The EWMI-produced film, Prey Lang: One Forest, One Future won the Environmental and Conservation Film Festival of Cambodia Grand Prix du Bassac award in September 2008. The 11-minute short film was created by EWMI and acclaimed documentary filmmakers Benjamin and Jocelyn Pederick as an advocacy tool, and serves as a trailer for an hour-long documentary on the Prey Lang Forest which is still in production.
The film is a part of EWMI's wider efforts to protect Cambodia's biodiversity which is under great threat industrial development as well as illegal logging, poaching, and lowland to upland migration, especially as communities lose access to their traditional lands and livelihoods. The importance of the film is that it lets people know why the forest is worth protecting. It documents the way local communities are managing the forest and coping with the impact of deforestation.
The film does not advocate ceasing all development, but searches for a way to ensure that development is sustainable and does not marginalize local communities. EWMI hopes that the documentary will raise the profile of Prey Lang and bring attention to the plight of the forest and its people.
The film is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of EWMI and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Once all of Southeast Asia was covered in primordial lowland forests; now the last large forest of this kind is in Cambodia. This forest is home to elephants, tigers, siamese crocodiles and giant trees that breathe oxygen back into our planet. It serves as a watershed that irrigates the Rice Bowl responsible for feeding millions of Cambodians. This forest is the last of its kind in the world and it's in jeopardy. This forest is called Prey Lang.
For information on an organization tracking the change in forest cover in Cambodia, visit Open Development Cambodia: [ Ссылка ]
