The Energy Globe Award

National Energy Globe Award to PLCN  PLCN has won the prestigious worldwide environmental award in June 2019 by Energy Globe Award.  The award ceremony took place in Finland, November 13-15.  Energy Globe Award With more than 182 participating countries and over 2000 project submissions annually the Energy Globe Award is today’s most prestigious environmental prize worldwide. It distinguishes projects regionally, nationally and globally that conserve resources such as energy or utilize renewable or emission-free sources. Award ceremonies are held all over the world. Prominent personalities as well as Energy Globe Ambassadors in 90 countries support the mission of Energy Globe. Goal of the Award is to present successful sustainable projects to a broad audience, for many of our environmental problems already have good feasible solutions. Projects with conserve and protect our resources or that employ renewable energy can participate.  With a global call for participation Energy Globe invites outstanding sustainable best practice projects to participate in the annual competition. From all over the world, some 800 projects and initiatives are submitted annually to compete for the award which is presented as National Energy Globe Award, and International Energy Globe award/World Award.  The World Award itself had been presented by Kofi Annan, Martin Sheen, Mikhail Gorbachev, Dionne Warwick, etc.  National Energy Globe Award Cambodia 2019 PreyLang: It’s our forest too The Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) is a network consisting of local community members working to save the Prey Lang forest from illegal logging and industrial agriculture. The network patrols the forest and records illegal logging, valuable resources and reports its findings to policy makers and the public. The project works in the intersection between good governance, natural resources, peace building and rights based approaches, and makes use of information and innovative communication technologies.    

Prey Lang Forest. Photo: Prey Lang – It’s our forest too

Initial situation  The Prey Lang Forest complex is situated in the northern part of Cambodia and spans 500.000 hectares in the Cambodian lowlands, stretching four provinces namely Kratie, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear. It is the largest remaining low land evergreen forest in Cambodia, and all of Indochina. Prey Lang supports seven distinct forest ecosystems, rare endemic plant and animal species and hence consists of a high biological value  Solution  PLCN, with support from an IT company and a university (Copenhagen University), has built an innovative forest monitoring application (Prey Lang application) to give rise to evidence based patrolling of their ancestral lands and their valuable resources. While partner organizations have provided training to more than 2000 indigenous Khmer and Kuy people, PLCN has gained broad national and international recognition regarding its efforts for forest protection, which led to the designation of 431,683 hectares of Prey Lang as a protected area(Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary) in May 2016.  Innovation  Prey Lang application (PL app) is a forest monitoring application developed for smartphones as a part of the project “Prey Lang: It’s our forest too”. PL app is used as a systematic data collection during patrols to give a more complete picture of the effects of illegal activities on biodiversity and local livelihoods, as well as valuable community resources substantiated with proof, such as GPS coordinates, photos and audio information. A tool that empowers informs and exposes the status of Prey Lang forest of Cambodia.