EarthAction: Rainforest Preservation

Mao Chanthoeun and hundreds of other Kuy villagers call themselves Cambodia's "avatars." Like the Na'vi people in the "Avatar" film, the Kuy are defending their forest against mining and other destructive practices. Photo by Samrang Pring, Reuters.

In Cambodia, some 200,000 mostly Indigenous Kuy villagers are desperately trying to preventthe destruction of Prey Lang ("Our Forest"), the last large primary forest of its kind on the Indochina peninsula. Generations of Kuy people have protected the forest with its sacred areas, places for gathering fruits, medicinal plants, housing materials, and resin. Some 300 villages and family rice fields are scattered through a large buffer zone of secondary forest that surrounds Prey Lang. Their use of forest resources is sustainable, but now their livelihoods and the life of the forest are under attack.

The government has issued a dizzying patchwork of land concessions to road builders, mining companies, and agro-industries. Bulldozers are slicing huge swaths through the forest, clear-cutting enormous blocks of land for rubber and other plantations. Studies show that Indigenous forest-dwelling communities do the best job of protecting forests. Our best bet for saving Prey Lang is to support the Kuy people's rights and their management of the forest they know best.

Join us:

Global Response, the action program of Cultural Survival, and EarthAction, a global network of over 2,000 organizations, are working together in support of the Prey Lang Community Network to protect and save their forest. On our websites below you can find links to communicate with Cambodian officials to urge them to cancel existing land concessions and create a sustainable management program with the permanent participation of the Prey Lang peoples. We ask your organization to please share this information widely, with other organizations, with your members, and in your newsletters.

How You Can Help:

Below is a sign-on letter for organizations, available in PDF here. Please add your organization, and help the Kuy people protect the unique and threatened Prey Lang forest. To sign on, please email [email protected] by January 31 and include the name of the signee, organization, and country you are based in.

For more information and online action pages, please see visit:

Cultural Survival, EarthAction, and Prey Lang Community Network.

Sincere thanks and good wishes to you in your important work for our planet and all its peoples.

Lois Barber, Director

EarthAction Network

PO Box 63

Amherst, MA 01004

Tel +413 549 8118

Paula Palmer, Director

Global Response Program

Cultural Survival, Inc.

PO Box 7490

Boulder CO 80306 USA

Tel +303/444-0306

_____________________________________________________________

Dear Ambassador Kosal Sea, Prime Minister Samech Hun Sen,

As international human rights and environmental organizations, we are deeply concerned that Cambodia has lost almost all of its primary forests. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, primary forests covered 70 percent of Cambodia's land mass just 40 years ago. Tragically, these magnificent forests have shrunk to only 3.1 percent of the nation's territory today. One of the remaining forests, Prey Lang, is in danger of being lost as more and more concessions are granted to agro-industries and mining companies.

Prey Lang's rich store of biological diversity, unique on the Indochina peninsula, is reason enough to protect it. But there are other reasons, as well. Over 200,000 people depend on the forest as a source of fruits, nuts, medicinal plants, housing materials, clean drinking water, fish, and resin. Prey Lang provides ecological services that benefit millions of people, serving as a vital source of water for Cambodia's rice-growing region and for the Mekong Delta.

The people who live in villages surrounding Prey Lang have banded together to save the forest. Many of these people are Indigenous Kuy, whose rights are specified in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As an endorser of the Declaration, Cambodia acknowledges Indigenous Peoples' right to free, prior, and informed consent for projects that affect their lands and livelihoods, yet the Kuy have not been consulted concerning land concessions in and surrounding Prey Lang. Indeed, they have clearly demonstrated their opposition to the land concessions through public protests and petitions.

As supporters of environmental protection and Indigenous Peoples' rights, the following organizations join the Prey Lang Network in urging you to cancel existing land concessions and other development projects in the greater Prey Lang area, ban new concessions, and create a sustainable management program with the permanent participation of the Prey Lang Network.

Thank you for considering the views of the international community, recognizing our common commitment to environmental protection and human rights.

Respectfully,

(list of organizations)

_____________________________________________________________

Does the Kuy people's situation sound familiar?

If your organization represents or partners with Indigenous communities that are struggling to prevent environmental destruction and defend their rights, learn how to request a Global Response Campaign here. Click here to receive Global Response action alerts by email.

If you'd like more information about becoming a Partner Organization in the EarthAction Network and receiving action alerts on global environment, development, peace and human rights issues, click here to JOIN EarthAction.

Cultural Survival's Global Response Program organizes effective international letter-writing campaigns to protect the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples. See action alerts for adults and youth at www.cs.org

Click here to view and share EarthAction's email action alert.