Posted on November, 11 2016

Much has happened over the past three months in the Easter Plains Landscape (EPL) in regard to Law Enforcement. The ministry of Environment organised a one-week ranger training for the rangers in the area with training in many areas including weapon maintenance and patrolling tactics. With these newly acquired skills, over the last 3 months, a total of 4793.58km were patrolled in the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary (PPWS) and 12813.620 in the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS). Within these patrols over 1721 snares were found and destroyed, over 20 illegal camps were found and destroyed and over 100 warning letters were issued.

The Mobile Enforcement Unit (MEU) was established in May and has since successfully done a lot of successful work. Their first assignment was on the 26^th of May 2016 and they have achieved a lot since then. They collaborated with the provincial police and were supported by judicial officers from court offices in order to implement road blocks, restaurant checks and market raids.

The MEU was also invited to participate in the training of Wildlife Scan. Wildlife Scan uses smartphones in order to accurately identify a confiscated species and charge the appropriate amount for wildlife crime and violators.
Two hotline numbers have been activated to relevant stakeholders, 64 billboards have been constructed and 6 hotline numbers have been posted in restaurants aimed at non formal informants. This is important because it gives people the opportunity to report illegal behaviour and assist the MEU.

Though there are many challenges that come along with field patrolling, like for example heavy rains can flood the canals making it difficult to do on-foot patrols and violators may not cooperate; the team has still managed to do an excellent job on protecting the EPL from illegal loggers and poachers.