The PATT Foundation has established a native tree nursery at the village of Sap Tai, adjacent to the World Heritage Site Khao Yai National Park. One of the aims of the project is to produce quality native trees to use for forest restoration projects within the region. Certain areas adjacent and also within the national park have been degraded by a number of human activities (illegal grazing, hunting, invasive weeds). There is now a concerted effort to address this and restore degraded forest to healthy forest and thus expand the habitat available to the parks wildlife, some of which are regionally and globally threatened. PATT has also developed the nursery as an Education Center for visiting school groups and the local community. A reforestation trail was established to educate students and interested individuals on topics such as forest ecology and habitat restoration techniques. This not only assists with conservation efforts in the region but also globally. The reforestation will help to combat and reduce the impact of climate change.

Who it benefits: There are numerous beneficiaries from this project 

• The local environment will benefit, there will be an increase in local flora and fauna diversity as a result of our forest restoration work.
• Globally, the planting of trees will assist with climate change mitigation. Local communities will benefit from employment opportunities created by the project. There are both permanent employment for skilled nursery staff and casual employment required for site preparation and ongoing tree planting site maintenance.
• Local school children will receive free environmental education activities from our trained staff. Such opportunities are not regularly available within the Thai school curriculum.

Revenue generated from the project (see below) will allow us to host groups of underprivileged children at the site. Funding needed: The funding requested annually is GBP 15000. This money covers the ongoing costs of running our nursery and education center at Sap, Tai for one year. The running costs include;

• Staff salary (local staff employed)
• Utility cost (power, water)
• Seedling/sapling production cost (potting mix, bags etc.)
• Cost of running the education program within the local community (involves taking local schools on planting trips)
• Cost associated with establishing and monitoring tree planting sites
• Nursery facility maintenance

More Information:

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