The family risking it all to save a Cambodian forest
Updated
Almost every night the sounds of chainsaws and gunshots keep Ben Davis awake.
Armed with torches and bush knives, he heads out with a group of local men on potentially deadly patrols. He's determined to save a last patch of Cambodian forest in Preah Vihear — a remote province up on the Thai border.
It brings them face-to-face with loggers and poachers who are often armed and dangerous.
Recently they caught poachers with a homemade gun and a bag of lifeless monkeys. Wild meat for the black market is lucrative, but illegal.
Sprung, the men surrendered their catch — but it didn't stop them coming back.
The same group were caught again, this time sawing up the priceless timber, rosewood. It's been logged to near extinction in Cambodia and fetches tens of thousands of dollars a cubic metre on the Chinese market.
"Some people think we're being too aggressive — especially the loggers," 50-year-old Ben says.
"On the other hand, there are people who think we're not being aggressive enough."
Ben, his Australian wife Sharyn and their two daughters, Amelie, 12, and Jarrah, 7, have lived in the house they built in the heart of the forest for more than two years.
Inside their loving and lively home, a stack of confiscated rifles rests against the wall — a testament to the risks they are taking.
The 6,400-hectare Phnom Tnout forest has an ancient history, where towering trees sprout from a 12th Century stone quarry, in the shadow of Sugar Palm Mountain, and stretch across picturesque valleys, on into the horizon.
Local communities are divided: ardent environmentalists who want the forest to survive for future generations are up against the very loggers and poachers exploiting its valuable wood and wildlife.
Pov Yat, 50, heads a local committee to protect the woodland, and says the Davis' work has already led to a dramatic decline in forest crimes.
"It's good. It helps to take care of our environment and natural resources," Yat says.
Cambodia has the highest rate of deforestation in the world, according to the US-based World Resources Institute, and the Davis family fears that without action now to protect what's left, it will all be destroyed.
The Provincial government has declared Phnom Tnout a "community forest", putting it under the guardianship of the nearby Ta Bos village, with which the Davis family work closely.
However, the central Government has stalled on giving a final approval, and the family have no legal right to the area.
"We are going ahead anyway and worrying about that later," Sharyn says.
"Our goal is to protect the area, so we can't really sit around waiting while the forest is destroyed."
Before moving to Cambodia, Sharyn studied accounting in Sydney, but felt she wanted more in her life.
"I got the idea that I wanted to be helpful," she says.
"And I also wanted to live for a while in a more exotic location."
She met Ben in Cambodia in 1996, and was inspired by this passionate environmentalist from the US. They hatched a plan, and found a forest they could help.
Earlier this year they opened an eco-resort, and hope it will show locals the forest is more valuable to them preserved, than if it is pillaged for short-term gain.
Pov Yat says the community is encouraged by the family's efforts, and the idea of tourism.
"I hope to rent my home to tourists and get money from it," he says.
The Davis family pays locals to patrol the forest, and set up a community development fund — with projects including infrastructure, health care, and water and sanitation programs.
They are working with the community to establish zones for traditional uses, such as fishing, resin-tapping and collecting medicinal plants.
"This kind of project is something I've dreamed about since I first saw the area," Ben says.
"I would like to see some of the forest and wildlife left for the future."
But they are up against powerful forces.
In 2014, logging tycoon Try Pheap gutted almost all the forest's stock of rosewood.
Mr Pheap is an associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and holds the honorific title Okhna — bestowed on those who donate more than $130,000 to the state.
Anti-corruption watchdog, Global Witness labelled him a "timber-gangster", and accused him of amassing a vast fortune.
A clandestine investigation last year found his organisation smuggled 900 cubic metres of protected forest timbers a day from Sihanoukville Port, destined for China.
Through 2014, much of that timber was sourced from Phnom Tnout.
In recent months loggers have returned. They are taking dead leftovers and any precious wood missed last time.
There has also been a rise in poaching.
"We have picked up over 300 snares in the last two months, but they continue to lay more," Ben says.
Forest animals including sambar deer, and banteng — an endangered cattle species — are being hunted.
Ben and Sharyn are still working out what's driving this renewed assault.
"We are not sure who is doing it right now but they are taking anything," Sharyn says.
Despite the challenges, the growing support of local Cambodians is encouraging and the family is feeling optimistic.
"Seeing a younger, educated and hopefully influential generation starting to really value the environment is making us a bit more hopeful for the future of Cambodian forests," Sharyn says.
Topics: forests, rain-forests-and-forest, conservation, community-and-society, family, cambodia
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