Executive Summary
Earth’s tropical watersheds are being deforested rapidly, which leads to a direct reduction in the global water supply. Satellite photography shows a decline of almost 470 million acres of forest cover in the Amazon, Congo Basins, and Southeast Asia. Nearly 19 million acres are lost every year in those regions.
Studies have shown a direct correlation between this tropical deforestation and rainfall reduction in the U.S. and Europe. And local deforestation droughts hit historically disadvantaged communities the hardest. Where irrigation systems were installed to compensate for declining rainfall, underground water tables now are failing due to a lack of forest watersheds to recharge the aquifers.
The goal of Wildlife Alliance is to use direct ranger intervention to expand a system that preserves in perpetuity one of the world’s largest tropical watersheds—the Cardamom Rainforest Landscape in Cambodia—and make it a global model for watershed and forest biodiversity protection. As we implement protections, we will publicize the model through global communications.
Lead Organization
Wildlife Alliance
Charity, fund, non-governmental organization, religious institution, school, or other entity
Organizations may provide budget and employee data based on this proposal or the organization as a whole. For more information on this proposal or organization, please email us.
Accomplishments
In 2020, Wildlife Alliance rangers from 10 stations and two substations protected biodiversity by patrolling 193,651 kilometers, seizing 5,714 logs and 1,854 cubic meters of timber. Rangers also destroyed 25,886 illegal hunting snares, rescued 562 live animals from illegal wildlife traders, and confiscated 1,720 chainsaws. As a result of this action, our rangers worked with Judicial Police Officers to file 115 court cases against suspected forest and wildlife criminals.
Our approach has demonstrable, effective conservation results: the Cardamoms are the best-protected rainforest in Cambodia. And we have significantly reduced deforestation—less than 0.3 percent annual deforestation compared to the national average of 3.8 percent per year between 2013 and 2018. We have achieved Zero Poaching of Asian Elephants since 2006 and supported the recovery of ungulate and carnivore populations. Wildlife Alliance also has continued to support and develop sustainable, poverty-reducing livelihoods for 1,507 families in 13 rural villages.
