By collecting and planting a variety of indigenous trees, Wildlife Alliance's Tropical Reforestation Project works to reconnect fragmented rainforest in order to strengthen and increase continuous forest cover in the Southern Cardamom Mountain Range of Cambodia. Maintaining continuous forest in this region is critical to protect large mammal ranges and migration routes, safeguard the biological integrity of the forest's many different ecosystems, and preserve the watershed.
Forest loss threatens the existence of thousands of species that live in the forest, including those on the brink of extinction. Many of the world's indigenous people live in forests and rely on them to continue their way of life. Degradation of tropical rainforest jeopardizes water security by causing severe drought that further diminishes rainfall, humidity, and soil quality leading to even great threats to communities' livelihoods, health and economic growth.
Wildlife Alliance aims to stop deforestation in the Cardamom Mountains of Southwestern Cambodia. We work to reconnect and revive fragmented forest through a reforestation program that mitigates the damage incurred through years of slash-and-burn farming and provides sustainable, alternative income to local communities. The seeds of trees are collected from "mother trees" in the surrounding forest, sewn and cultivated at our Million Tree Nursery, and replanted in several depressed forest areas.
The Reforestation Project provides critical ecosystem services such as water storage, ground cover, erosion prevention, and a variety of habitats for birds, mammals, and other wildlife. The project increases forest cover, reconnects fragmented forests and combats the impact of slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging, while providing sustainable livelihoods to the very people who were previously engaging in those activities.
