More than 250 students kept FREELAND’s Community Outreach Team Leader Sayan Raksachart busy as our Mobile Education Unit visited numerous local schools over recent months, delivering fun lessons focused on the biology and behavior of Clouded Leopards, as well as efforts to understand and protect them.

Clouded Leopards are a vulnerable, distinctive, mid-sized wild cat species native to Southeast Asia. Find out more about the species from our friends at the Clouded Leopard Project.

With teaching materials and financial support from the Point Defiance Zoo, and the help of staff from Khao Yai and Tap Lan national parks, the Mobile Unit taught students about the importance of habitat conservation and ranger patrols to protect the species.

Lessons focus on fun, hands-on activities, including songs, pantomime and making plaster-molds of animal footprints – a technique used for identification and monitoring.

Help us nurture more future wildlife conservationists in Thailand’s schools with a donation to support the Mobile Education Unit.

Yesterday, Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s Chang[e] Caravan set off from Khao Yai to send a message to the world’s political leaders to act against the threat of disastrous climate change.

‘Chang’ means ‘Elephant’ in Thai, one of the most revered creatures in the country, but elephants can suffer greatly when removed from the wild. Five Asian Elephants in the Caravan were rescued and rehabilitated from Bangkok’s streets by the Thai Elephant Research and Conservation Fund.

Over the next two weeks, the elephants and activists will travel 250km south to the outskirts of the capital to raise awareness about the delicate interconnection between wildlife and climate.

Before setting off, mahout elders held a ceremony, praying to the spirits of ancestor mahouts for safety and luck on the journey. Thai Buddhist monks also blessed the caravan.

Along the way they will hold activities for students and communities on elephant and forest conservation, climate change impacts and renewable energies. Follow the caravan’s progress on Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s blog.

Late last month, FREELAND trialed a new reforestation approach – planting trees that will bear edible fruits and foliage to encourage animals and life to rapidly return to forest areas damaged by encroachment.

Almost 200 children from five schools in the Lampiek and Kok Krachai districts joined park rangers, FREELAND staff and villagers to plant the trees in a 20 rai area of the remote Thap Lan National Park, which extends east from Khao Yai in the forest complex.

In total, more than 2,500 trees were planted as part of FREELAND’s Edible Foliage Pockets trial [more on this concept soon], including:

Like previous reforestation projects, this planting during the rainy season gives saplings the best chance to thrive.

In addition to restoring habitat for wildlife and helping to mitigate global warming, FREELAND reforestation activities are organized to provide:

• Employment for local villagers;
• Positive engagement between local communities and park protection authorities;
• Education on the importance of conservation for local students;
• An opportunity for citizen and Corporate Social Responsibility.

This project was made possible with the kind support of Khun Jiroj Nimmannit and Sanctuary V. Please contact FREELAND if you would like to be involved in the next reforestation project.

Professional and amateur photographers, photography enthusiasts and students are invited to submit photo entries to the first ASEAN-wide photo contest “Zooming in on Biodiversity”.

Open until August 30th, 2009, the contest for residents of Southeast Asian countries is being run by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity to promote regional public awareness about the importance of biodiversity conservation.

Photo entries should highlight:

• Biodiversity, including plants, animals, marine life, or ASEAN Heritage Parks
• Threats to biodiversity and how it affects people’s lives
• The connection between biodiversity and climate change
• Biodiversity as source of livelihoods, such as ecotourism
• Initiatives to protect biodiversity resources

More than USD7,000 in prizes are up for grabs. Visit the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity website for more details.

The opening of this confronting public service announcement (PSA) about wildlife trafficking from FREELAND was filmed at Khao Yai National Park’s stunning Haew Suwat Waterfall (location of a breathtaking scene in Danny Boyle’s The Beach).

The PSA’s star is a Slow Loris, an animal commonly poached from protected areas to be sold into the illicit pet trade. Listed as vulnerable to endangered on the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species, these cute little creatures are in more demand than Leonardo DiCaprio, but have a tough time surviving outside their natural habitat.

Produced by AsiaWorks Television Bangkok and featuring music specially composed by Damien Rice, this FREELAND PSA is designed to alert everyone to the fact that:

“Thousands of wild animals are trafficked through airports every day.”

These animals belong in the wild. Please share this message with your friends.

UPDATE: View ‘behind-the-scenes’ footage, who said working with kids and animals wasn’t fun?

More than 100 students attended a three-day youth camp at Khao Yai last month to learn about the forest, wildlife, and the importance of nature conservation.

The camp kicked off on Thailand’s National Forest Conservation Day (Jan 14) with fun educational activities, such as hiking, bird watching and identifying animal tracks, all organized by Khao Yai and FREELAND staff.

Students also learned about poaching threats to Khao Yai’s wildlife, and ongoing efforts by rangers, conservation groups and other supporters to protect the park.

With six local schools involved, many new friendships were formed as students pitched tents, sung folk songs and put on campfire theatre shows about what they’d learned.

On the final day, students helped plant 3,000 trees donated by Leschaco (Thailand), as part of ongoing efforts to reforest an area of the park cleared by human encroachment.

With continued support for conservation, these students will someday be able to revisit their trees in a restored part of the forest complex providing habitat for diverse species of wildlife again.

Organic mushroom farming is a great way for villages around Khao Yai to make a living, as an alternative to cutting trees or poaching wildlife from the park.

Last month, FREELAND brought in a group of experts from the Phra Dabos Foundation’s Mushroom Cultivation in Sufficiency Agriculture Program to help Kok Sa-ard Village, just north of Khao Yai, further increase productivity and markets for its small-scale mushroom growing enterprises, set up with FREELAND’s help.

21 villagers participated in the three-day training, which covered everything from the basics of mass mushroom pack preparation, through to natural preservation methods to create ready-to-eat snack products and extend the shelf-life of produce.

Trainers also explained how to recycle materials to eliminate waste; and provided advice on dealing with changes in climate, such as the current cold snap.

Boonlert Thaitatkul, the lead instructor from Phra Dabos with over 35 years experience in mushroom cultivation, provided villagers with design plans and supervised the first stages of construction of an improved model cultivation house.

As this new knowledge is shared, it is hoped that low-impact organic agriculture will become an even more attractive option for villages on the edges of Khao Yai, ensuring a more sustainable and harmonious relationship with the forest.

FREELAND thanks the Phra Dabos Foundation for their time and expertise, and the Blue Moon Fund for making this training and the projects possible.

Last week, 3,000 trees were planted as part of ongoing efforts to regenerate a deforested area at the edge of Khao Yai National Park.

More than 100 students from six local schools helped plant trees covering 10 rai of land, on a reforestation day sponsored by Leschaco (Thailand). Leschaco staff joined the students, FREELAND and Khao Yai rangers to get their hands dirty planting saplings grown by nearby village communities.

FREELAND thanks all the student volunteers and Leschaco for their ‘hands-on’ contribution restoring habitat for Khao Yai’s wildlife and helping the fight against global warming.

If you would like to support our next reforestation day, please contact FREELAND.

Junior Thai bird enthusiasts transformed into hornbills at FREELAND’s education booth for the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand’s Free the Birds event in Bangkok’s Railway Park.

Over a sunny weekend last month, staff helped children construct their own beaks and learn about Hornbill behaviour. Parents also got involved – learning about threats to the species from climate change and the exotic pet trade.

Visitors to the booth purchased mushroom packs from FREELAND’s Khao Yai community outreach projects to grow organically at home. FREELAND’s outreach projects provide sustainable livelihood alternatives to poaching.

The Bird Conservation Society of Thailand runs bird watching trips to Khao Yai for young and old (next trip scheduled for December 21). See their website for details and other great resources on Thailand’s amazing bird life.

More than 1,000 local students kept FREELAND’s Khao Yai Education Outreach Team busy between July and September.

With the help of a teaching kit donated by the Point Defiance Zoo, groups of students learned about the biology and behaviour of big cats, such as clouded leopards and tigers. The importance of wildlife and habitat conservation was emphasized through songs and games.

For those who couldn’t trade their classroom for the expansive forests of Khao Yai, FREELAND’s Mobile Education Unit was also on the road.

FREELAND thanks Point Defiance Zoo for helping to educate the next generation of Thai nature lovers.