Elephants, otters return to Cardamom Tented Camp’s conservation area in Cambodia

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp in Cam­bod­ia has wit­nessed the return of a small herd of ele­phants to its con­ser­va­tion area, after an absence of five years. A large group of smooth-coated otters are back too.

Forest rangers dis­covered and pho­to­graphed ele­phant foot­prints and drop­pings inside the 18,000-hectare forest con­ces­sion, which the camp pro­tects, with help from Wild­life Alli­ance and the Golden Tri­angle Asi­an Ele­phant Found­a­tion (GTAEF).

“From the size of the dung and the num­ber of foot­prints, it seems that this is a herd of nine ele­phants com­pris­ing four adult females, their calves and one juven­ile,” said John Roberts of GTAEF, which has been fully fund­ing the ranger effort since COVID shut down tour­ism across the globe. “They have also been cam­era trapped and seen in the area south of our concession.”

In neigh­bour­ing areas out­side the camp’s pro­tec­ted zone there are rub­ber plant­a­tions and the con­struc­tion of a deep sea water port, hotel and airport.

“There is human traffic and a non-ideal envir­on­ment all around us,” said Roberts. “But wheth­er the ele­phants are on a long migra­tion or look­ing for a new home we are pleased to wel­come them to our forests and grass­lands. It’s an envir­on­ment they prefer. It comes with zero harassment.”

Lodge man­ager Allan Michaud, who is a wild­life pho­to­graph­er and con­ser­va­tion­ist, reports the return of a group of otters to the Preak Tachan river beside the camp. 

“There are around 15 to 18 of them, ran­ging over 20 kilo­metres of river, with the camp being pretty much at the centre of their ter­rit­ory,” said Michaud.

Guests often see otters, macaque mon­keys, king­fish­ers and horn­bills from their boat when they travel to the camp, which is only access­ible by river.

Wild­life is often seen by guests on hik­ing and kayak­ing trips. The camp has cre­ated a new 4 km trail, a con­tinu­ation of an exist­ing one. It means adven­tur­ous guests can now take an 8 km guided walk through the forest and return via kayak, with rest options at the main ranger sta­tion in each direction.

In Octo­ber, Car­damom Ten­ted Camp was included in the Green Des­tin­a­tions’ Top 100 Des­tin­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Stor­ies in the world. In 2019 the camp won the PATA Gold Award for Eco­tour­ism and was a top three final­ist in the World Travel & Tour­ism Council’s Tour­ism for Tomor­row Awards. In the same year, it was lis­ted in Nation­al Geo­graph­ic UK’s invit­a­tion-only list­ing of top 36 eco-hotels around the world which are lead­ing by example.

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp is once again open and oper­at­ing with a unique busi­ness mod­el. Part of the income from the lodge’s oper­a­tion goes towards the fund­ing of 12 forest rangers who pro­tect the area from log­gers, poach­ers and river sand­bank dredgers.

The camp there­fore has the slo­gan, “Your Stay Keeps the Forest Standing.”

Michaud said the Decem­ber to April peri­od in south­w­est Cam­bod­ia near the Thai bor­der is mostly blue skies with many days with no rain. “It is a per­fect time for hik­ing, kayak­ing, bird spot­ting or relax­ing on our river pon­toon with a good book.”

Fur­ther inform­a­tion on Car­damom Ten­ted Camp, includ­ing its back story, guest exper­i­ences, wild­life gal­lery, and book­ing is avail­able here.

About Cardamom Tented Camp

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp is an eco­lodge loc­ated in the foot­hills of the Car­damom Moun­tains in Cam­bod­ia. Offer­ing nine well-appoin­ted safari-style tents, the lodge aims to min­im­ize the human foot­print on the nat­ur­al world and serve as a role mod­el in pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able eco­tour­ism prac­tices with­in both the nation­al park and Cam­bod­ia as a whole. Loc­ated on an 18,000-hectare (180 km²) con­ces­sion, the lodge and its sur­round­ings are home to pristine low­land and coastal hab­it­ats link­ing wild­life cor­ridors to the Car­damom Moun­tains. Eco-friendly trekking and kayak­ing pack­ages are avail­able for adven­ture enthu­si­asts who are keen to be a part of real con­ser­va­tion work.

Car­damom Ten­ted Camp is a three-way ini­ti­at­ive between Minor Group, YAANA Ven­tures and Wild­life Alli­ance to ensure the land and its biod­iversity does not fall into the hands of log­gers, poach­ers and sand dredging operations.

Admin­is­trat­ive Office of Car­damom Ten­ted Camp
No. 25D, Street 294, Sangkat Tonle Bas­sac,
Chamkar­morn, Phnom Penh, Cam­bod­ia
Tel: +855 966 410 783 | Email: sales@cardamomtentedcamp.com