Botum Sakor National Park is a national park of Cambodia. Situated on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, Botum Sakor is a peninsula projecting southwest from the Cardamom Mountains. The National Park comprises 183,408 hectares of designated park land and spans three districts of Koh Kong Province: Kiri Sakor, Botum Sakor and Koh Kong. The park is under the administration of the Cambodian Ministry of Environment.
The majority of Botum Sakor’s area comprises gently sloping lowland and flood plains. The climate is characterized by a tropical monsoon and the area has two high tides per day with a range of approximately 1.5 m. The human population of Botum Sakor National Park is unknown. Disturbance is however known to be extremely high with an estimated 229 km² (~30 km²/year) of evergreen forest lost from 1997 - 2002 through illegal logging2. Although this large scale illegal logging has been halted in the last few years, the area is now under extreme threat of destruction under the pretext of so-called development1. A Chinese company named "Chinese Development Group Co" started the clearing of around 36.000 hectares of land in the district of Kiri Sakor in August 2010. This project, situated to the east of the peninsula, is officially worth US$5 billion and will include the construction of new roads, an airport, a port, a golf course, an ecotourism site and a large commercial area with residential living, hotels, restaurants and retail stores. There are serious concerns in the conservation community as well as in the local population that little, if any, international-standard environmental impact assessments were made prior to the approval of this massive development project, which is expected to last up to 25 years.
Wildlife in Botum Sakor National Park
Recent camera-trap evidence suggests that the area is home to several critically endangered species such as the Asian elephant, the Indochinese tiger, the clouded leopard, the sun bear, and other endangered species. Local poachers affirm that there is also quite a considerable population of pilaeted gibbons. Several kinds of snakes including charismatic species such as the king cobra and the Malay pit viper are regularly seen, and subsequently hacked to death by local residents, at local plantations. There is also a known small population of Siamese crocodiles in some of the parks creeks. As for the remote interior of the park, no scientific investigation has ever been carried out due to the area's extremely hard terrain. Although Wildlife Alliance conducts conservation and wildlife and forest protection programs within Botum Sakor National Park, poaching remains extremely rampant and it is generally believed that what this area of Cambodia, classified as one of the world's 25 top biodiversity hot spots by Wildlife Alliance, is destined to be turned into a ghost-forest unless radical measures are taken.
Boutum Sakor National Park
Botum Sakor National Park is a national park of Cambodia. Situated on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, Botum Sakor is a peninsula projecting southwest from the Cardamom Mountains. The National Park comprises 183,408 hectares of designated park land and spans three districts of Koh Kong Province: Kiri Sakor, Botum Sakor and Koh Kong. The park is under the administration of the Cambodian Ministry of Environment.
The majority of Botum Sakor’s area comprises gently sloping lowland and flood plains. The climate is characterized by a tropical monsoon and the area has two high tides per day with a range of approximately 1.5 m. The human population of Botum Sakor National Park is unknown. Disturbance is however known to be extremely high with an estimated 229 km² (~30 km²/year) of evergreen forest lost from 1997 - 2002 through illegal logging2. Although this large scale illegal logging has been halted in the last few years, the area is now under extreme threat of destruction under the pretext of so-called development1. A Chinese company named "Chinese Development Group Co" started the clearing of around 36.000 hectares of land in the district of Kiri Sakor in August 2010. This project, situated to the east of the peninsula, is officially worth US$5 billion and will include the construction of new roads, an airport, a port, a golf course, an ecotourism site and a large commercial area with residential living, hotels, restaurants and retail stores. There are serious concerns in the conservation community as well as in the local population that little, if any, international-standard environmental impact assessments were made prior to the approval of this massive development project, which is expected to last up to 25 years.
Wildlife in Botum Sakor National Park
Recent camera-trap evidence suggests that the area is home to several critically endangered species such as the Asian elephant, the Indochinese tiger, the clouded leopard, the sun bear, and other endangered species. Local poachers affirm that there is also quite a considerable population of pilaeted gibbons. Several kinds of snakes including charismatic species such as the king cobra and the Malay pit viper are regularly seen, and subsequently hacked to death by local residents, at local plantations. There is also a known small population of Siamese crocodiles in some of the parks creeks. As for the remote interior of the park, no scientific investigation has ever been carried out due to the area's extremely hard terrain. Although Wildlife Alliance conducts conservation and wildlife and forest protection programs within Botum Sakor National Park, poaching remains extremely rampant and it is generally believed that what this area of Cambodia, classified as one of the world's 25 top biodiversity hot spots by Wildlife Alliance, is destined to be turned into a ghost-forest unless radical measures are taken.
