Members of the Prey Lang Community Network, and Lois Barber, Ex. Dir. EarthAction, (center) at the UN, May 2012
The Prey Lang Community Network, EarthAction Partner,
Wins 2015 Equator Prize
On September 21, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced that the Prey Lang Community Network was one of the winners of the 2015 Equator Prize, a prestigious award given by the Equator Initiative that recognizes outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty, protect nature and strengthen resilience in the face of climate change.
Twenty other community initiatives were also awarded this 2015 award. Each initiative will receive $10,000 USD and will be invited to the UN Conference on Climate Change taking place this December in Paris.
In 2011, EarthAction launched a multi-year campaign to support the Prey Lang Community Network in its efforts to protect the Prey Lang forest and the lives of the roughly 200,000 mostly indigenous Kuy who live in or around the forest and who are dependent on it for their livelihoods and culture. The Prey Lang Community Network continues to protect their forest from economic land concessions given by the Cambodian government to developers, as well as rampant illegal logging operations. Click here to add your support to their efforts.
Members of the PLCN are pleased to have received the Equator Prize and recognition of their years of work: “We are of course very happy to receive the USD 10,000, which will allow us to continue our work against illegal logging and deforestation,” said Sokheng Seng, spokesperson for the PLCN. “But what makes us even happier and very proud is the recognition from such an important global player as the UNDP. “This proves,” he continued, “that our work as a grassroots watchdog is important. Not only to the local communities of Prey Lang, but to all Cambodians, and to the rest of the world as well.”
EarthAction congratulates the winners on their well-deserved success.
Read the Prey Lang Community Network Press Release here
Read the UNDP 2015 Equator Prize Press Release here
Click here to take Action to Protect the Prey Lang Forest
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