asean-wen is a network composed of law enforcement agencies of 10 member nations (brunei, cambodia, indonesia, laos, malaysia, myanmar, the philippines, singapore, vietnam and thailand) that facilitates cross-border collaboration in the fight against illegal Wildlife trade. Asean-wen coordinates regional response to illegal trade in protected species, while each member nation is responsible for maintaining an inter-agency task force and central administrative/coordination unit to share information critical to interrupting cross-border Wildlife trading. Cambodia's Wildlife enforcement network was officially established in 2010 by the royal government's forestry administration of the ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Cambodia-wen oversees all activities related to Wildlife law enforcement in the country while the wrrt's team members represent the country at international wen meetings. Wrrt operations are recorded in a national database tracking offender, penalties, court cases, species of Wildlife seized, tons of bush meat and body parts. Since its inception, wrrt has rescued more than 75,000 live animals, apprehended over 7,800 offenders and confiscated 78,000+ dead animals and 19,000+ kilos of Wildlife meat, significantly disrupting the illegal Wildlife trade in cambodia.
Environmental education:wildlife Alliance conducts outreach and education programs to increase environmental awareness among local communities, schools, government agencies, and the general public. Kouprey express mobile environmental education unit our kouprey express mobile environmental education unit (ke) delivers environmental curricula to educate schoolchildren and teachers about conservation. The ke aims to build capacities and understanding of not only biodiversity, the environment, and the threats facing Wildlife. As the ke remains the only mobile environmental project in cambodia, it is uniquely positioned to achieve exactly this, by bringing structured environmental education to rural communities where formal education is often very basic and literacy is much lower than urban areas. Offering a comprehensive environmental experience to each school and village it visits, students learn about Wildlife protection, deforestation, and climate change through classroom lessons, discussions, games, art, interactive performances and field trips to phnom tamao Wildlife rescue center, while the team works one on one with teachers to provide them with training and reusable curricula for their classes. Communities are also engaged in this transformational experience through community night shows which provide interactive, environmentally-themed entertainment to increase local awareness. Ke works with communities on a daily basis through the presence of nearby ranger stations and raises awareness through billboard campaigns and special events. The ke provides quality, replicable, easy-to-learn, and resource-efficient student lessons, capacity building for teachers, and informal education for entire households in communities who would otherwise not have such opportunities. Our work is intricately linked to policy and advocacy. Wildlife Alliance has always made it a priority to work closely with all levels of government to ensure their full support and participation in our conservation operation. We work with national, sub-national, and provincial authorities to ensure the long-term effectiveness of our campaigns and good governance at each level. Private sector involvement is also crucial to our endeavor. We currently have good working relationships with most of the companies having economic land concessions around our project areas. This has allowed us to negotiate keeping key passages of the elephant corridor free from plantation development while preserving mountaintop forest cover for watershed integrity. Preserving stakeholder buy-in is only part of an awareness campaign, however. Within cambodia, Wildlife Alliance supports a nationwide billboard-and-signage campaign that promotes our 24-hour Wildlife crime hotline and awareness of protected forest areas. We have also created several public service announcements and commercials for television, and provided international training for logistics professionals on how they can contribute to our work by disrupting supply chains. Wildlife Alliance recognizes the importance of investing in environmental education and outreach programs as a way to ensure the long-term success of our conservation efforts. Equipping tomorrow's leaders with the tools for tomorrow's challenges is a necessary component to safeguarding our natural heritage. Outreach and capacity buildingpublic engagement is the critical building block on which Wildlife Alliance aims to sustain proactive conservation of cambodia's threatened Wildlife and forests. Reaching thousands of people each year, the kouprey express and Wildlife rapid rescue teams collaborate to engage rural communities in Wildlife protection and raise awareness about the devastating effects of the illegal Wildlife trade and other environmental threats and promote protection of habitat and species by inspiring a conservation ethic and greater understanding of resource use. These teams advance the issues of conservation and Wildlife law enforcement in cambodia's cities and in international communities through nationwide messaging with a focus on the importance of using Wildlife Alliance's Wildlife crimes hotline.these activities are accomplished through an increased presence of the Wildlife rapid rescue team at kouprey express events, the expansion of partnerships with other ngos and government agencies to reach larger and more widespread audiences, and the installation of large billboard signage around the country and at borders promoting awareness about Wildlife laws. Furthermore, trainings are conducted at travel hubs with logistics professionals to improve the understanding on the proper identification of Wildlife and Wildlife parts, as well as to help identify trafficking methods used by traders.