Place
Phnom Aural
ភ្នំឱរ៉ាល់
Phnom Aural (ភ្នំឱរ៉ាល់) is the highest mountain in Cambodia. The Ministry of Environment's zoning report and Thmey Thmey 25 give its height as 1,813 meters (5,948 feet).[1][2][3] It stands in the eastern Cardamom Mountains, where Pursat, Kampong Chhnang and Kampong Speu provinces meet.[3][4] The mountain lies within the Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary.[2]
The mountain
Two heights appear in the sources. The ministry's management plan gives 1,813 meters in its preface and 1,831 meters in its executive summary.[2] A 2007 survey of the mountain's reptiles and frogs also gives both: 1,831 meters, taken from a peak-listing website, in its description of the summit, and 1,813 meters in a figure caption.[4]
The same survey describes three bands of forest. Dry forest of dipterocarp trees covers the low ground at the base. Evergreen hill forest climbs the slopes to about 1,200 meters, and mountain evergreen forest runs from there to the summit, where the trees are stunted and covered in moss and lichen.[4] The survey added one frog, five lizards and seven snakes to the known animals of the area.[4]
Wildlife sanctuary
A royal decree of November 1, 1993 set up the Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary across Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu and Pursat.[2][1] A sub-decree of July 17, 2023 enlarged it to 258,172 hectares (about 997 square miles), adding 4,422 hectares of a conservation corridor in the Cardamom Mountains.[1][5] Its forests include evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous forest, bamboo and grassland.[1]
The ministry's management plan for 2022 to 2031 counts about 950 species in the sanctuary, among them 158 kinds of birds and 30 of mammals. In 2021, 84 camera traps recorded Asian elephants, clouded leopards, mainland serows, sun bears, dholes, gaurs and green peafowl, among other rare and threatened animals.[2]
People
The plan counts 8,436 households, or 37,988 people, living in and near the sanctuary. The only indigenous people recorded there are the Suoy: 431 families, or 2,476 people, in eight villages of two communes in Aural district, Kampong Speu (2017 figures). Most raise chickens and cattle, many grow rainy-season rice, and about one in ten gather forest products in the sanctuary.[2]
The plan names the threats to the sanctuary as land encroachment, forest clearing, illegal land sales and settlement, hunting and trapping of wildlife, logging, forest fires and charcoal kilns.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ministry of Environment, General Directorate of Natural Protected Areas, Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary zoning report (2024), copy on Open Development Cambodia
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Ministry of Environment, General Directorate of Natural Protected Areas, Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary 10-year management plan (2022 to 2031) (April 2025)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Thmey Thmey 25, Pursat province has 76 percent forest cover and many large mountains (July 17, 2021; in Khmer)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 L. Lee Grismer, Thou Chav, Thy Neang, Perry L. Wood Jr. and others, The herpetofauna of the Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary and checklist of the herpetofauna of the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia, Hamadryad 31(2) (2007)
- ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Sub-decree No. 194 on reclassifying Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary (undated)