Plant With Your Ears: cause campaign for One Tree Planted

Turning forest sounds recorded where refugees replanted Thailand's hills into trees planted by listening.

Client: One Tree Planted
Year: 2022
What we did: Campaign, Production, Strategy
Result: Recorded on location in Chiang Rai, June 2022

Plant With Your Ears, cause campaign for One Tree Planted

By the numbers

375Ktrees the hilltribes set out to plant

Hilltribe families who fled Myanmar for northern Thailand turned reforestation into a living, and into recognition from the Thai government. For One Tree Planted, Buena turned their story into an album: nature soundtracks recorded in the forests they planted, mixed with their own stories, where listening helps fund the next 375,000 trees.

Community tree planters in northern Thailand standing behind rows of seedlings

Refugees replanted Thailand's hills, and almost no one knew

Over the last decade, refugees from Myanmar crossed into the hills outside Chiang Rai with almost nothing, and Thailand didn't recognize them. With Plant With a Purpose, they started planting trees to restore the land and earn a living.

Against the odds, it worked. The ecosystem began to recover, the communities grew stronger and the Thai government began granting them land. Planting trees had become their way in.

In 2022 the hilltribe communities set out to plant 375,000 more trees by September. Their story was remarkable, and almost no one had heard it.

The Hilltribe Nature Sounds album with its track list

An album of forest sounds, recorded in the forests refugees planted

Capture the ear of the internet, almost literally. People already stream hours of rain and forest sounds to sleep and focus. We wanted those hours of listening to do some good.

Plant With Your Ears records those sounds in the forests the hilltribes planted: Hilltribe Forest Storm, Rain, Wind, Birds and Sunshine. Listening on Spotify helps fund the next trees.

Between the nature tracks, the refugees tell their own stories in tracks like How I Made a Forest, Our Story and Against All Odds. The peace the album brings a listener goes back to the people who planted the forest.

Nature tracks
Storm, rain, wind, birds and sunshine, recorded in forests the hilltribes planted.
Their own stories
Interview tracks where hilltribe refugees tell how they built a forest.
Listening plants trees
Streams help fund the communities' goal of 375,000 more trees.

Production map of the Hoi Lu and Mae Na Wang watersheds near Chiang Rai

Recorded on location in Chiang Rai's watersheds, June 2022

Buena's Doug Burnett, then One Tree Planted's director of marketing, flew to Chiang Rai in late June 2022 with a Thai photographer and cinematographer. Drone footage from the trip is dated June 27 to 29.

The team recorded and filmed in the Hoi Lu and Mae Na Wang watersheds with the Upland Holistic Development Project and Plant With a Purpose. The concept was also pitched to Apple Music as a spatial audio release.

The plan was a Spotify release with influencer support, every listen helping fund planting. Streams and trees planted are not confirmed, so 375,000 stays the hilltribes' goal, not a result.