Angelina Jolie's Cambodian conservation project will continue as an independent organization after the movie star ended her relationship with two environmental groups.
Jolie terminated the contract with Cambodian Vision in Development and U.S. conservation group WildAid, said Stephen Bognar, executive director of the Maddox Jolie Project.
Angelina Jolie, left, her son Maddox, centre, and Brad Pitt sit in an auto-rickshaw in India earlier in October. Jolie's conservation project, named after Maddox, has severed ties with two partners.
Associated Press
The fund took it's name from Jolie's five-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia in 2002.
Under the 2003 agreement approved by the Cambodian government, Jolie, 31, had promised $1.3 million US over five years for a forest conservation program administered by the two groups in the Samlaut region of the northwestern Battambang province.
Mounh Sarath, director of Cambodian Vision in Development, said Monday Jolie "agreed to provide funds to CVD" and therefore had violated the agreement.
Wildlife survey underway
Jolie's philanthropic adviser, Trevor Neilson, said the actress and her husband Brad Pitt plan to continue to administer the conservation project, which since 2003 has employed 30 rangers and started a survey of the wildlife in the neighbouring 600-square-km Samlaut park.
"A decision was made to spend the money in a new way that would be more effective for the people of Cambodia," Neilson said. "No agreement was broken. There was no reneging on any commitment.
Among the project's recent initiatives was a joint partnership announced in October with Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California.
"We realized that we needed to form an alliance to better secure Samlaut's future," Bognar told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. "Sometimes you need to look outside to increase conservation inside."
Jolie first visited Cambodia when shooting the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider at the famed Angkor Wat temple complex and also has a residence in the country.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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