Shinta Mani Wild sits on 350 hectares of
protected rainforest.
But Wild is shaped by something far larger:
a 3,500-hectare watershed of ridgelines, forested slopes,
gullies, springs, streams, riverlets, waterfalls and rain.
We have identified the ridgelines that define this watershed.
They are not just lines on a map. They are the natural
fortress of Wild. Defending the watershed right up to those
ridgelines is how we protect the cleanliness of the water.
And water is everything here.
Any pollution entering this system could travel quickly
through the valley. It could damage the river, poison pools,
disturb breeding grounds, and threaten the animals that
depend on clean water every day, our family of
smooth-coated otters, turtles, terrapins, fish, frogs,
kingfishers, hornbills, insects, plants, and the whole
astonishing river community.
Inside these ridgelines, our goal is simple and ferocious:
zero poaching, clean water, a rewilded forest, and the return of
plant and animal diversity to a richness this valley may have
known a hundred years ago.
In the dry months, the river may seem like one
beautiful, muscular line through the valley. In peak rainforest
season, it reveals its true nature.
Wild is not one river then. It is a whole valley of water,
riverlets rushing from every fold of land, waterfalls waking up,
rocks disappearing, gullies filling, and every stream
doing its damnedest not to become a flood.
That is why the ridgelines matter.
The river is not alone. It is made by the hills, the trees, the rain,
the soil, the roots, the gullies, the slopes and the forest that
holds it all together. Protecting Wild means protecting more than
the beautiful part beside the water.
It means defending the watershed.
The land on which Shinta Mani Wild sits is being legally
structured through the Shinta Mani Foundation so that
this valley remains wild in perpetuity.
NO SUBDIVISION.
NO MINING.
NO PLANTATIONS.
NO HUNTING.
NO POLLUTION ENTERING THE WATERWAYS.
NO CARELESS ROADS CARVED THROUGH THE
HEART OF IT.
The land is not decoration.
The river is not a view.
The forest is not atmosphere.
The water is not a backdrop.
They are the reason we are here.
