Assessing the status and threats of green peafowl in Cambodia

The green peafowl, globally classified as Vulnerable, has one of the most striking plumages in the avian world. Cambodia is thought to support a large proportion of the global population of this pheasant, but precise information on its distribution is incomplete.

As part of the Cambodian Galliformes Conservation Programme, intensive surveys in three key areas of Cambodia have been undertaken to provide detailed information on the status and threats of green peafowl. So far, surveys have been carried out during the dry season in the Northern and Eastern Plains of Cambodia and in the lowland areas of the Cardamom Mountains.

Using survey techniques designed especially for this species, to date 80 point counts have been conducted and 218 calling males recorded. Allowing for repeated calls of males during the counts, there are estimated to be 120 males inhabiting the areas surveyed. A range of habitat data was also collected and both sets of data can now be intricately analysed. Preliminary results appear to confirm that Cambodia is very important for green peafowl and also suggest that, like many other species, a range of threats are ever-present.

Future work will include further surveys to give as accurate an assessment of the species status as we can provide.  We are also planning to develop a project that utilises the belief in sacred species and sites, where people have respect for animals and forests for religious and cultural reasons, which is still strong in Cambodia.  Some of these sacred sites and the beliefs that protect the species they contain are amongst the strongest form of protection that exists in the country. The project plans to use this highly effective form of protection to conserve important habitats and the species they contain, using green peafowl as a flagship species.  At the same time, this project intends to promote the importance of maintaining traditional beliefs and culture as a way of protecting environmental services, important for improving livelihoods.