Protected areas

Preserving and connecting habitats

Habitat loss and fragmentation are one of the key threats to species survival in the Greater Mekong. WWF is working to ensure that a sufficient area of ecologically healthy habitat is protected to sustain the biological diversity of the region.

Creating corridors to link isolated habitats

Populations of species, such as the Indo-Chinese tiger, can become isolated from each other. This isolation makes it difficult for them to find different breeding partners and thereby maintain  the genetic diversity required for a sustainable and healthy population.

In the Greater Mekong, 41.2% of the tiger's habitat remains¹. This is very promising for tiger conservation if the habitats are protected and linked together.
 
People and protected areas

Protected areas are also important to the many millions of people who rely on the Greater Mekong for their livelihoods and food security. Without areas that are protected from development the damage to the environment could mean that valuable, and currently renewable, natural resources are destroyed.

Quite often the people that live in and around protected areas are very poor and need land and natural resources for food security and cash income for basic necessities. Part of WWF's strategy  is to establish tenure to land and/or land-use rights for local people so that they have more incentive to use natural resources more sustainably.

Maintain the integrity of protected areas

It is not enough simply to declare an area as "protected". There is a lot of work by many organisations, government departments and communities to ensure that the integrity of protected areas are maintained and activities such as poaching and illegal logging are kept out.

WWF Greater Mekong's environmental education unit works with many communities and government agencies and also trains national park staff to monitor the biodiversity of parks and enforce park regulations. Some park rangers have also been trained to teach others to respect and protect the park.

Protected areas work in the ecoregions

Much of our work in this area is driven by our Ecoregion Action Programme as we ensure that the Greater Annamites Ecoregion and the Lower Mekong Dry Forests Ecoregion are adequately protected from industrial development.

Protected areas in the Greater Annamites Ecoregion

Our work to preserve habitats in the Lower Mekong Dry Forests Ecoregion


Protected areas projects:

• Green Corridor Project
• Srepok Wilderness Area Project
• Cat Tien National Park Conservation
• Protection Strategy for Two Elephant Priority Sites in Northeastern Cambodia
• Management of Strategic Areas for Integrated Conservation - MOSAIC

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¹ Setting Priorities for the Conservation and Recovery of WILD TIGERS: 2005-2015: User's Guide