The people and organizations
behind the project
No single organization is responsible for the Phnom Kulen Ecotourism Project. It’s built by a foundation, an NGO, a local tour operator, a hospitality school, and a ministry, each bringing a different kind of expertise, and by the CBTC members themselves. Here’s who does what.
Meet our partners
Archaeology and Development Foundation (ADF)
The NGO that started it all · Active on Phnom Kulen since 2008
ADF is the longest-running NGO working on Phnom Kulen. It’s a British-registered not-for-profit and is registered as an international NGO in Cambodia.
Since ADF’s creation in 2008, their team has been working jointly with national and local partners to implement impactful projects in the park. With an integrated approach, they focus on interlinked heritage research and preservation, local development and environmental conservation:
1- Understand and Protect the park’s cultural heritage
2- Protect the park’s biodiversity
3- Diversify the villager’s incomes
4- Improve education and health
Link to the project: ADF founded and runs the Ecotourism Project. It brought its knowledge of and network within the local community, built both CBTC centers, designed the information signboards and trail maps, and manages the project’s expenses, all under the guidance it continues to provide to the CPA members now running the centers.
Sala Baï Hotel
and Restaurant School
Hospitality training and tourism know-how · Supporting the project since October 2024
Since 2002, Sala Baï has been transforming lives through vocational training. Each year, 150 young people aged 17 to 23 from disadvantaged backgrounds, 70% of whom are women, take part in a 100% free, all-included, one-year training course in one of five departments: Kitchen, Restaurant, Reception, Housekeeping or Beauty Therapy. Today, more than 2,200 alumni work in top establishments in Cambodia and internationally.
Link to the project: Through its hospitality-training expertise and its network of travel agents and visitors, Sala Baï works closely with ADF and the two CBTCs. Since an Ecotourism Project Manager joined in October 2024, their support has focused on restructuring CBTC governance and finances, running training sessions for CBTC members, guides and cooks, and building marketing materials and tour-operator relationships, work that has already helped raise CBTC revenue and visitor numbers.
Archaeology and Development Foundation (ADF)
The NGO that started it all · Active on Phnom Kulen since 2008
ADF is the longest-running NGO working on Phnom Kulen. It’s a British-registered not-for-profit and is registered as an international NGO in Cambodia.
Since ADF’s creation in 2008, their team has been working jointly with national and local partners to implement impactful projects in the park. With an integrated approach, they focus on interlinked heritage research and preservation, local development and environmental conservation:
1- Understand and Protect the park’s cultural heritage
2- Protect the park’s biodiversity
3- Diversify the villager’s incomes
4- Improve education and health
Link to the project: ADF founded and runs the Ecotourism Project. It brought its knowledge of and network within the local community, built both CBTC centers, designed the information signboards and trail maps, and manages the project’s expenses, all under the guidance it continues to provide to the CPA members now running the centers.
Sala Baï Hotel
and Restaurant School
Hospitality training and tourism know-how · Supporting the project since October 2024
Since 2002, Sala Baï has been transforming lives through vocational training. Each year, 150 young people aged 17 to 23 from disadvantaged backgrounds, 70% of whom are women, take part in a 100% free, all-included, one-year training course in one of five departments: Kitchen, Restaurant, Reception, Housekeeping or Beauty Therapy. Today, more than 2,200 alumni work in top establishments in Cambodia and internationally.
Link to the project: Through its hospitality-training expertise and its network of travel agents and visitors, Sala Baï works closely with ADF and the two CBTCs. Since an Ecotourism Project Manager joined in October 2024, their support has focused on restructuring CBTC governance and finances, running training sessions for CBTC members, guides and cooks, and building marketing materials and tour-operator relationships, work that has already helped raise CBTC revenue and visitor numbers.
Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)
Funding partner · Supporting the project since October 2024
The OIF is the institution that brings together the world’s French-speaking countries and governments. As part of its 2024–2027 programming, it launched the Destination Éco-Talents (DET) project to promote sustainable tourism, with the broader aim of strengthening the resilience and empowerment of local populations, especially young people, women and rural communities, by developing sustainable tourism ecosystems that respect natural and cultural heritage. DET supports this through innovative, sustainability-driven tourism projects and by backing the training and employability of young people and women in the communities involved.
Link to the project: Through DET, OIF has been funding Sala Baï and its support to the Phnom Kulen Ecotourism Project since 2024, covering capacity building for the CBTC communities and institutional reinforcement. This includes training, the salary of the Ecotourism Project Manager, knowledge-sharing between the two organizations, and immersion visits by Sala Baï students and staff to Phnom Kulen, strengthening the ties between the school and the communities it supports.
Ministry of Environment (MoE)
Guardian of Phnom Kulen National Park · Government partner throughout
The Ministry of Environment is the Cambodian government body in charge of Phnom Kulen National Park, managed locally through the Siem Reap Provincial Department of Environment (PDoE). It enforces the Environmental Law through rangers who patrol the park from several ranger stations on and around the mountain.
Link to the project: The Community Protected Areas that the CBTCs are built around, including Anlong Thom and Popel, operate under MoE guidance and are officially sanctioned by the Royal Government of Cambodia. MoE rangers carry out joint patrols with CPA members, and the Ministry is a close partner on reforestation, biodiversity surveys and waste-management work across the park.
Terre Cambodge (TC)
The local tour operator that helped build the CBTCs · Partner since 2010, co-founder of the CBTCs
Terre Cambodge is a local travel agency and eco-friendly inbound tour operator, established in Siem Reap in 1998, offering a wide range of tours across Cambodia. It’s committed to responsible, environmentally-friendly travel, and customizes tours that benefit both travelers and the communities they visit, including visits to ADF’s projects on Phnom Kulen.
Link to the project: TC brought its expertise as a local tour agency to help set up both CBTCs alongside ADF, creating environmentally friendly tourism products. Since 2010, it has used part of its proceeds to support ADF’s alternative-livelihood work, and it continues to train and guide the CBTC teams today.
Humy
Funding patrols and conservation on the ground · Supporting ADF’s projects since 2018
Humy (short for HUMan and biodiversitY) is a French NGO working in six countries, including Cambodia, to protect biodiversity while improving the living conditions of the local communities who share that land. It works by funding and supporting local partner organizations over the long term, rather than running projects itself.
Link to the project: Since 2018, Humy has funded the weekly mixed ranger–CPA patrols that protect Anlong Thom and Popel from illegal logging, poaching and encroachment, along with GPS equipment and training for rangers. It has also funded a tree nursery at Popel Primary School, biodiversity surveys, and, more recently, direct support to the two CBTCs.
UNDP Cambodia
Funder behind the Popel CBTC’s launch · Funded the BESD project, 2019–2020
UNDP is the UN’s global development network, connecting countries to the knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life, with the overarching aim of advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP has had a presence in Cambodia since 1994, working with the Royal Government, civil society and the private sector.
Link to the project: UNDP Cambodia, together with SIDA (the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), funded the BESD (“Building an Enabling Environment for Sustainable Development”) project from June 2019 to December 2020, with the goal to improve the daily lives of Popel and Khlah Khmum villagers while preserving the natural environment.. Implemented by ADF in close collaboration with the Ministry of Environment’s Provincial Department, BESD extended the Popel Community Protected Area from 188 to 800 hectares and funded the construction of the Popel CBTC itself.
See what these partnerships add up to
From the archaeologist who started it all to the hospitality school training the guides today,
this is what a decade of partnership on Phnom Kulen looks like in practice.