From the AFP (via Google News);

As deforestation and a loss of natural prey threatens Siamese crocodiles with extinction, the farms that once helped endanger the species are now helping save it, conservationists say.

There are fewer than 50 Siamese crocodiles left in the wild in Thailand and about 200 in the entire Mekong river region, but thousands live on commercial farms designed to transform them into belts, shoes and handbags, or meat for export.

“(People) hunt the young to sell to the crocodile farms. For the big ones, they hunt for the skin, the hide,” says Chavalit Vidthayanon, a freshwater specialist with conservation group WWF.