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Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary

BIODIVERSITY

Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the most biodiverse forests in the region. Here, over 250,000 people live in and around the protected area and most rely directly on the habitat for their subsistence and livelihood. Conservation International is working to protect this critical forest for people, nature and climate.

Since 2005, our research in Prey Lang to better understand its ecological value has helped define conservation priorities and inform the boundaries of this sanctuary, resulting in Cambodia’s largest protected area.

Now, we are helping communities establish sustainable rice production to provide a source of income in exchange for environmental protection. In addition, we are developing a carbon project to ensure sustainable financing is available to protect the Prey Lang Forest.

Map highlighting the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary in north central Cambodia.

Why is it important?

Globally significant species

This forest holds critically important habitat for some of Asia’s most threatened and charismatic species such as the Asian elephant, guar, banteng, pileated gibbon, and Sunda pangolin. Keeping this forest intact is key to maintaining Cambodia’s unique biodiversity.

250,000 people depend on Prey Lang

Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is essential to the well-being of over 250,000 Indigenous and local people. These communities rely on its rich ecosystem services to meet their social and economic needs. Prey Lang provides essential resources to the local community, including both timber and non-timber forest products. This forest also underpins local food security, livelihoods, fisheries, and agriculture.

Cambodia’s largest protected area

At 489,663 hectares, this forest represents the largest remaining lowland evergreen forest in mainland Southeast Asia. It also has the highest rates of deforestation in Cambodia, which in turn has some of the highest rates of deforestation globally. The forest plays a crucial role in combating climate change, offering opportunities for ecotourism and carbon sequestration, while enhancing community resilience. Still a large contiguous tract of forest, Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is experiencing severe fragmentation due to agricultural encroachment aided by ease of access due to flat topography and various roads cut through the forest.

Watershed for Tonle Sap Lake

Prey Lang provides water to the Stung Sen and Stung Chinit rivers. Both flow into Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, home to one of the world's largest freshwater fisheries, which is essential to the country’s economy and food security. Small-scale fishers in the Prey Lang watershed Provinces earn $7 million annually. It is estimated commercial fish harvest at $36 million yearly. Fishing is the primary source of income for 4,032 families and as the secondary income for 16,080 households. (Mak, 2010; MRC Fisheries, 2010).

Our plan

Conservation International has worked in Prey Lang since 2005. We are collaborating with Indigenous peoples and local communities, the private sector, and government to establish sustainable livelihoods that support sustainable agriculture and deforestation free commodity production. We are also focused on supporting the effective management of the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary and surrounding areas through climate and sustainable production financing and improved.

Protected area management

Conservation International supported the designation of this area as a legally protected wildlife sanctuary, we worked with various levels of government to help define the sanctuary’s boundaries across four provinces. These were formalized in 2016, becoming the nation’s largest protected area. Currently, we are partnering on the USAID-funded project which aims to enhance biodiversity conservation, improve protected area management and provide sustainable financing for this protected area.

Carbon for communities

Together with our partners, the Cambodian Ministry of Environment and the Japanese company Mitsui and Co., we are implementing a carbon project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by protecting the Prey Lang Forest and improving livelihoods and law enforcement practices. As a part of this REDD+ project (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) we've helped to quantify forest carbon stocks, provided training to local and provincial governments to monitor the tropical forest, and provided support for improving livelihoods and law enforcement training. Through the sale of these carbon credits, we aim to finance long-term forest protection.

Improving community livelihoods

Conservation International helps communities in the Prey Lang protected area establish alternative, forest-friendly sources of income in exchange for environmental protection. Through the Ibis Rice program, we are working to improve local communities' livelihoods in partnership with the local nonprofit group Sansom Mlup Prey. Farmers receive a premium for their rice by following organic and sustainable practices.

Non-timber forest products

Many communities collect and sell resin, honey, rattan, bamboo and wild fruits directly from the forest. Conservation International has delivered training to support these sustainable activities. We are working with partners to connect these communities to markets.