Isaan Aug 2008
30,000 trees on a future elephant island
During the tree-planting camp at Khao Yai I travel up and down to Baan Pai Noi. On an island near this village we will be planting 30,000 trees in one day, national tree-planting day in Thailand. Colleage Tik and PDA have prepared everything, and when I arrive in the middle of the night, I am told everything has been taken care of perfectly. Tomorrow 400 volunteers will come in!
When we arrive on the island the next morning, a giant field full of holes and bamboo stick is waiting for me. This is impressive! On the other side of the field people have already started planting, and more and more volunteers come in. Villagers, the local secondary school, volunteers from PDA, everybody immediately get to work. Within two hours the entire field is planted. One team will go and fertilise, the rest will plant the second island. This leaves plenty of room for the elephants and the cabins.
A VIP-field has been enclosed with red tape. The manager of PDA, the district leader and I have to officially plant a tree here. Now my tree has a place with a little fence around it. With the village and district leaders I discuss the visitors programme. The elephants can stay in the front part of the island, close to the petting zoo and the treehouse, which is already attracting Thai tourists. Food for the elephants has to be grown as soon as possible. Sugar cane, banana, or pineapple, or all three. I hope we will be able to find a bigger budget for this project, because there is so much to do here. I would love to go on right away! After the group photo and the final speech, I immediately travel back to Khao Yai.
