It has been called a crisis by experts across conservation the field and a day’s patrol with Wildlife Alliance rangers proves no different. On a single patrol, rangers from the Veal Pi station removed 150 snares from the forest – affirming that Southeast Asia is in the midst of a snaring crisis. Snares are rampant in the rainforests of tropical Asia because they’re cheap, easy for poachers to set, and require little effort or risk for a high reward. The impact of the large number of snares in this biodiversity hotspot is amplified because snares kill animals indiscriminately. These traps are often set with the intention of capturing common animals, such as wild pig, for their meat, but any animal that encounters the snare will get trapped. Southeast Asia already holds more species threatened with extinction than any comparable inland region so the indiscriminate hunting of these vulnerable species poses an unparalleled threat to their survival.
In 2017, Wildlife Alliance rangers removed an average of 60 snares a day from the Cardamom Rainforest Landscape. Each of those snares represents a life saved. You can help the rangers combat this crisis by making a donation today.
