Help plant 30,000 trees in Cambodia

Simon Gue is organizing this fundraiser.

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In the early 90's I worked in Cambodia with the 'Mekong Wheelchair' project. Revisiting Cambodia in 2025 I could see positive change for people with disabilities, but over the past 30 years the environment has suffered indiscriminate deforestation which is devastating rural livelihoods. I am raising funds for the '30,000 Trees' project which will build a series of micro-nurseries to address the need for environmental restoration in rural Cambodia through vegetable cultivation, education and regenerative tree planting. Help us to plant 30,000 trees.

Project Summary

The forced displacement of the population in Cambodia during the 1970s disrupted family units and has resulted in a two-generation gap of parent to child learning, especially regarding food cultivation and cultural environmental traditions. The livelihoods of Cambodia’s largely rural population are now at risk due to environmental change and unsustainable practices which are forcing people off the land and to migrate to low paid factory work in the cities and in Thailand.

Our dedicated Khmer team of 2 paid staff and a wonderful group of volunteers, will build a pilot 6m x 6m ‘micro nursery’ incorporating compost production, a demonstration tree nursery for 500 trees and an accessible vegetable garden. The micro nursery will be used to demonstrate self-sufficient composting methods, native tree cultivation as well as organic vegetable and fruit growing methods. The project will work with Karuna Battambang Organisation and other projects run by Jesuit Services in Cambodia.

Phase 1 - Our team will build the demonstration micro nursery. This simple but effective educational tool will be established on land owned by the Catholic Mission in Tahen Village near Battambang, Cambodia. Simple educational information will be developed to support the methodology demonstrated by our team.

Phase 2 - The project will replicate the pilot nursery in 5 schools, 5 communities and with 10 families with disabled family members. Each nursery will aim to grow 500 trees per year, process all the compost for its activities and grow a variety of organic vegetables and fruit in a wheelchair accessible environment. The management of the nursery and the ongoing costs will be the responsibility of the host. However, using a circular economic model the project will establish a scheme to provide native seed to the hosts and buy 1-year-old trees from the hosts, strengthening the future sustainability of the project.

Project Background

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Cambodia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world with primary forest falling from over 70% in 1970 to 3.1% in 2007 (FAO 2007). There is a urgent need for native tree cultivation to regenerate ecosystems on deforested land. This project provides an opportunity to combine native tree cultivation with food resilience education in rural communities in Cambodia.

Project Impact

The impact of the project will be different according to the location of each micro nursery.

• In schools the impact will be to educate a new generation in the environmental and ecological needs of the community as well as an individual respect for nature.

• In community spaces the impact will be to demonstrate food resilience and an understanding of need for restoration of ecosystems in Cambodia.

• In family smallholdings the impact will be to provide income generation to break the poverty cycle of families with disabled members, through vegetable and tree sales.

A Goal of 30,000 trees

Working with the Karuna Battambang Organisation and the Catholic Mission, the project aims to grow a total of 10,000 trees per year when fully implemented. Each micro-nursery implemented by the project will funded through the project, our aim is that once operational, each micro-nursery will become self-sustaining through tree sales.

The trees will be distributed in three ways.

Native forest trees will be sold to connected projects across Cambodia with the aim of regenerating native forest on protected land.

Fruit trees grown at school will be donated to the children to plant at home, further endorsing the respect for nature that they have learned at school.

Diverse and rare specimens, spiritually significant trees and trees with medicinal properties will be distributed to community projects and sites of significance.

Conclusion

This is a small-scale initiative which has the potential to be scaled according to available funding. The heart of the project will be the educational aspect of the pilot nursery and our dedicated team. The beneficiaries of the project will be rural communities of Cambodia who have seen their environments devastated by illegal deforestation and climate change.

The first trees of the project were planted in the Cambodian Peace Gallery Garden in Battambang, Northwest Cambodia in January 2025 by the Bishop of Battambang and members of our team.