Surviving Together: Growing the Future

FREELAND community outreach projects are giving ex-poachers a way to escape poverty and crime by establishing their own organic and sustainable mushroom growing businesses.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• mushrooms
• organic
• wildlife
• FREELAND
• community
• poverty
• alternative livelihoods

[XCritonX]

I am a poacher, but I only poach eggs.

[FREELANDfoundation]

@XCritonX Hahaha we love poached eggs!

[tracyvanity]

You guys are doing incredible work! I am so glad that you were able to work with locals to find sustainable alternatives to poaching. The wildlife trafficking problem in Thailand is out of control. Aside from donating money, which as a teacher in Thailand, I don't have, are there other ways I can help? I live in Bangkok.

[FREELANDfoundation]

@tracyvanity Thanks for your support Tracy. As a teacher in Thailand, you can make a huge difference by focusing a lesson on the problem of poaching and wildlife trafficking (we can provided DVDs and other materials) or by encouraging students to band together on a project that raises awareness and/or funds. Why not call our office (02-204-2720) in the New Year to discuss more? Ask for a member of the Comms team!

[WizzardTV1]

What species mushrooms are in highest demand in thailand and are they regulated by the government which spores can be brought from over seas ?

[FREELANDfoundation]

@WizzardTV1 Oyster mushrooms - the kind used in Thailand's famous Tom Yum soups - are probably the most popular and demand for them is consistently high! Other varieties such as Shitake, Yanagi, etc. can be grown in the Thai climate.

[guest2424]

Might be better to expand to multiple separate small groups running each "factory", if you were to open 1 large building, the personal touch and friendliness will go away and in it's place will be anger and greed.

In small groups, problems get solved by realistic solutions and agreeing as a group on what is best.

In a large corporation type structure, you get ignorant leaders making rules/changes that are stupid and make all workers angry and the lower efficiency procedures and raise costs.

[MsTokies]

this is a smart way to deal with this issue.. instead of just giving the forest ranger better guns .. lol giving the people poaching better options. smart. I hope you also come up with another thing they can farm besides mushrooms as well

[JJStuffEngineering]

interesting techniques

[FREELANDfoundation]

@HGNnet Thanks for your comments. Attributing blame won't really help the situation, so we're focusing on solutions. If people remain dependent on unsustainable poaching and logging, in the long run, it's their communities that will suffer. At the same time, we need to find a solution that puts food in people's mouths today!

We really need everyone's support to continue to make this project a success in more villages. The biggest problem we currently face is lack of capital.