Angelina Jolie’s Cambodia foundation now protects 60,994 hectares of forest

What began with the specific challenge of making heavily mined Cambodian land safe again, gradually grew into a much broader experiment in community-led conservation. Founded by Angelina Jolie in 2003, the Maddox Foundation initially focused on clearing landmines alongside rural communities. Over the following two decades, its work expanded into forest protection, healthcare, education, livelihoods and climate action, with local people remaining at the heart of the effort.From clearing mines to rebuilding communitiesAccording to the foundation's official website, its early work centred on some of Cambodia's most heavily mined areas. Clearing those sites was about more than removing a wartime danger; it opened land that communities could once again live on, work on and use for essential infrastructure. And by 2006, the organisation had established a satellite office in Battambang and its focus had begun to widen.