#Tag 33: Conserve Natural Forests

Today we made our way to Miguel. He is Mexican and owns 90,000 square kilometers of land here in Pai, where he has founded an organization that takes care of reforestation in the region (Conserve Natural Forests). With this, they aim to counteract climate change and give something back to the earth. Everything on their site is very makeshift. For example, there is no electricity at all. This is because once they have reforested a certain area, they move on with their camp and reforest the next area. By chance, they also have an elephant named Kami on their site for the past 8 months. She was rescued from the usual tourist attractions where she was beaten and kept under terrible conditions. Now she has the entire area to get used to nature again before being released into the national park. And by a stroke of luck, she is pregnant and will give birth to her baby elephant in 2 to 3 months. In this reserve, she is only with humans for 3 hours a day, the rest of the time she spends alone.

Kami was naturally the absolute highlight for us. We were allowed to feed her with 40kg of bananas and watch her play in the water. Compared to the Elephant Park in Phuket, which also takes care of the elephants, here you really get the feeling that the elephants are living in freedom.

Since Miguel's project is primarily about reforestation, we were also allowed to plant a tree. We planted a palm tree, whose seeds are eaten by squirrels.

In general, everything is grown there organically and without the use of chemicals. We were able to convince ourselves of this when it came to the food.

So, if you happen to be in Pai, be sure to visit Miguel.

His link: http://conservenaturalforests.org