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South West Elephant Corridor

Cambodia's Southern Cardamom Mountain Range is one of the planet's most beautiful landscapes and the home to one of Asia’s seven remaining elephant migration routes. In 2002, the Cambodian Forestry Administration appealed to Wildlife Alliance for help in protecting the Southern Cardamoms after 32 elephants and 12 tigers were killed in the region during the preceding 18 months and forest clearing was found to be destroying 100 – 300 hectares of tropical forest a month.

In response, Wildlife Alliance designed the South West Elephant Corridor (SWEC) program, implementing a three tiered approach to conservation based on Wildlife Alliance's park protection model: combining ranger patrolling, community outreach, and wildlife monitoring to stop wildlife poaching and illegal logging while helping to develop income alternatives for surrounding communities.

Covering nearly two million hectares of land, the Cardamom Mountain Range represents the largest mainland forest in Southeast Asia. The mountain range is considered one of the main biodiversity hotspots on the planet, with 16 distinct ecosystems and 14 globally endangered and threatened species. It is one of the last seven remaining elephant corridors in Southeast Asia and is the hunting range for the Pileated Gibbon, Asiatic Black Bear, Malaysian Sun Bear, Marbled Cat, Southern Serow, and half of Cambodia's bird species. It is the only location on earth where Siamese crocodiles and Royal turtles can still be found in the wild. With Wildlife Alliance's help, the area is now being patrolled regularly and illegal activities have been considerably reduced. When completed, this will be one of the largest protected areas in Asia.