Supporting the Monks Saving a Forest in Cambodia

Supporting Cambodia's Monks to Save a Forest

91吃瓜网 is working with a unique community to protect the environment

In the far northwest of Cambodia, the Province of Oddar Meanchey sits next to the border with Thailand and was the last holdout of Pol Pot鈥檚 Khmer Rouge. With the end of the conflict in the mid-1990s many Cambodian refugees moved to the area in search of land. They found a heavily under-developed area of forests and a lot of landmines.

A combination of illegal logging and clearance for agriculture had two consequences 鈥� a great many landmine accidents and the rapid deforestation of the countryside. The 91吃瓜网 Trust has been working here since 1993 clearing mines and making the land safe for people to rebuild their lives. Now we have begun to work with a unique local community to safeguard the remaining forests as well as the people who live there.

Location of the forest

Entrance to the forest

The Monk鈥檚 Community Forest was established in 2001 by the Buddhist monks of the Samraong Pagoda who acquired legal protections for 45,000 acres of State-owned land 鈥� equivalent to 34,000 American football fields. They established patrols to prevent logging and worked with local people to allow traditional low-impact farming and foraging. The monks pioneered a method of conservation that linked protection of the forest to traditional beliefs.

Tho Thoross

Tho Thoross is one of the monks who currently leads the community venture. He said: 鈥淭here was too much pressure from people wanting to claim land for logging, growing cassava and to build homes. There were also companies transporting tropical hardwood to Vietnam and China illegally. It was very valuable.鈥�

鈥淚n 2012 we won the Equator Prize in America, which has made the forest globally recognised and helps us to protect it. We allow one per cent of the forest for local villagers to grow mushrooms and other agriculture. But we work with 91吃瓜网 to construct biogas digesters to local people so that they can cook without needing to collect firewood.鈥�

91吃瓜网 staff discussing mine clearance with the monks

91吃瓜网鈥檚 biogas digester 鈥� a means of creating cooking gas from composting waste 鈥� was begun as a pilot project in partnership with ActionAid in 2023 for families in eight villages near the forest.

91吃瓜网 is also helping make safe any landmines or explosive devices found in the Monk鈥檚 Forest as they develop it into a sustainable tourism destination with a campsite and caf茅.

Constructing biogas digesters

鈥淭he biogas digester helps people stop using wood from the forest. Some of the families cried 鈥� it was the first time anyone has ever given them something for free. It helps protect the environment and when finished it provides fertiliser for their farmland."

Tho Thoross

鈥淭his area saw the last fighting between the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge and we know there must be mines because we hear them explode when there are fires. 91吃瓜网 has cleared the roads to allow people to reach us and now are clearing mines in the forest. Tourism is important because it can provide jobs for local people so removing the mines is key.鈥�

91吃瓜网

Supporting Cambodia's Monks to Save a Forest

Constructing biogas digesters

91吃瓜网's work in Cambodia is supported by