Spanish company mulls game park in Cambodia

Spanish Company Mulls Game Park In Cambodia: Official -AFP
PHNOM PENH (AFP)--Cambodia is considering allowing a Spanish company to set up a game park with five-star facilities for well-heeled hunters in a remote northern province, officials said Tuesday.
Madrid-based NSOK Safaris has proposed opening the game reserve on more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) in Ratanakkiri province, according to senior wildlife official Chheang Dany.
"This is high-class eco-tourism...The plan is to accommodate VIP guests," said Chheang Dany, deputy director of the Forestry Administration's wildlife protection office.
The proposal, which is being studied by the agriculture ministry, would help diversify Cambodia's tourism offerings beyond the famed Angkor Wat temple complex.
"After visiting Angkor Wat, tourists can go to the beach and then to see the forest and go hunting," he said.
Experts are considering allowing 30 species to be hunted including, wild cattle and pigs, as well as deer and guars, he added.
Many of the animals are already being lost to poachers, and Chheang Dany said the game reserve would be a way of regulating hunters.
"This is a good way to protect the animals and the forest," he added.
Enrique Maestre, speaking on behalf of NSOK Safaris, told the English-language Cambodia Daily that the company wouldn't allow hunting of endangered species.
"Please do not forget that our project is a community development one and is ecologically sustainable," he said in the paper.
The government is trying to persuade tourists to stay longer and see sights other than the World Heritage-listed Angkor temples, tapping into a number of other areas such as eco-tourism.
Tourism is one of the few sources of foreign exchange for impoverished Cambodia.