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Annual Report 2017
6. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION True Group is aware of environment problems and places great importance on environmental conservation. Various ongoing activities, both internal and external, are organized to support this annually under the True Plookpanya campaign as well as other projects. 1) Promotion of Nature and Environmental Conservation Activities (Cultivating Love of Nature and the Environment) 1.1 Cultivating love of nature and the environment through the Annual Nature and Wildlife National Photography Contest True Group and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation jointly organized the 23rd Annual Nature National Photography Contest 2017 to create awareness of environmental conservation among youths and the public by using photography as a medium under the theme “Nature and Wildlife Photography”. The contest was open for participants to compete for the HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Royal Trophy and HRH Princess Galayani Kromma Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra Royal Trophy with cash prizes totaling over Baht 500,000 along with privileges to visit national wildlife sanctuaries across the country without having to pay admission fees. In 2017 more than 2,000 digital photos were submitted to the photo contest. The award-winning photographs are available for viewing via the “True Photo Contest” application, which showcases all the 408 winning entries in the past 23 years of the photo contest (1995–2017). The application, available on both iOS and Android platforms, can be downloaded free of charge and is searchable by using the key word “True Photo Contest”. 1.2 Cultivating love of nature and the environment through the development of the We Grow Application to boost awareness of nature and environment conservation True Group’s Innovation team developed the We Grow application as a tool to create awareness of the environment and increase public participation in planting trees in the digital age. The application is the largest plant information hub in the country and throughout 2017 True Group introduced the We Grow application under the following activities: (1) Promoting the value of and conserving trees featured in Thai literature at King Rama II Memorial Park True Group helped promote the value of conserving tree species that were featured in Thai literature at the King Rama II Memorial Park covering an area of 30 rai (48,000 square meters) by providing information and QR codes on the tree name tags of 110 species planted in 4 gardens within the park: 1 KhunChangKhunPhaen Garden; 2. Ramayana Garden; 3. Enao Garden; and 4. Food and Dessert Garden. Visitors can use a smartphone to scan the trees’ QR code to view their images and listen to the related poetry verse of that particular tree as it was depicted in Thai literature. They can also search for more information about the tree through the We Grow application right there in the park. (2) True Group supported Rak Pong Prai Youth Nature Camp 2017 True Group in collaboration with the Office of the Basic Education Commission; Ministry of Education; the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation; the Department of Agricultural Extension; the Land Development Department; the Cooperative Auditing Department; the Department