Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary in western Cambodia, bordering

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. The sanctuary was established in 1993 and covers . It is also designated as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

(IBA). Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the

Cardamom Mountains The Cardamom Mountains ( km, ជួរភ្នំក្រវាញ, ; th, ทิวเขาบรรทัด, ), or the Krâvanh Mountains, is a mountain range in the south west of Cambodia and Eastern Thailand. The majority of the rang ...

and the area comprises mostly forested mountains, but with many different habitats and forest-types, and the landscape is dominated by three discrete peaks: Phnom Samkos ( and Cambodia's second highest peak), Phnom Khmaoch (), and Phnom Tumpor ().

History

Historically, the sanctuary area has been inhabited by ethnic ''Por'' (or ''Pear''), the namesake of the broader term Pearic people. In Cambodia, ethnic groups living in the highlands of the country are all referred to as

Khmer Loeu The Khmer Loeu ( km, ជនជាតិខ្មែរលើ ; "upper Khmers") is the collective name given to the various indigenous ethnic groups residing in the highlands of Cambodia. The Khmer Loeu are found mainly in the northeastern pr ...

Flora and fauna

The sanctuary is notable for its large diversity of

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s, including several types of forests. The interior of the sanctuary is largely unexplored by scientists, but small-scale surveys suggests that many rare, unique and even

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

species are present. There is a rich diversity of

primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

and

monkeys Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

Threats

The sanctuary has been under threat from

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

, including specific targeting of '' Cinnamomum parthenoxylon'' trees for use in the illegal drug market. Another threat is illegal hunting of wildlife.

References

External

Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary

Wildlife and Livelihoods in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia

* * ttp://www.mekong-protected-areas.org/cambodia/pa-map.htm Map of Protected areas system in Cambodia Wildlife sanctuaries of Cambodia Protected areas of Cambodia Geography of Pursat province Protected areas established in 1994 Cardamom Mountains {{Asia-protected-area-stub

History

Flora and fauna

Threats

See also

References

External