Tokyo ‒ The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that its tire manufacturing and sales subsidiary in Thailand, Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (YTMT), conducted a “Salt Earth Making (i.e., creating salty soil)” event on March 6 to help preserve the wildlife in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park.

“Salt Earth Making” is an activity that artificially supplements the mineral salt and calcium existing in the soil as a means of preserving wild animals on the verge of extinction because of insufficient food supply. The plants eaten by herbivores lack the minerals and calcium that the animals need to survive, and the animals must get these crucial nutrients directly from the soil.

Khao Yai National Park, the site of the “Salt Earth Making” activity, is located about 200km northeast of Bangkok. One of the few remaining areas in Thailand that is home to threatened wildlife species, including Thailand's elephants and deer, it has been designated as a World Natural Heritage site. YTMT’s effort to preserve Khao Yai National Park’s wildlife stems from company employees becoming aware of the animals’ plight when collecting seedlings for use in the Yokohama Rubber Group’s “Yokohama Forever Forest Project,” which was started in 2007 with the goal of planting 500,000 trees at all of the Group’s production sites around the world by 2017, when Yokohama Rubber will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding.

Thirty-five YTMT employees participated in the “Salt Earth Making” event, during which they dug one-meter deep trenches, which were then filled with a mixture of soil, rock salt and calcium. Subsequent rainfall helps the mixture’s nutrients penetrate the soil and create a salty soil. Wild animals are naturally attracted to the area by the aroma of the salty soil.