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Us against Nature? South East Asia Ethical Trail
Us against Nature? South East Asia Ethical Trail
Thinking about my time on Frontier’s South East Asia Ethical Adventure Trail in summer 2010 one day sticks out – my day at the Angkor complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This complex, an ancient city of palaces and temples built by the Khmer civilisation in the 11th century, measures a potential 400 square miles. But after perusing travel guides I had decided there was one temple at Angkor that I really had to see. Ta Prohm.
London,
London,
United Kingdom
(prbd.net)
28/01/2011
Ta Prohm, famous for a brief appearance in the first ‘Tomb Raider’ film, is beautiful, completely photogenic. In fact, if your decision to look into travelling was influenced by, say, ‘Indiana Jones’ then this will satisfy. Because at Ta Prohm, nature has taken back the man-made structures. The tree roots languish over the masonry like the tentacles of a sea monster would a ship. The trees soar above your head in a canopy, ancient door frames are held up by the trunks that elsewhere have turned a building into rubble.
Yet, this onslaught by nature is being significantly restrained. Unlike the other temples at Angkor, most of which you can wander in and out of unchecked, at Ta Prohm, walkways lead you round a defined route. The boughs are held back by ropes and the safety sign, so ubiquitous in the historical sites of Britain, are creeping in. The relentless march of the trees has been slowed by the relentless desire of man to preserve its ancient structures.
To me, there it was; the ‘Man v.s Nature’ conflict. On the one hand, letting nature take back the land we once roamed on would prevent us from discovering our own human (excuse the pun) roots. Conversely, by interfering with nature in this way we don’t get to appreciate it in its full glory. My personal opinion is that Ta Prohm would have been even lovelier if nature had been left to its work. After all, with almost 50 people per square kilometre on Earth surely we can allow nature to regain some land?
I think that’s why conservation projects are so important, by living remotely and seeing the land as it should be we learn to understand the balance between our world and the natural world. By comparing places like Ta Prohm to unrestrained Cambodian forests we can figure out a way to live alongside nature, not work against it. Bringing the ‘green’ back into our lives, that wouldn’t be so bad would it? At least then nature might not wreak so much destruction once we’re gone.
This travel journal was written by Zoe Everitt after she went on a Frontier project in South East Asia. Frontier is a non-profit conservation and development non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem integrity and building sustainable livelihoods for marginalised communities in the world's poorest countries.
About
Frontier was established in 1989 as a non-profit conservation and development non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem integrity and building sustainable livelihoods for marginalised communities in the world's poorest countries. Our first projects were in Tanzania, one of the world's poorest countries.
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