Tycoon who ate Thai black leopard plans to build highway through 'pristine' habitat in Myanmar

A Thai businessman caught poaching a rare black leopard plans to build a highway through a pristine forest in Myanmar that is home to endangered leopards and connects two tiger sanctuaries.

Conservationists, residents, and an armed ethnic group have all expressed concerns about the project.

"The very recent scandal, especially the president himself, caught red-handed poaching in the World Heritage site in Thailand … I think that raised a lot of scepticism about the governance of Italian-Thai," said Petch Manopawitr, deputy director of Indo-Burma for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Premchai Karnasuta is the president of Italian-Thai Development (ITD), a huge construction company.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/tycoon-to-build-highway-through-leopard-habitat-in-myanmar/9510034