Skip to content
The HALO Trust
Contact Us | Recruitment | Media Enquiries
Donate
  • What we do

    • What we do

    • Our work

      • Our work

      • Teaching people to stay safe

      • Managing weapons and ammunition

      • Clearing landmines and explosives

    • Our impact

      • Our impact

      • Protecting lives

      • Making land safe

      • Creating jobs

      • Empowering women

    Our work

    • Teaching people to stay safe
    • Managing weapons and ammunition
    • Clearing landmines and explosives

    Our impact

    • Protecting lives
    • Making land safe
    • Creating jobs
    • Empowering women

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Where we work

    • Where we work

    • Africa

      • Africa

      • Angola

      • Cote D’Ivoire

      • Ethiopia

      • Ghana

      • Guinea Bissau

      • Kenya

      • Malawi

      • Mauritania

      • Mozambique

      • Nigeria

      • Somalia and Somaliland

      • Togo

      • Zimbabwe

    • Europe and Caucasus

      • Europe and Caucasus

      • Kosovo

      • Moldova

      • Nagorno Karabakh

      • Ukraine

    • South Asia

      • South Asia

      • Cambodia

      • Laos

      • Myanmar

      • Solomon Islands

      • Sri Lanka

    • Central Asia

      • Central Asia

      • Afghanistan

    • Latin America

      • Latin America

      • Colombia

      • El Salvador

      • Guatemala

      • Honduras

    • Middle East

      • Middle East

      • Iraq

      • Libya

      • Syria

      • West Bank

      • Yemen

    Africa

    • Angola
    • Cote D’Ivoire
    • Ethiopia
    • Ghana
    • Guinea Bissau
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritania
    • Mozambique
    • Nigeria
    • Somalia and Somaliland
    • Togo
    • Zimbabwe

    Europe and Caucasus

    • Kosovo
    • Moldova
    • Nagorno Karabakh
    • Ukraine

    South Asia

    • Cambodia
    • Laos
    • Myanmar
    • Solomon Islands
    • Sri Lanka

    Central Asia

    • Afghanistan

    Latin America

    • Colombia
    • El Salvador
    • Guatemala
    • Honduras

    Middle East

    • Iraq
    • Libya
    • Syria
    • West Bank
    • Yemen

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • About us

    • About us

    • Who we are

      • Who we are

      • Our history

      • Our people

      • Our partners

      • Stichting HALO Europe

    • Governance

      • Governance

      • Our trustees

      • Medical governance

      • Policies and safeguarding

      • Reports and strategy

    Who we are

    • Our history
    • Our people
    • Our partners
    • Stichting HALO Europe

    Governance

    • Our trustees
    • Medical governance
    • Policies and safeguarding
    • Reports and strategy

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Get involved

    • Get involved

    • Give

      • Give

      • Donate now

      • Donate monthly

      • Legacy giving

      • Corporate giving

      • Fundraising promise

    • Raise money

      • Raise money

      • Events and ideas

    • Join us

      • Join us

      • Newsletter sign up

    Give

    • Donate now
    • Donate monthly
    • Legacy giving
    • Corporate giving
    • Fundraising promise

    Raise money

    • Events and ideas

    Join us

    • Newsletter sign up

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Latest

    • Latest

    • Special Projects

      • Special Projects

      • Baptism Site

      • 100 Women in Demining in Angola

      • Protecting the Okavango

      • The Border Project

      • Cultivating Peace in the Horn of Africa

      • Women in WAM

    • HALO Updates

      • HALO Updates

      • News

      • Stories

      • Historias de America Latina

      • Beyond Bombs Podcast

      • In the media

    Special Projects

    • Baptism Site
    • 100 Women in Demining in Angola
    • Protecting the Okavango
    • The Border Project
    • Cultivating Peace in the Horn of Africa
    • Women in WAM

    HALO Updates

    • News
    • Stories
    • Historias de America Latina
    • Beyond Bombs Podcast
    • In the media

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Contact Us

  • Recruitment

  • Media Enquiries

Donate

Supporting Cambodia's Monks to Save a Forest

HALO is working with a unique community to protect the environment
7th August 2024 | Cambodia | Clearing explosives
In the far northwest of Cambodia, the Province of Oddar Meanchey sits next to the border with Thailand and was the last holdout of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. With the end of the conflict in the mid-1990s many Cambodian refugees moved to the area in search of land. They found a heavily under-developed area of forests and a lot of landmines.

A combination of illegal logging and clearance for agriculture had two consequences – a great many landmine accidents and the rapid deforestation of the countryside. The HALO Trust has been working here since 1993 clearing mines and making the land safe for people to rebuild their lives. Now we have begun to work with a unique local community to safeguard the remaining forests as well as the people who live there.

Location of the forest

Entrance to the forest

The Monk’s Community Forest was established in 2001 by the Buddhist monks of the Samraong Pagoda who acquired legal protections for 45,000 acres of State-owned land – equivalent to 34,000 American football fields. They established patrols to prevent logging and worked with local people to allow traditional low-impact farming and foraging. The monks pioneered a method of conservation that linked protection of the forest to traditional beliefs.

Tho Thoross

Tho Thoross is one of the monks who currently leads the community venture. He said: “There was too much pressure from people wanting to claim land for logging, growing cassava and to build homes. There were also companies transporting tropical hardwood to Vietnam and China illegally. It was very valuable.”

“In 2012 we won the Equator Prize in America, which has made the forest globally recognised and helps us to protect it. We allow one per cent of the forest for local villagers to grow mushrooms and other agriculture. But we work with HALO to construct biogas digesters to local people so that they can cook without needing to collect firewood.”

HALO staff discussing mine clearance with the monks

HALO’s biogas digester – a means of creating cooking gas from composting waste – was begun as a pilot project in partnership with ActionAid in 2023 for families in eight villages near the forest.

HALO is also helping make safe any landmines or explosive devices found in the Monk’s Forest as they develop it into a sustainable tourism destination with a campsite and café. 

Constructing biogas digesters

“The biogas digester helps people stop using wood from the forest. Some of the families cried – it was the first time anyone has ever given them something for free. It helps protect the environment and when finished it provides fertiliser for their farmland."

Tho Thoross
“This area saw the last fighting between the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge and we know there must be mines because we hear them explode when there are fires. HALO has cleared the roads to allow people to reach us and now are clearing mines in the forest. Tourism is important because it can provide jobs for local people so removing the mines is key.”

HALO's work in Cambodia is supported by

The United States Government
The United States Government
The German Federal Foreign Office
The German Federal Foreign Office
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Irish Aid
Irish Aid
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Share this article

Useful Info

  • Policies and safeguarding
  • FAQs
  • Tenders

Get Involved

  • Donate now
  • Raise money

Get In Touch

  • Contact us
  • Press office
Sitemap | Terms of use | Privacy policy | Cookies Policy
The HALO Trust | Copyright © 2025
Sign up for our newsletter
Visit our HALO USA website

CARRONFOOT, THORNHILL, DUMFRIES, DG3 5BF

The HALO Trust is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 2228587. Registered Charity No. 1001813 and (in Scotland) SC037870. Registered Office: One Bartholomew Close, Barts Square, London EC1A 7BL

The HALO Trust (USA), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization US Federal Tax ID Number 52-2158152
Office: 1730 Rhode Island Ave NW, Suite 206, Washington, DC 20036 

By registering for our updates, or making a donation to us, you expressly agree to your information being used by The HALO Trust and The HALO Trust (USA), Inc. in accordance with our privacy protection policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.

We now have a dedicated website for visitors in the USA and Canada.

Visit dedicated site