31 July is World Ranger Day. But what does that mean? Before we answer that, let’s start with the basics:

Around the world, rangers are at the heart of conservation. They patrol protected areas like national parks and wildlife sanctuaries which span a range of habitat types, including   rainforests, mangroves and savannas to stop threats to the landscape. They work in tough terrain, and are on call 24/7. Often rangers are all that stand in the way of forest and wildlife disappearing forever.

In short, rangers report from nature’s frontlines. They keep the forest standing. They save endangered animals from going extinct.

Park rangers go on patrol around national parks checking for illegal activities. In many ways, rangers are the police of the forest. Just like police, they can stop and apprehend people who break the law.

Here in Cambodia, ranger teams in the Cardamoms are a diverse group. Teams are made up of: Ministry of Environment, Royal Gendarmerie and Wildlife Alliance supervisors.

We sat down with three of these heroes to get a glimpse of what life is on patrol in the Cardamom Rainforest Landscape. You can see the conversation below.

To be a park ranger takes determination, and above all, love for nature. Spending weeks away from family and friends to patrol the forest is only possible when one is dedicated.

It’s not a job for everyone. Sowath Rethy is the supervisor of Koh Pao ranger station in Koh Kong province. “Not many people want to do this job,” he says “because it’s dangerous.”

But he remains dedicated to the cause. “I will continue until the people reduce or stop cutting down the forest and hunting wildlife,” he told Channel News Asia.

Sometimes rangers start from the most unlikely places. Often those who know the forest best make the best rangers. And few people know the forest better than loggers and poachers. Take Men Theoun. Today, he is a ranger in Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary in northeast Cambodia. But 10 years ago, he hunted wildlife for a living.  “I would manage to get one or two pairs of banteng and wild ox horns from a trip,” he remembers.  But then things changed.

“The local people understood that I was an experienced hunter and that I knew my way around the forest,” he told the Phnom Penh Post “so they recommended that I be hired as a forest ranger.”

Meanwhile in the Cardamoms, others have given up hunting for better opportunities. The village of Chi Phat was once a hotbed for forest crimes, known as the “circle of death” for its thriving wildlife market. Chenda was one of the people bringing death to wildlife in the village.

“I killed animals because my family is poor and I need to make money so this was the best that I could do.” He recalls the animals that were in demand. “We would look for gibbons, elephants and deer.” But when Chi Phat opened Cambodia’s premier community ecotourism site, Chenda had more options. Now he works as a local guide “and with this I could stop hunting. Before I had to kill animals anymore because I didn’t have another choice.” With his new found calling as a tour guide, Chenda has discovered his love of wildlife.  “I like animals and I want to show people how beautiful they are.” Chenda tells story and how he has turned his life around, improving the outcome for his family and wildlife around the village in this video:

To Sowath Rethy,protecting the Cardamoms means much more than protecting Asia’s last great rainforests.“If we lose the forest, our country will face disasters, such as irregular rain and storms. Not to mention water shortages.

Every year, a staggering 3.5 to 4.5m of rain falls in the Cardamoms, supplying over 20 major waterways. What’s more,  the Cardamoms are one of the region’s most important regulators of rain, which influences precipitation patterns around the world. NASA studies prove that deforestation in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia have reduced rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere.

And it’s not only the forest which is thriving thanks to park rangers. The Cardamoms is located in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, making it a treasure trove for wildlife. At least 60 threatened species call the Cardamoms home, including Critically Endangered Sunda Pangolin, Siamese Crocodile,  Elongated Tortoise, and even Cambodia’s national bird the Giant Ibis.

Rangers in the Cardamoms patrol to remove threats, including deadly snares. From 2002-2021, rangers rescued almost 8,000 live animals, like this sun bear who was rescued from a snare in January 2021.

Forest protection in the tropical belt is challenging work. In Cambodia, the Cardamom Rainforest Landscape includes one of the largest unfragmented rainforests in Southeast Asia, so there’s a lot of ground to cover! Rangers patrol ~1.3 million hectares of forest to keep the Cardamoms safe from logging, poaching and other illegal activities.

Patrols began back in 2002, shortly after the last Khmer Rouge holdouts left Koh Kong. It was a difficult time to be a ranger. Things are different now but challenges remain.

We spoke with three heroes who patrol the Cardamoms to remove threats to this critical landscape. These heroes include Wildlife Alliance staff, Trapeng Rung station supervisor, Sowath Rethy, Royal Gendarmerie judicial police officer, Srun Kimchheng and Ministry of Environment officer, Kong Chetra.

Why become a park ranger?

Each ranger has their own motivations for entering the ranks of heroes for the environment. Let’s hear from Rethy, Kimchheng and Chetra about why they became rangers.

“To protect the forest and wildlife for Cambodian people, and to reduce the global warming.”

-Sowath Rethy

“To protect the Cardamom Rainforest because it is a very important habitat for wildlife in Cambodia.”

-Srun Kimchheng

“To enable the Cardamoms to become the biggest carbon sink in the world.”

-Kong Chetra

Rethy: I decided to be a ranger to protect the Cardamom Rainforest because this is the last remaining large rainforest in Cambodia, which is also habitat for many endangered species. That is why I do this job; to protect the forest and wildlife for Cambodian people, and to reduce the global warming.

Kimchheng: I decided to be a ranger to protect the Cardamom Rainforest because it is a very important habitat for wildlife in Cambodia.

Chetra: The reasons I decide to be a ranger in Cardamom Rainforest are:

– I love this area and I feel it is my duty to protect it

– The Cardamom Rainforest is huge. It is about 1.5 million hectares in total, which includes diverse habitat types: beautiful forest, waterfall, mountain, lake, and sea. The Cardamom Rainforest is the last great rainforest in Southeast Asia and habitat to many wildlife species; especially endangered species. Plus, it is an attractive place to visit! Other reasons I became a ranger are:

– To protect the forest and wildlife

– To protect water source and biodiversity

– To increase protection of tree cover, ecosystem and sustainability.

– For community livelihoods and national development

– To enable the Cardamoms to become the biggest carbon sink in the world.

A day in the life of a ranger

“Searching for leads related to natural resources offenses.”

-Sowath Rethy

“Patrolling to search for natural resource offenses such as logging, clearing, hunting, wildlife and timber transportation inside protected areas.”

-Srun Kimchheng

“Taking action to search, prevent and crack down on natural resource offenses and filing court case documents to submit to the Court.”

-Kong Chetra

Rethy: Planning patrols to make sure natural resources are protected

– Searching for leads related to natural resources offenses.

Kimchheng: My daily task is patrolling to search for natural resource offenses such as logging, clearing, hunting, wildlife and timber transportation inside protected areas.

Chetra: Technical patrol planning and implementation of new and existing regulations for protected area management

– Taking action to search, prevent and crack down on natural resource offenses and filing court case documents to submit to the Court.

– Ambushing and conducting regular monitoring to prevent and crack down on all kinds of natural resource offense such as logging, snaring, clearing and bulldozing forest to claim land ownership.

– Inspecting and interpreting letters and other legal documents

– Taking action to prevent forest fires inside protected areas

– Conducting educational sessions for awareness raising with local communities, including indigenous people within Community Protected Area (CPAs)

Rethy: I receive a good salary with other benefits. This job teaches me project management, how to patrol in the forest, self-defense during patrol, knowledge of the protected area law and lived experience of law enforcement to protect natural resources.

Kimchheng: The benefits from my work are:

1. Attracting local and international tourists
2. Receiving revenue from sales of Carbon credits

Chetra: Respond to protection and management needed, natural resource conservation inside protected areas in a sustainable manner for the next generation and the whole world.

“Humans cannot live without nature but nature can live without humans!”

-Sowath Rethy

“Participate in forest protection and generate greater love for nature.”

-Srun Kimchheng

“If nature is destroyed, we will lose everything [and] face disasters like drought, increasing global temperatures, floods and food scarcity… Do not burn the house to cook an egg for a meal.”

-Kong Chetra

Rethy: Effective conservation work needs participation from all Cambodian people, as well as their  deep understanding of the impact of eating wildlife meat, cutting the forest and the value of forest and wildlife. It is important to remember that humans cannot live without nature but nature can live without humans! Forest protection is a hard and dangerous job, which can involve being hated and undervalued by many people. This is  partly due to the fact that the challenges of conservation are large, including few rangers relative to the huge protected area, and the threat of many loggers and hunters. As rangers, we are not only conducting patrols in the forest but also doing administration work, communicating with local authorities, preparing monitoring reports and following up on court case documentation.

Kimchheng: My advice to the next generation is to participate in forest protection and generate greater love for nature. I want them to understand why we need to protect the forest. Forest is needed by humans and animals; without forest, humans and animals cannot survive.

Chetra: Collaboration with local communities is a basic principle to guarantee transparency, respect the protected area law, sustainable natural resource and biodiversity conservation and social and economic development. Moreover, to tell them to understand that if nature is destroyed, we will lose everything​: human life, animals and the whole world. Otherwise, we will face other disasters like drought, increasing global temperature, flood and food scarcity. Just as the expression goes, “Do not burn the house to cook an egg for a meal.”

In the early days of protected areas s in Cambodia, including in the Cardamoms, armed conflict with insurgent groups, including the Khmer Rouge was a major threat. Today, the danger is not from the Khmer Rouge but from loggers and poachers who break the law.

For Rethy the hardest battle is the one for hearts and minds. “The most difficult thing is to change the mindset of the people to stop committing natural resource crimes.” To address this mammoth challenge means engaging in “legal activities and participating in the conservation of natural resources.”

That’s where the Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project and our alternative livelihood and community projects come in.

In Cambodia, members of the military police and Ministry of Environment rangers are authorised to carry guns. While they may rarely fire them, guns are a necessary deterrent because loggers and poachers are often armed. In conversation with the Khmer Times, Ev Chrib one of Cambodia’s 42 female rangers admitted that this was cause of fear at first. “I initially used to panic when I [saw] armed suspects,” she said. “When they fire their guns, I used to get terrified.”

And she has reason to be fearful. While armed conflict against the Khmer Rouge is a thing of the past, patrolling the forest can turn deadly. According to the Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra, two rangers have been gunned down in recent memory. “In the past eight years, two rangers were killed,” he told the Phnom Penh Post “and many others were injured on missions for the cause of the environment and our natural resources.”

Those killed while on duty include:

Teurn Soknai, Ministry of Environment Ranger;

Sek Wathana, Military Police Officer; and

Thul Khna, WCS SMART Officer,

Who were killed on January 30th in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (KSWS) while on patrol near the Cambodia-Vietnam border, according to a statement from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

“Every day, rangers and law enforcement staff risk their lives to protect wildlife and forests,” said WCS Cambodia director Ross Sinclair. “Soknai, Wathana and Khna will always be remembered as conservation heroes.”

Other rangers, also posted in Cambodia’s northern provinces, were who killed in action in Cambodia include:

Sieng Darong, a Forestry Administration ranger, and

Sab Yoh, a police officer

Who were shot and killed in cold blood as they slept.

“Darong, 47, and Yoh, 29, were gunned down by cold-blooded killers with high powered weapons as they slept during an overnight patrol tracking illegal loggers and poacher,” read a statement from WCS.

Darong and Yoh were murdered just a few hours after confiscating chainsaws from an illegal logging camp. Two others who were also on patrol were lucky to escape with their lives.

According to the Thin Green Line, over 150 Rangers lose their lives in the line of duty each year. In the last decade, over 1,000 Rangers have been killed. According to statistics, Asia is the deadliest region for rangers, way ahead of Africa.

So 31st July is a day to take stock of the contribution of rangers make and honour fallen rangers.

Today, Wildlife Alliance stands with rangers around the world on nature’s frontlines.

To support everyday heroes who risk their lives to offer direct protection to forests and wildlife in Cambodia, support rangers patrolling the Cardamoms.