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Today, I wanted to share something really special with you. While on my adventures in Thailand, I had the honor of visiting the Nature Reserve Forests in Pai. To learn more about them, check out their website here.
Before coming to Thailand, I really wanted to see an elephant up close. After doing hours of research on the Internet, I learned that most “elephant sanctuaries” and “elephant camps” were in fact pretty unethical. I didn’t want to support any place that used elephants for profit, and I definitely did not want to ride an elephant. I was about to give up on seeing an elephant in Thailand, when I stumbled upon Nature Reserve Forests.
This non-profit, works to restore the forest by using elephant poop as fertilizer. With this method, they were able to plant over 250K trees in 2017. In just 3 years of hard work, they grew a forest that usually takes 10 years to grow! They focus on plants that are near extinction and they are working on reviving the lands in Thailand. This year their goal is to plant 1 million trees! What an amazing goal.
I learned that each forest of trees they start has a ripple affect. The seeds of the trees are spread further when animals and insects carry the seeds. Their work is actually spreading plant life everywhere.
I had such an amazing experience at Nature Reserve Forest. I left more educated about deforestation and learned a lot about elephants. Did you know that there are only 40,000 elephants left on earth? There are only 4,700 elephants left in Thailand, and it is estimated that Thailand elephants will become extinct in the next 30 years. We NEED to do something about this!
So far, Nature Reserve Forest has rescued 4 elephants. As this non-profit is privately funded, they work really hard to save enough money to buy an elephant and rescue it from a terrible situation.
During my visit at Nature Reserve Forest, I got to meet Cammie, and I fell in love with this elephant. Cammie’s past is quite sad. People in Burma illegally owned her. She lived a hard life, dragging logs up and down mountains. When you look at her feet, her toenails are all ripped up from so much labor-intensive work. When she arrived at Nature Reserve Forest, she looked like she was an 80 year old elephants, when in fact she is only 31 years old. She was so skinny; no one knew that she was actually pregnant! For around 50K, they were able to buy her and give Cammie the life she deserves.
Nature Reserve Forests, is looking to adopt another elephant, so that Cammie can have a buddy. Elephants are quite social, and need the company of other elephants. As Nature Reserve Forest, currently cannot afford to purchase another elephant right now, they found Cammie a human buddy, Lung Chon, that hangs out with her 24/7. He is a guru when it comes to elephants, and he helps take care of her. Fun fact, Cammie, actually picked him to be her personal buddy.
(Here she is with Lung Chon)
Cammie’s journey will not end here. After she delivers her baby and her baby is strong, Nature Reserve Forest plans on donating her and her baby to the national park in Thailand, where she can live the rest of her life in peace with other elephants. Currently there are 91 elephants in the park. Elephants are not meant to be with people, they are meant to be with their own kind in the wild.
For now she spends her days at Nature Reserve Forest wandering and exploring the land. She gets to meet new friends like me, once a day for only 3 hours, where we are able to feed her bananas! She has to eat 40 kilos of bananas a day. It is our job to give them to her.
Cammie is such a character, as she is so spoiled here. She only eats bananas that are perfectly ripe and she prefers them pealed. If she is not satisfied with the banana, she will just throw it on the ground!
I love that Nature Reserve Forest, does not force her into the water so that tourists can “bath” them. In fact, there is no set plan. Cammie goes as she pleases and stays as long as she likes. Typically after banana feeding, Cammie leaves for the day, but for some special reason, she decided to hang out with us the whole day. I felt so honored and I totally felt the love from her. It was such a magical experience, that when I left, I was tearing up. It is such a magical thing to be so close to an amazing creature.
I am so happy that I found Nature Reserve Forest and I learned about all of the amazing things they are doing for the environment and elephants. I hope this posts educates the public about animal cruelty and deforestation.
100% of the money made on this post will be donated to Nature Reserve Forest! Lets help this amazing non-profit out! Now more than ever, we need to unite together to save this plant.
I hope the money this post makes will give them a head start to adopt the next elephant they are looking to rescue. This next elephant will cost about 80K, so every bit helps!
Please upvote so we can give them a big donation! Thanks! Let’s show them what this Steemit community is all about. They do accept bitcoin, so I will be sending our love to them in crypto currency! YAY!
love,
Karen
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