Main products/services: Lodging, dining, guided tours
Highlight of their unique approach
The Camp’s operations directly fund conservation efforts, by paying for rangers’ salaries and ranger stations. ‘Your Stay Keeps the Forest Standing’.
Highlight of their unique design
NGO Board representation, reliance upon the Camp’s existence to sustain conservation of the land concession where it is located.
The Cardamom Tented Camp, located in the remote evergreen forest lowlands of Cambodia’s Koh Kong province, is an entirely off-grid eco-tourism camp reachable only by boat. It lies where the Cardamom Mountains slope down towards the sea and within Botum Sakor National Park, in an 18,073-hectare (180km2) ‘Eco-tourism, Eco Lodge and Conservation’ concession granted by the Cambodian government. ‘Concession’ refers to permission for the specified type of development within Park lands. The existence of the Camp is a requirement of the concession, and its tagline ‘Your Stay Keeps the Forest Standing’ is more than just a nice catchphrase because revenues from the Camp contribute to the costs of patrolling and protecting concession lands.
The Camp offers a lodge-style ‘glamping’ experience, with nine well-appointed safari-style tents with comfortable beds, private bathrooms, 24-hour electricity, fans and covered outdoor seating. An on-site restaurant supplies all meals, and a large open-air dining and bar/lounge area with view of the river provides a gathering place for guests. Activities include jungle treks with a knowledgeable guide, a nighttime wildlife-spotting boat tour, river kayaking, ziplining, the chance to trek overnight and visit one of the active ranger stations and even join rangers on a forest patrol. But if they wish, guests can also choose to just relax and enjoy the peaceful, natural setting. Allan Michaud, the Camp’s General Manager, summed up the Camp’s appeal: “It’s the chance to be amidst beautiful nature as much as the wildlife that attracts people here”.
The Camp’s sustainability ethos and success as an eco-tourism project supporting conservation have been much talked about, but perhaps one of the untold stories of this business is its unique design, the seeds of which were planted long before the first tent was erected.
02 | Founding Story
The Cardamom Tented Camp’s origins lie in a long-running collaboration between NGO Wildlife Alliance (previously called Global Survival Network) and various Ministries of the Cambodian government. The aim was to reduce or halt harmful environmental practices like slash-and-burn deforestation, wildlife poaching, and industrial development in forested regions of Koh Kong province and Cambodia in general. This cooperation eventually led the Kingdom of Cambodia to grant a 50-year land concession to Wildlife Alliance in 2009. A three-way partnership between Wildlife Alliance, The Minor Group (a large Thai hospitality conglomerate) and YAANA Ventures (an adventure tourism company) then joined together to make the Camp a reality. Its on-site design was spearheaded by John Roberts (of Minor Group affiliated non-profit Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation) and Willem Niemeijer (of YAANA Ventures), and it opened in late 2017.
YAANA Ventures is the legal owner of the Camp, but it is overseen by a 3-member Board of Directors with representation from each partner: Wildlife Alliance, The Minor Group and YAANA Ventures. Construction funding came from a donation from The Minor Group, and the operation is self-sustaining. The Camp’s goal is to not only self-fund, but also financially support the protection of the concession. “The idea is for the camp to pay entirely for the rangers and two ranger stations. Covid and a [2021] flood delayed that 5-year plan, but I expect us to meet that target within 18 months”, explains Michaud. As the on-site Manager, Michaud is entrusted with operational autonomy, ensuring that day-to-day decisions are made locally.
03 | Industry Context
The Camp has had to meet many challenges in its short existence, among them the flood and pandemic. Cambodia’s tourism industry still hasn’t returned to its pre-Covid visitor numbers, and simply surviving has been a formidable challenge for many hospitality businesses. To help the Camp continue operating despite the significant loss of revenue from Covid, a loan (since repaid) was secured from YAANA Ventures and The Minor Group.
Another challenge increasingly faced by all conservation organizations in Botum Sakor is the accelerating pace of land concessions granted within the Park’s boundaries for large-scale tourism and industrial development projects, which is razing ever-growing portions of the forest and displacing its residents. The park has lost one fifth of its primary forest since 2008, and 82% of its land is now open to commercial exploitation. One company that is currently developing a multi-billion dollar tourism project on the Dara Sakor peninsula nearby aims to attract 7 million annual visitors by 2030; a staggering figure given that Cambodia’s best year for tourism, 2019, counted fewer than 6 million tourist arrivals in the entire country. These developments are raising societal tensions in the region and putting strain on efforts to preserve the Park’s ecosystems, making the Camp’s land concession increasingly critical to conserving as much of Botum Sakor’s forest as possible. Such circumstances have complicated the Camp’s extended operating environment.
More background information on eco tourism in Cambodia can be found here.
04 | Regenerative & Distributive Strategies and Actions
The Camp takes its responsibility for running a sustainable ecotourism operation seriously, although many of its efforts are behind the scenes and ‘out-of-sight’. Care has been taken regarding everything from site selection/design and construction materials to solar power generation, from the wastewater management system and waste reduction/recycling efforts to cleaning and personal care products.
Particularly the multi-stage septic and filtration wastewater treatment system, which ultimately drains into a wetland area, is notable in a country where analysts believe (in the absence of reliable figures) that very little wastewater is treated outside of a few main cities. Its construction cost three times the amount of the typical system used, which is to simply allow untreated waste to soak away. It also came with higher maintenance costs, but the Camp’s management felt that leaving wastewater (particularly blackwater) untreated would not align with its goal of creating a truly sustainable and eco-friendly tourism operation, so the extra investment was made.
In the social realm, the operation seeks to both hire staff from the local community and provide education to community members concerning the importance of forests, sustainable waste management, and sustainable farming practices. It also provides visitors with a unique, if occasionally distressing, insight into the harm being done by illegal activities such as wildlife poaching and logging in the region. It’s an education that few other tourism ventures can deliver with such authority, and which leaves a lasting impression (including upon the author of this case study).
The Camp is keen to highlight its commitment to excelling as an ecotourism business, providing detailed information on its website about its efforts to date and future plans, such as growing some food and herbs onsite, including via an aquaponics system. It also maintains an Open Business Policy to promote learning and sharing of best practices with other businesses. Michaud believes that these extra efforts pay off in its guest approval ratings and set a positive example for others in the industry, while pointing out with disappointment “how little is actually being done by most establishments, even those claiming to be doing so”. Michaud may very well be correct. In March 2024, Cardamom Tented Camp became only the second business in Cambodia to be granted ‘fellow member’ status in the sustainable tourism movement called ‘The Long Run’.
05 | How the Deep Design Enables Strategy and Action
The unique design of the business, with prominent NGO Board representation and proceeds specifically intended to fund protection of the land concession, has enabled the Camp to pursue not only profitability, but also its conservation goals. The Camp’s management is also granted significant autonomy to make decisions and investments that support the operation’s environmental and social goals. Put otherwise, conservation and sustainability are embedded in the raison d’être of the Camp, by design. That level of focus has paid dividends when it comes to the Camp’s reputation in the tourism industry. Travel guide publisher Lonely Planet, for example, says this to its readers: “The project represents a milestone in the struggle of Wildlife Alliance and other conservation groups to save Cambodia’s wild spaces from extinction. Here you’ll feel every bit like you are making a positive contribution to that struggle”.
Recalling that the preservation of the land concession relies upon the continued existence of the Camp, that dependency has helped foster a long-term view among the partners, with a focus on protecting the land concession and reinvesting profits rather than making and extracting profit. That long-term view has manifested in supporting the Camp through adversity, for example through the loan and increased timeline (5 years became +/- 8 years) for reaching financial objectives, support which Michaud believes may not have been provided without the need to preserve the land concession underpinning it. The Camp’s connection to the concession thus provides a lock-in for not only ensuring its success, but also influences how it acts in favor of regenerative and distributive practices.
06 | Reflections and Lessons for other Businesses
Looking forward, an expansion of the existing Camp from nine to twelve tents is underway, and the possible creation of a ‘sister’ project elsewhere in the country is being discussed. The sister project remains uncertain, but its mere proposal indicates the Camp’s success despite the challenges it has faced.
The story of Cardamom Tented Camp is one of deep collaboration between non-profit and for-profit entities to build a successful eco-tourism business with conservation as its central tenet. By embedding preservation of the land concession into the deep design of the business, the Camp achieved an operational setup that has allowed it to succeed despite the challenges it has already faced during its nearly eight years of operation. Outside influences increasingly threaten large swathes of Botum Sakor’s forest outside the Camp’s concession, but its success points to a model which may be possible to replicate elsewhere in the Cardamoms, or any natural area under threat.
