Illegal snares killing SE Asia wildlife
The animals of Southeast Asia’s tropical rainforests are under threat. As if deforestation and habitat degradation weren’t enough to contend with, cheap, easy-to-produce illegal snares are being set at an alarming rate in the last refuges for wildlife in the region, indiscriminately killing and maiming ground-dwelling mammals and birds.
A new study, co-authored by two WWF conservationists, has found that these illegal snares are a more severe threat to the biodiversity of Southeast Asia than forest degradation caused by logging. This reinforces the belief already held by many conservationists that snaring is having a truly devastating effect on the wildlife of the Greater Mekong region and has major implications for how conservation work should be conducted in the region.
