I honestly did not know what to right about nothing just seemed interesting this week to me. But while watching a documentary the other day on came across I guess somewhat interesting deforestation problems in Cambodia, particularly in the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary located in the Cardamom Mountains. Then when I looked into the park I found that Coudrat and et 2011 has found evidence of 10 of 11 of Cambodia primates listed on the IUCN red list. The mountain range and park is also known to be home to 67 threatened animals 17 threatened trees, but know to have abundance of over 100 mammals and 450 different species of birds (Grismer et al. 2010). So there is all this abundance in the forest but since it is located in remote areas of the country there comes trouble with conservation efforts (Coudrat et al 2011). The deforestation problem that they are going through is not typical of deforestation is many countries but instead trees are being cut down and the roots of the trees are boiled for the retrieval of safrole essential oil (Chu et al 2011). This is a problem in Cambodia because since the area is such a remote location conservation efforts are hard to enforce, it also makes the job dangerous cause the safrole essential oil is used in the making of Ecstasy. The problem conservationist are having is the enforcement as once the area has been forested, they get up and move to a new location to distill the oil leaving patches of forests that have been diminished (Michinaka et al 2013). Though conservation efforts have picked up in the areas, there is not a whole lot that can be done as the product will be harvested one way or another. Police and Drug Forces can only shut down so many sites as when one shuts down another appears it’s just a shame has to go on in an area like this though.
Word Count: 327
Chu, S.S., Wang, C. F., Du, S. S., Liu, S. L., and Liu, Z. L. 2011. Toxicity of the essential oil of Illicium defengpi stem bark and its constituent compounds towards two grain storage insects. Journal of Insect Science. 11(152):1-10
Coudrat, Z. C. N., Rogers, L. D., and Nekaris, K. A. I. 2011. Abundance of Primates reveals Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, Cardomam Mountains, Cambodia as a priority area for conservation. International Journal of Conservation. 45(3):427-434.
Michinaka, T., Miyamoto, M., Yokota, Y., Sokh, H., Lao, S., and Ma, V. 2013. Factors affecting forest area changes in Cambodia: An econometric approach. Journal of Sustainable Development. 6(5):12-25.
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/cambodia-tackles-safrole-oil-production.html
http://blog.conservation.org/2011/04/ecstasy-no-party-for-cambodias-forests-part-1/
Conservation Biology 
Yikes! That is not a good situation.
What have their conservation efforts been so far to protect this area?
It’s interesting how this is complicated even more by having the drug trade involved!
Pugs not drugs.
That’s heavy. Seem likes everything leads to deforestation in one way or another.
Its so difficult to enforce conservation in situations like this because the types of people who harvest the tress are obviously not into saving some plants for the good of biodiversity.
Trying to regulate these type of activities in the foreign countries is definitely a tough one.
Drugs are bad for your health and the environment 😦 Don’t do drugs kids!
aww this is sad. Conservation efforts are hard enough as it is.
Very sad
Brutal. I don’t know how I would even begin to try and fix this…did you come across any proposed conservation plans?
Land Trust Alliance should be encouraged to buy land here.
I missed your blog somehow so I was really surprised when you explained it in class today.
Not a happy situation…hope something can be done in terms of conservation