Siam Agri Volunteer is another project established with the purpose to promote and support social and environmental activities. We have realized the importance of “sustainable happiness” which can be easily generated inside us; that is, “to give” and wholeheartedly share with others while doing everything that really comes from our heart and sincerity. This, in turn, will make others happy and when they are happy, our society becomes more friendly and worth living for. Our first activity is “Siam Agri Voluteer”, a natural conservation project that we participated in forest conservation in “Making Merit, Conserve Forest and Create a Beautiful World”, a good deed project inspired by Phra Paisal Visalo. In this event, Pun Rak Area Foundation, led by Kru Na or Ms.Angkana Masrungsun, had established and Siam Agri Supply had participated and donated funding at well as encouraging some of our volunteer staffs to help in this project at Pu Long forest, Kang Kroa subdistrict, Chaiyapoom during 15-16 July 2017.
[ux_image id=”1814″]Why do we promote and encourage this reforestation project?
As we have acknowledged the importance of forest conservation, we have joined the reforestation in Pu Long area where nearly 3,000 rais were destroyed by a terrible fire in 2016. The Company helped restore the area by planting trees to return abundance to such forest. Apart from being beneficial to the community at large, natural conservation and reforestation also give many positive effects to those who help plant trees; for example, minimize selfish behavior and enlighten our heart with mercy. Also, we will experience a peaceful mind through kindness we give to others. Many people who devotedly plant the trees themselves will soon discover that they may feel physically worn out, but they will feel happy and proud deep inside, which arises from our pride of doing good deeds.
“Making Merit, Reforestation and Create a Beautiful World”
This project was initiated with the intention to further and improve on the effort concerning forest conservation, natural preservation introduced by Phra Paisal Visalo who has consistently devoted himself to such project in an attempt to restore Pu Long forest. At the same time, this project promotes people to make merit by planting perennial trees, especially on their own piece of land and in the public area where they can easily take good care of, whether in the city or countryside with the purpose to expand the green area. This can be considered a merit making that corresponds to the world’s current social problem and it can be regarded as highly revered merit that can last forever.
“It has been said that faith enables conservation to be more concrete. When we have faith, we should also have love. People who plant trees may have faith in Buddha’s teachings, temples or even have faith in me. But that is not enough. They must have awareness on nature conservation as well. Such awareness makes us willing to feel exhausted or work hard under the sun all day just to plant trees, restore the forest and fight against the fire. We must express our love in what we do as love will be followed by care, devotion and patience.”
“For those who have read a lot but if they do not have faith or love towards the forest, it is difficult for them to leave their home or comfort to work hard in restoring and rehabilitating the forest. I say it is a difficult task since reforestation requires great patience. It it such a tiring job. There are a lot of mosquitos and insects. The sun is so strong without any shady trees as they were all burnt down by the forest fire. This awareness does not arise from just reading books but when we are surrounded by nature, that makes us feel appreciated and thankful in that nature itself has given us a peaceful mind. So, we feel attached with nature and it is deemed necessary that we persuade other people to get in touch with the forest so that they will feel the love and later on they may try to conserve the forest as well. Whether reforestation is needed or not, they will be willing to join force, no matter where it is, at Pu Long, Nan or Chiang Mai. One thing they must realize is that forest rehabilitation and each forest has its own technique as they are somewhat different from one another in terms of natural characteristics and human activities. For this activity that we have invited people to plant trees can be compared to bringing our children to school to let the teacher or “nature” in this case, teaches them knowledge to grow both physically and mentally, that can be compared to a large tree that always provides shady area and tranquility for people and animals alike.” We must not forget that reforestation is not only planting sprouts in the soil and then cover, wait for the rain to come and the sun to shine; however, reforestation means planting good deeds in our heart and it helps restore our heart and soul as well. At the same time, our faith for the forest also affects its future, meaning if we plant the forest with pure and delicate mind, such sprouts will have a strong will power to continually fight for their survival in that forest.”
[ux_image id=”1815″]How to express our love and appreciation to the forest and forest conservation can be achieved in many ways
“We can conserve the forest by not destroying or adding more burdens to nature. We may indirectly destroy the forest through our daily consumption by generating wastes. Each time we consume, we should take into consideration the simplicity. We should not consume a lot so that we will not incur some environmental problems. I would prefer urban people to consider how they can become a part in ruining the environment, nature and forest. Do not blame local people when they have to cut down trees to plant corns instead or do so just to sell woods. This is only end-rounded but the true cause is such a big problem; that is, to do everything to respond to our lavish consumption that may ultimately lead to environmental decadence. We may not be conscious or intend to do such things, but we should acknowledge this inherent relation and be more cautious of what we do. We should think about the cause and its end result. Do plastics or batteries we use are the cause of natural degradation? Do they become toxic wastes or do their invention degrade our environment? We may start thinking from things we encounter in our daily life such as bottled drinking water. How can we minimize the use of these bottles as they come from the plastic factory that causes both water and air pollution? After these water bottles have been finished packaging, they will be transported to the retailers which in turn cause another pollution. The buying process of which these bottles of water have been carried to our home causes another pollution from fuel to smoke. These remaining bottles are garbages that cause another environmental problem and subsequently leads to water shortage and excessive use of electricity. Increased electricity consumption may lead to the construction of dams. These dams, in turn, degenerate the forest. We may become a part in environmental decadence without being aware of. The best solution is to live simply and eat simply. This can help conserve the environment and we will all be happy.”
“As for conservation, what we can do now, we must act now. We can promote a campaign to minimize environmental decadence, reduce the use of foam materials and use reusable bags instead. We can start from these small and trivial things but we can accomplish big things as well by participating in some environmental projects.”
Sincer gratitude for the source of information: Article of Phra Paisal Visalo
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