Help Stop Illegal Wildlife Trafficking

The 24-hour Wildlife Alliance Hotline continues to prove to be a successful way of obtaining leads for illegal wildlife trafficking investigations. Last quarter the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT) received a total of 515 phone calls, of which 303 came from the team’s informant network, 30 from local Forestry Administration offices asking for their assistance and 182 from both Cambodian citizens and foreign visitors.

Thanks to the hotline, on January 16^th the WRRT responded to a call from a civilian that informed them of where four peafowl were located in Sangkat Stung Meanchey in Phnom Penh. Sadly, one had already been shot dead by a man with a slingshot, who has since been apprehended and fined. The other three peafowl were rescued and brought to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center for a health assessment before they were released. Green peafowl are on the IUCN Red List as “Endangered” due to over hunting for their meat and feathers, collection of their eggs and chicks, and habitat loss. Thanks to Wildlife Alliance’s Wildlife Hotline and the WRRT, three of these beautiful and rare birds will be able to live in the wild and will not succumb to the fate of so many others of their species.

Another great success thanks to the hotline stopped a Vietnamese trafficker in a remote village in Prey Veng through an informant tip. A small group of WRRT members immediately took action by getting ahead of the suspect on his route back to Vietnam and waited for him to cross their path. When he appeared on the long and narrow village road on his motorbike, a WRRT member ambushed the suspect and immediately confiscated his cell phone.  As expected, the motorbike was fully loaded with wildlife. Acting quickly, the WRRT transported the offender, his motorbike, and the wildlife to the Forestry Administration office 20 kilometers away. In this encounter, the WRRT confiscated 97 spotted doves, 31 red collared doves and a rat snake as well as the offender’s motorbike. Due to the “agreement of solidarity” between Cambodian and Vietnamese boarder provinces, Cambodian police asked for no action to be taken against the Vietnamese wildlife trafficker. This was not accepted by the WRRT and the offender was charged and paid a $476 fine based on the Forestry Law concerning the illegal trade of common species.

Thanks to the hotline and other means, the WRRT rescued 671 live animals, released 546 animals and apprehended 28 traders in the first quarter of 2017.

Thank you for helping the Wildlife Rapid Rescue team rescue thousands of animals through your support and donations!

The WRRT is a Forestry Administration law enforcement unit led by the Forestry Administration, in cooperation with the Military Police, with technical and financial support from the Wildlife Alliance.