Cardamom Mountains

Cambodia

The Cardamom mountains are home to some of the thickest, wildlife-filled rainforests in Southeast Asia. There was positive news here in 2016 when the Cambodian government turned more than a million acres of land across the mountains into the protected Southern Cardamom National Park, which will combine with six existing national parks to create a vast 4.5 million acre protected wildlife corridor. This is one of the last remaining habitats for wild Asian elephants, Indochinese tigers, clouded leopards, Asiatic black bears, Malayan sun bears, Irrawaddy dolphins, humpback dolphins, Siamese croc and more. It's thought the Cardamom mountains are home to thousands of as-yet-undiscovered species of flora and fauna, much of which was at risk of disappearing without conservation efforts. The area was previously one of the last refuges of the Khmer Rouge and an off-limits war zone, with the landmines still being cleared. Today, Wildlife Alliance, Rainforest Trust and local organisations have worked to protect the bio-diverse region from logging, mining and industrial development, while locals have found jobs in the park, including poachers now employed as expert guides and rangers to protect the animals they previously hunted.