Education of the local people about the bear to promote public support is the most important and immediate task of conservationists. Conversion of thousands of square miles of lowland forest to agricultural uses in Southeast Asia and the killing of bears by settlers are decimating the sun bear population. Bear habitat is destroyed when land is cleared to create coffee, rubber, and oil palm plantations. Meanwhile, reserves and parks are magnets for poachers because they often are the only areas where large animals remain. For instance, more than 60 well-used poacher camps were discovered recently in a Thai reserve.
Poachers sell the bears as pets or for their parts.
The insularization of reserves as the surrounding lands are developed compounds the problem, and because a sun bear's basic habitat needs are relatively unknown, existing reserves may not even be providing appropriate habitat. Conservation groups and government managers have shown little interest in sun bears, mainly because little is known about them. However, sun bear research projects were begun recently on Borneo. There are probably 8,000 to 22,000 sloth bears in the world, most living in central India's tropical dry deciduous forests. Already the bear is gone from much of its former range.