Guarding the Rainforest

The forest shelters 54 species listed on the IUCN Red List, among them Malayan sun bears, pangolins, clouded leopards, and pileated gibbons. Protect the habitat and every one of them has a chance. Lose it and they vanish with it.

Wild was built to protect this rainforest so it, and its one of a kind residents, can thrive once again. The camp gives locals a real alternative to destructive work and channels room revenue straight into conservation. Around 120 people are employed here, 70% from the local village, many of them former poachers and loggers now paid to protect what they once took. In addition we run a hospitality school and many of the graduating students work in our Shinta Mani hotels.

Founded in 1995 by Suwanna Gauntlett, Wildlife Alliance is an international nonprofit with ongoing programs across Cambodia. Its armed rangers patrol the Cardamom Forest, dismantling snares, arresting poachers and loggers, and seizing chainsaws and homemade guns. Wild covers all of their expenses and equipment, and built a ranger station at the highest camp in the valley.

Rangers have cleared 17,711 snares from the forest floor, seized 984 chainsaws and 25 bulldozers, and confiscated more than ten thousand pieces of illegal wood. Each trap pulled and each blade taken is one less way to empty this forest. It is a battle, and it never ends.

On the good days, rangers release captured animals back where they belong. So far 199 have gone home: 129 turtles, 27 pythons, 12 civets, wild boar, porcupines, a slow loris, and a single sun bear. Proof that protection works.

Royal University graduates serve as the camp's naturalists. Mr Munny runs a network of camera traps that keeps tabs on the property's biodiversity, from more than 140 butterfly species to the pileated gibbons, pangolins, and leopard cats that turn up on film. Ask him what walked past last night.

Since 2004, the Shinta Mani Foundation has worked to lift up the Cambodian community through education, healthcare, small business development, and environmental preservation, including the partnership with Wildlife Alliance. The aim is a thriving, vibrant Cambodia, one ripple at a time.