A Small Property Beside a Much Larger Forest
Angelina Jolie's 39 hectares in Cambodia sit beside a conservation effort covering a landscape more than 1,500 times that size. Her rural property in Battambang province provides a base for the Maddox Foundation, which supports protection of the 60,994-hectare Samlaut Multiple Use Area near the Thai border.
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The work has produced a concrete measure of the threats facing wildlife: rangers removed nearly 7,800 meters of wire snares during 2025, according to a foundation field note published in June 2026. Those traps endanger animals in a forest where researchers have recorded Asian elephants, dholes and critically endangered Sunda pangolins.
Jolie owns the private estate, while the larger protected forest remains under Cambodian government responsibility. The foundation works with the Ministry of Environment, supporting local rangers, research and community services. It says active conservation programs cover more than 40,000 hectares within the wider protected landscape.
About 57,000 people live in and around the area across six communes. For them, forest protection is connected to practical needs: safe farmland, water, healthcare, schools and reliable income. The project brings those concerns together in a place still shaped by the damage left by decades of conflict.
How Cambodia Became a Lasting Commitment
Jolie first visited Cambodia in 2000 to film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider around the temples of Angkor. The visit brought her into contact with the country's poverty, displacement and landmine legacy. In 2002, she adopted her son Maddox from Cambodia, giving her connection to the country a family dimension.
Her humanitarian work also expanded during those years. Jolie served as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador from 2001 to 2012, then as Special Envoy from 2012 to 2022. Across that period, she made more than 60 field missions in nearly 30 countries.
In 2003, a year after adopting Maddox, Jolie bought the traditional rural home in Samlaut district and established the foundation bearing his name. The wooden house on stilts sits within approximately 39 hectares, equivalent to about 96 acres, of forest and farmland.
The home has occasionally appeared in her public work, including a Guerlain fragrance campaign in 2019. Jolie also spoke about her emotional connection to Cambodia in February 2025. Beyond those appearances, the property's importance lies in its role as a base for a much longer commitment to surrounding communities.
From Landmine Clearance to Forest Protection
Samlaut was a Khmer Rouge stronghold, and landmines continued to threaten residents long after the fighting. When the foundation began in 2003, helping communities clear mines was an early priority. Safe land meant families could travel, farm and reach essential services with less danger.
Schools, wells and support for rural communities followed. Forest protection became part of that work because households depended on the same landscape that was being damaged by logging, hunting and land clearance.
The foundation dates the start of its forest conservation work to 2006, three years after its establishment. Asia Daily's coverage of the Samlaut conservation anniversary traced that expansion and the development of a ranger force recruited from nearby villages.
The main stages show how the project grew from immediate safety needs into a wider conservation program:
- 1993: King Norodom Sihanouk declared Samlout a protected area.
- 2003: Jolie bought her Cambodian property and established the foundation, initially supporting work including landmine clearance.
- 2006: The foundation began helping protect the forest and established a satellite office in Battambang.
- 2016: The locally recruited rangers became government officials under the Ministry of Environment.
- 2018: A permanent headquarters opened in Samlout and became the ranger unit's base.
- 2025: Patrols removed nearly 7,800 meters of wire snares.
Samlaut and Samlout are different spellings used for the same landscape. The protected area extends across Battambang and neighboring Pailin provinces.
What Rangers Face on Patrol
Local rangers patrol against illegal logging and poaching, remove snares and monitor wildlife. Their formal recognition as Ministry of Environment officials in 2016 placed them within Cambodia's government enforcement structure, while foundation support continued through funding and training.
The wire removed in 2025 stretched for about 7.8 kilometers, or 4.8 miles. A snare is a trap, often made from a wire loop, that tightens around an animal when it steps into it. Such traps can injure or kill animals moving along forest paths.
Removing wire tackles an immediate danger. The foundation also identifies land encroachment as the biggest pressure on Samlaut, alongside illegal logging and hunting. Encroachment means people clearing or occupying land within the protected area, reducing the space available for wildlife.
Rangers therefore face two connected tasks: keeping animals alive and keeping their habitat intact. Elephants need room to travel and find food, while other species depend on particular feeding areas, shelter or breeding sites. A patrol that removes traps and checks forest clearance addresses different threats within the same landscape.
What Researchers Have Found in Samlaut
Camera surveys have recorded at least 44 vertebrate species, meaning animals with backbones. Among them are Asian elephants, dholes, the wild dogs of Asian forests, and Sunda pangolins. Pangolins are mammals covered in protective scales that are heavily targeted by wildlife traffickers.
A dedicated bird survey counted 142 species. Broader descriptions of Samlaut's wildlife put its diversity at around 30 mammal species and 140 bird species. The camera and bird surveys use different methods and cover different groups of animals, giving researchers several ways to document the forest's inhabitants.
Research teams have also documented bats, orchids and plants previously unrecorded in Cambodia. Fauna & Flora's Samlout Biodiversity Report describes the protected area as one of the last remnants of forest in northwestern Cambodia and identifies its connections with nearby protected areas, including Phnom Samkos.
Samlaut lies on the fringe of the Cardamom Mountains. Its connections to other forests matter for animals that travel beyond a single patch of habitat. A forest corridor is a connected stretch of habitat through which wildlife can move between larger areas to find food, mates or shelter.
The research records species present in the landscape, but no current elephant population estimate is given. Protecting their habitat remains central to the project because habitat loss is a major threat to Asian elephants.
Why Community Income Is Part of Conservation
Roughly 57,000 residents live in and around the protected area, making Samlaut a working landscape as well as wildlife habitat. The foundation supports schools, health centers and clean water systems that it says serve tens of thousands of residents each year.
Beekeeping and more sustainable farming are part of its effort to help households earn income without hunting wildlife or clearing additional forest. The practical aim is to give families more ways to meet their needs while reducing pressure on the land.
A household with another source of earnings has more choices when harvests are poor or expenses rise. Supporting crops and beekeeping connects conservation to everyday decisions about work, food and school costs, rather than leaving forest protection as a task for patrol teams alone.
The foundation also describes 11 community forestry schemes across four communes, developed with the Battambang Forestry Administration and local authorities. Community forestry gives residents a role in caring for nearby forest resources. Its history page lists the work under both 2011 and 2017, leaving the precise establishment date unclear.
Landmine clearance, public services, income programs and ranger patrols address different parts of the same problem. Families need safe places to live and work, while wildlife needs forests that remain connected and protected from hunting.
The Scale of the Commitment
Jolie's 39-hectare property accounts for about 0.064 percent of the 60,994-hectare protected area. Dividing the larger area by the estate's size gives a ratio of roughly 1,564 to one. The comparison shows how far the foundation's work extends beyond the boundaries of her home.
The more than 40,000 hectares described as covered by active conservation programs represent roughly two thirds of the protected area. That work depends on a partnership involving government authority, local rangers, researchers and communities, with the foundation providing support.
The strongest recent measure of patrol activity is the wire removed in 2025. Biodiversity surveys provide another part of the picture by documenting animals and plants that still survive there. Together, those records show both the threats facing Samlaut and the living forest that conservation teams are working to retain.
For surrounding communities, the stakes include safer land, access to basic services and livelihoods that can last. For wildlife, they include fewer traps and enough habitat to move, feed and reproduce. Jolie's private estate is the starting point of that story, while the daily work takes place across a much larger public forest.
Key Points
- Jolie bought approximately 39 hectares in Cambodia's Samlaut district in 2003, a year after adopting Maddox.
- The Maddox Foundation has supported protection of the 60,994-hectare Samlaut Multiple Use Area since 2006.
- Locally recruited rangers became Ministry of Environment officials in 2016.
- Patrols removed nearly 7,800 meters of wire snares in 2025.
- Researchers have recorded Asian elephants, dholes, Sunda pangolins and 142 bird species.
- Community programs support services and livelihoods for a landscape with about 57,000 residents.
