Cambodia tailor made tour, nature & heritage

Planet

We aim to raise awareness of the need for environmental and cultural conservation among young people and local residents.

The biggest threat that wildlife in Cambodia faces today is the loss of habitat due to the clear-cutting of tropical forest for commerce. The southern Cardamom Mountains are the site of one of Asia's last seven fully intact wild elephant corridors and Cambodia's largest remaining contiguous old-growth forest.

The local villagers at Chi Phat had previously been extracting wildlife and timber from the nearby forests to supplement their meager farming incomes, resulting in an increasingly degraded local forest environment and devastation for the indigenous wildlife. The Community Based Eco Tourism project here aimed to provide these villagers with an alternate livelihood – ecotourism – while also setting up schooling and training opportunities to better their lives. In this way, the community becomes an integral part of the effort to preserve the area’s forest habitat, making the project sustainable.

Your visit provides local people with worthwhile jobs, enabling them to sustainably support their families. Your visit contributes to improving their health care, education and environment. Ecotourism helps prevent unsustainable use of forest resources, protecting the area’s natural heritage and culture.

Accommodation on the trip includes homestays in sustainable accommodations and transport by bicycle, a low-carbon form of transport!

People

This tour fits our philosophy of responsible and sustainable tourism. Wherever possible, we generate income for people living in poor areas by using local materials, transport, food and guides, and paying directly to the individuals concerned rather than intermediaries. By booking this tour, you’ll be helping us to support small businesses, boat owners, national park rangers and other poor people in these communities.

With the assistance of Wildlife Alliance, Chi Phat community members are working together to preserve the environment, while providing exciting and unique experiences for visitors. Villagers who once roamed the forest, their efforts to survive depleting the area of its environmental heritage, are now employed as guides leading trekking, mountain-biking, camping, and river boat tours through the wilderness surrounding both communities. Over 200 kilometers of hiking trails meander through the jungle, leading you to the rainforest’s natural wonders, deserted waterfalls, campsites, and post-Angkorian burial jar sites.

Villagers also operate homestays, guest houses, motorbike taxi services, and restaurants, giving visitors further insight into rural life in Cambodia. CBET Committee members are elected to manage the project and are provided ongoing training as they perform bookings, arrange itineraries, manage the accounting, and oversee community ranger patrols. A community waste management system has also been developed - one of the first of its kind in Cambodia.