Tiger Reintroduction in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains Could Generate Significant Tourism Revenue

A study published in PARKS: The International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation has found that reintroducing tigers to Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains Landscape could generate significant economic and conservation benefits, linking biodiversity restoration with diversification of Cambodia's tourism sector. Cambodia welcomed approximately 6.7 million international visitors in 2024, generating nearly 3.6 billion US dollars in tourism revenue.

The Cardamom Mountains Landscape in Koh Kong province is one of Southeast Asia's most important remaining forest ecosystems and has been identified as a candidate site under the Cambodia Tiger Action Plan for tiger reintroduction. The paper, titled 'Tourism Potential of Tiger Reintroduction in Cambodia: Linking Conservation with Economic Futures', draws on international case studies of successful tiger recovery programmes to assess the potential for nature-based tourism development around a restored big cat population. The authors argue that Cambodia's extensive protected area network and significant biodiversity offer major opportunities that have yet to be fully developed for tourism.

While Cambodia is globally recognised for cultural heritage tourism centred on Angkor Wat, nature-based tourism remains underdeveloped relative to the country's ecological assets. Tiger reintroduction, if managed effectively, would attract wildlife tourism from international visitors seeking experiences unavailable elsewhere in mainland Southeast Asia. The economic case rests on established evidence from tiger recovery programmes in India and Nepal, where protected areas with viable tiger populations generate substantial direct and indirect economic benefits for surrounding communities.

Successful tiger reintroduction would require robust habitat assessment, prey base restoration, anti-poaching capacity building and community engagement to prevent human-wildlife conflict. The India-Cambodia comparison is instructive but imperfect: governance capacity, enforcement infrastructure and community relations in the Cardamom Mountains would need significant strengthening before translocation could be responsibly executed. The study's authors recommend that economic analysis be integrated with conservation planning from the outset to build the political and community support needed for a long-term programme.

Key figure — US$3.6 billion in tourism revenue generated by Cambodia in 2024