Trees for Elephants in Cambodia
Last month Bring the Elephant Home has been working in Cambodia to restore the forest of Phanon Kulen National Park. In the future part of the forest will serve as a wildlife sanctuary for animals in need. We helped to create a more natural habitat at the location that has been designed as future elephant land. We hope that soon some Cambodian elephants can retire from work and will be able to live here in freedom.
But before elephants could be brought to the forest, we need to create more biodiversity, attract more wildlife and grow elephant food on the land. With the support of the local tree nursery of FORRU, we could get over 3,000 very healthy seedlings of 8 native species. Off we went to Cambodia, to find volunteers and get these 3,000 trees planted as quickly as possible.
The forest looks quite depressing: a lot of open areas from illegal logging, big areas burned down and the fire even destroyed big trees. Sounds from hunters and chainsaws. A lot of work need to be done here.
The newly planted trees, a total of eight different natives species [Dipterocarpus alatus, Gardenia Sootepensis, Peltophorum Dasyrachis, Hymenodictyon orixense, Afzelia xylocarpa, Hydnocarpus ilicifolia, Knema Globulauria, Canarium Subulatum] might be just a drop in the ocean, but so needed here. We aim to organize two tree planting days, and let the workers clear the planting site and dig holes.
Trees Planters on Bikes
The first volunteers group is a local mountain bike group, with the cyclists of the national team of Cambodia. They love to go on a cycling tour to the national park, and are willing to plant some trees as well. In total 50 people join, and suddenly there’s a Bike for Elephants in Cambodia.
Bike for Elephants and Trees for Elephants on the same day takes a lot of energy. Everybody enjoyed the day a lot, and we got 1,200 trees planted. A bit less than we expected. Therefore we quickly needed to find another big volunteer group.
Primary School Children Tree planting Event
We visit a local school, near the national park: the Trapang Krasang Primary School and teacher Mr. Von Van Chom gives us a warm welcome. It’s the first time they are invited for an outdoor event, and they would love to join. The next day 110 children will help us to plant trees.
That means we need to arrange everything quickly: food and drinks, transportation, prepare the tree planting site, a gift and an educational program.
Like Thailand, big parts of Cambodia are flooded. Many people lost their income from rice fields, and the touristic city Siem Reap is under water.
The children of the school come from poor rural families, affected by the flood. The school doesn’t have any books for the children, not even notebooks or pens. Malaria is very common at the school. 275 students and just 4 very dedicated teachers.
During the introduction talk in the class room the next morning, the faces of the children are still a bit serious. But when we start an elephant quiz game, the ice is broken. While we are waiting for the truck to arrive, we play with the kids in front of the school.
At the planting site, the young volunteers are unstoppable: they even plant trees during the break, they run through the field to bring new trees, and even though it’s hot, they plant almost the whole area in just 1,5 hour!
How wonderful to spend the day with these lovely kids. Between planting, we sing songs, play games and try to communicate without common language. We leave the school with a bit of a sad feeling to say good bye to them, with many flowers from the kids but with a satisfied feeling about the inspirational day. The teacher say that he learned a lot about the importance of the forest and that he will try to educate the children more about this in the future.
A day for Angkor Wat, and back to Thailand for the last tree planting event of 2011.
