Cardamom Mountains

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Illegal logging camp in the Cardamom Mountains

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The mountains Chuor Phnom Kravanh ( Khmer script, German Kravanh Mountains or Cardamom Mountains, Thai: ทิว เขา บรรทัด, Thio Khao Banthat ), is a mountain range extending in southwest Cambodia along the Gulf of Thailand.

The Cardamom Mountains is divided geographically into two zones. The Cardamom range in the north consists mainly of sandstone. To the east of the mountains is with the Phnom Aural ( 1,813 m) the highest mountain in the country. South of this summit is the smaller elephants Mountains ( Chuor Phnum Damrei ), which reached heights of up to 1100 m.

Ecology

With the southern Vietnamese island of Phú Quốc it forms, according to the WWF a common ecoregion.

Wildlife

The forest of the Cardamom Mountains is one of the last intact rain forests in Southeast Asia. It is home to the largest population of Asian elephants in Cambodia as well as other rare 74 species. So is the rain forest of the Cardamom Mountains, among other Indochinese tiger habitat and the smaller Malaysian Tiger, the clouded leopard, the Siamese crocodile, the sun bears and the Pileated. In the forests of the mountain is also home to more than 250 species of birds, which corresponds to approximately half of the Cambodian bird species.

Tourism

The Cardamom Mountains are a popular destination for ecotourism, which is a source of income for the local population, while gently deal with nature.

Mineral resources

The sensitive and species-rich ecosystem of the Cardamom Mountains is possibly threatened by a planned, up to 20,000 acres, titanium mining the private mining company United Khmer Group.