By Sarah Lazarus, CNN

Updated 10:30 PM ET, Wed October 16, 2019 A deer trapped in a homemade
snare.
A deer trapped in a homemade snare.

(CNN)Across Southeast Asia, wild animals are being hunted out of existence
to feed growing demand for bushmeat, according to conservationists.
Thomas Gray, science director with conservation group Wildlife Alliance,
which operates in Cambodia, says that snares — simple traps made of wire
and rope — have become the single biggest threat to ground-dwelling animals
in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos over the last decade.
Snares collected by community rangers in Nakai-Nam Theun — a protected area
in the Annamite Mountains in Laos.
Snares collected by community rangers in Nakai-Nam Theun — a protected area
in the Annamite Mountains in Laos.
The scale of the problem is “phenomenal” says Gray.
Between 2010 and 2015, more than 200,000 snares were removed by patrol teams
from just five protected areas in the region. But despite these efforts,
says Gray, law enforcement patrols can’t keep pace with poachers and stop
the slaughter.

Typically made from motorbike and bicycle brake cables, snares are cheap and
simple to construct. Traditionally, hunters made snares from rattan and
other natural forest products which were “relatively weak and decomposed
relatively quickly,” says Gray. Wire snares require much less skill to make
and can last for years.
The hunters’ targets are animals they can sell as food, including wild pigs,
muntjac deer, civets and porcupines.
But the tragic thing about snares, says Gray, is that “they take out
everything.” Animals caught in these “barbaric” devices face a lingering
death, he says. A few manage to escape, but are likely to die from their
injuries — sometimes because they have gnawed off a limb to free
themselves. Trapped animals without market value are simply left to rot in
the forest.
Southeast Asia’s forests once teemed with myriad species, including sun
bears, striped rabbits, marbled cats, hog badgers and monkeys.
But the snaring epidemic is leading to what conservationists call “empty
forest syndrome.” “In some areas there are no mammals larger than a rodent
left,” says Gray.
A perfect storm
In Cambodia, setting snares is illegal in protected areas — where most of
the wildlife is found. Selling the meat is also illegal, says Gray.
But that has not deterred poachers.
Demand for wild meat is fueled in part by rising incomes in the region, says
Regine Weckauf, illegal wildlife trade advisor with Fauna & Flora
International. Research conducted by the non-profit in Cambodia identified
two main types of consumer.
Found with its arm caught in a snare by researchers from the Laos
conservation group Anoulak, this stump-tailed macaque was released back into
the wild.
Found with its arm caught in a snare by researchers from the Laos
conservation group Anoulak, this stump-tailed macaque was released back into
the wild.
“In rural areas, people generally consume bushmeat because they like the
taste,” says Weckauf. “Often, they don’t realize it’s been sold illegally.”
For urban consumers, in the capital Phnom Penh and other big cities, eating
wild meat is an “elite practice” she says — and it’s almost exclusively men
who do it.
Procuring wild meat when entertaining associates demonstrates power and
status, says Weckauf. “It shows that the man can afford the meat and that
he’s well connected and knows how to source it.” In cities, many consumers
know that wild meat is illegal, so providing it also sends the message, “I
am untouchable,” she says.
Similar patterns of consumption have been observed in Vietnam.
A sambar deer caught in a snare in Belum Telemgor forest in northern
Malaysia, near the Thai border.
A sambar deer caught in a snare in Belum Telemgor forest in northern
Malaysia, near the Thai border.
According to Gray, the perception of bushmeat as a prestige food has
combined with changes to the landscape to create a “perfect storm” for
Southeast Asia’s wildlife.
“Fifty years ago, people would have set snares within walking distance of
their village, for their own consumption,” he says, “but the rest of the
forest wasn’t snared.”
Since then, he says, rampant deforestation, expanding road networks and the
ubiquity of motorbikes have led to forest interiors becoming accessible like
never before and subsistence hunting has developed into commercial poaching.
Cambodia’s wildlife is also squeezed because the country has one of the
biggest deforestation problems in the world. It was once cloaked in lush
forests but huge expanses have been cleared by loggers and to make way for
roads, fields and vast rubber plantations.
Analysis by scientists from the University of Maryland and Global Forest
Watch has revealed that although other countries are losing more forest in
terms of area, Cambodia’s forests are being cleared especially rapidly. The
country lost four times as much forest in 2014 as it did in 2001.
However, although logging and deforestation destroy the animals’
habitat, Gray says that by the time the trees are cut down, most of the
animals have already been killed by hunters.
Snares, home-made guns and chainsaws confiscated by Wildlife Alliance's
rangers in Cambodia's Cardamom rainforest.
Snares, home-made guns and chainsaws confiscated by Wildlife Alliance’s
rangers in Cambodia’s Cardamom rainforest.
The toll of snaring on many species across the region has been devastating.
The saola, a mysterious antelope-like animal that was only discovered by
scientists in 1992, is on the brink of extinction — it has fallen victim to
snares despite not being a target species, says Gray.
The dhole — a tawny-colored wild dog — is also highly endangered.
“There are probably fewer dholes left than tigers,” says Gray, ‘but they
don’t get the same level of attention.”
Dholes are especially susceptible to being caught in snares, he says,
because they roam over large distances in search of pigs and deer which are,
themselves, becoming increasingly rare because of snaring. Gray says dholes
are thought to be extinct in Vietnam and are likely to become extinct in
Laos. “There is still a decent population in Cambodia, but if we don’t solve
the snaring crisis, they will go too.”
This dhole pup was born in San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. Its
counterparts in the wild are being killed by snares.
This dhole pup was born in San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. Its
counterparts in the wild are being killed by snares.
Changing behavior
Wildlife Alliance operates a team of 110 rangers who work “24/7”
removing snares from the Cardamom rainforest in western Cambodia , says
Gray. In 2018 alone, the team, working in partnership with the Cambodian
Ministry of Environment, removed 20,000 snares and destroyed 779 illegal
forest camps — structures built inside protected areas where poachers sleep
and store equipment and animal carcasses.
Rescued creatures are cared for at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre,
which houses more than 1,400 animals — some of which are released in safe
areas and some of which stay there for the rest of their lives, depending on
the severity of their injuries.
This work is vital, but it’s not nearly enough, says Gray.
A Wildlife Alliance ranger rescues a common palm civet in Cambodia's
Cardamom Rainforest. Civets are often found dead in snares, but this one
survived the ordeal.
A Wildlife Alliance ranger rescues a common palm civet in Cambodia’s
Cardamom Rainforest. Civets are often found dead in snares, but this one
survived the ordeal.
Gray believes legislative reform is needed.
Currently, snaring is almost a “risk-free crime,” he says, because although
it is illegal in protected areas, “the chances of catching someone
red-handed in the act of setting a snare are close to zero.”
In 2001, the Cambodian government created the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team in
an effort to crack down on the trade. The team says it has saved more than
70,000 live animals, seized 54 tons of animal body parts and arrested 3,400
traffickers.
Heng Kimchhay, who heads the team, says the Cambodian government has created
more than 27 thousand square miles of protected areas (around 40% of
Cambodia’s total land mass) and assigned additional personnel to combat
poaching on protected land.
But, he says, the illegal wildlife trade has grown in size and
sophistication and his team needs more staff, more training and more
equipment.
Chhouk, a male elephant, was found as a baby wandering alone in the forest
in northeastern Cambodia. He had lost a foot to a poacher's snare and
was close to death. Wildlife Alliance took him to Phnom Tamao Wildlife
Rescue Centre where he was given a prosthetic foot and has been cared for
ever since.
Chhouk, a male elephant, was found as a baby wandering alone in the forest
in northeastern Cambodia. He had lost a foot to a poacher’s snare and was
close to death. Wildlife Alliance took him to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue
Centre where he was given a prosthetic foot and has been cared for ever
since.
Gray would like to see the “intent to snare” treated as a serious crime.
“If someone is walking in the forest with snare materials — such as 50
motorbike brake cables — they are clearly planning to set snares,” he says.
But while poaching remains lucrative, there is only so much that legislation
and enforcement can achieve. The key to solving the snaring problem, some
believe, is behavior change.
“We need to understand why people consume bushmeat and the best ways to
persuade them to stop,” says Weckauf.

Fauna & Flora International plans to work with marketing firms and
communication specialists to find solutions geared to human psychology, she
says. “We want to use the kind of techniques that have successfully
persuaded people to wear seat belts, to use mosquito nets and to stop
wearing fur,” she says.
These efforts are essential, says Gray, because otherwise “we face the loss
of species, the loss of heritage, and the loss of tens of millions of years
of evolution that have created Southeast Asia’s unique wildlife.”

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/16/asia/southeast-asia-snaring-crisis-hnk-intl/i
ndex.html