by Michael Sheridan and Tom Fawthrop
Preah Vihear, Cambodia

The stalls appear to offer a cornucopia of forbidden species, with tiger parts simply the most conspicuous among heaps of protected mammals aimed at consumers seeking longevity, improved digestion and amorous prowess. However, good news has emerged in these wild northern borderlands: the tiger is flourishing.

Conservationists are hailing the findings of a comprehensive survey by an American group called Cat Action Treasury. It shows that an estimated 700 adult tigers are present where there were thought to be only 200. The 500 newly discovered animals are a significant addition to a worldwide population that has been estimated at 6,000 in the wild.

In Cambodia, they have survived the vicissitudes of 30 years of conflict and a profitable illicit cross-border trade in skin and bones, the latter prized as an ingredient for sexual performance-enhancing soups.

"Good for the man," shouts a Cambodian stallholder in cheerful Thai dialect, indicating a hunk of dried meat with a furry hide that looks all too stripily tigerish.

Villagers and soldiers nearby have taken to using home-made landmines to catch and kill tigers, according to Kep Youtema, the governor of Ratanakiri province. "They can't get them with guns so they put down mines," he said. The governor has ordered local officials to stop the killing.

However, it seems that while Cambodians hastened to settle political arguments by the gun, the endangered wild tigers managed to reproduce in jungles where war ensured that development stood still.

"The habitat here is ideal for tigers," said John Sellars, a Scottish police inspector turned conservationist. "There is a real opportunity to save them, but we have to be careful. If we proclaim that tigers are thriving then Cambodia could become a target for more poaching."

Sellars is head of the enforcement unit of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Last week he was in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, on a mission to heighten government awareness of Cambodia's wildlife heritage - a possible source of tourist income that could benefit its poverty-stricken people.

For much of the recent past, when the northeastern jungles were infested with Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge and rural people faced an ever-present threat of landmines, it was almost impossible to study the tigers.

Now that the nation is enjoying peace for the first time since 1970, many remote jungle areas have become accessible for the first time.

Sun Hean, deputy director of the Cambodian government's wildlife protection unit, said that since the beginning of this year a policy of stopping loggers from going into the forest had made business difficult for poachers. A government move to curb the lawless lifestyle in places such as Preah Vihear with a crackdown on illegal firearms has also cut back the hunt for tigers.

Tiger skins and bones fetch high prices. Hunters sometimes earn hundreds of dollars for delivering a carcass, although the big profits - as in the parallel narcotics trade - are made further up the chain by traders and middlemen.

"Thai traders sometimes offer the hunter the most popular motorcycle in these parts - a new Honda Dream 100cc," Sun said. "It is worth $1,500 - a hell of a lot of money in the countryside for one dead tiger."

The hope among Cites staff is that alternatives to poaching will develop to provide an economic basis for conservation.

"We cannot expect them to adopt western conservation ideals - we have to offer them alternative sources of income, which could include ecotourism and the setting up of tiger-watching opportunities for small groups of tourists," said Sellars.

"Tigers and people have to survive together."

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