About Prey Lang Forest
Photo: Andrew McDonald
Introduction
Prey Lang is an extensive evergreen and semi-evergreen forest landscape that is located between the Mekong and Stung Sen Rivers in northern Cambodia. This area supports roughly 3,600 square kilometers (approximately 80,000 – 100,000 ha) of forests and is arguably the largest remaining mature lowland dipterocarp forest community in the Indochina region. In addition to the dry evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous forests this landscape also features a total of 7 forest communities that are rare and endemic to Cambodia, including rare luxury timber trees, as well as more than 20 endangered plant species and potentially over 27 endangered animal species.
Water Shed
This landscape has important watershed values. It plays a significant role in the water cycle within northern Cambodia by generating rains in central Cambodia and in supplying water in the region through adjoining tributaries to the Mekong River and Stung Sen. The role that both the dry evergreen and swamp evergreen forests play in regulating water flows also serves to prevent sedimentation of the Tonle Sap Lake.
Indigenous People and Communities
Nestled over 4 provinces (Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Kratie and Kompong Thom) about 250,000 people live in 339 villages on the periphery of the forest. This includes a large number of Kouy and other indigenous groups, dependent upon the forest for livelihoods. Their spiritual and social traditions are shaped by the forest and their relationship to it.
Photo: Andrew McDonald
Fauna and flora
It is home to exotic animals such as the gaur, bentang, tigers, and wild elephants, perhaps also the near-mythical and perhaps already extinct Koh prey, a giant wild ox that is Cambodia’s national animal.
Prey Lang: Forest Products
Rich in flora and fauna, Prey Lang is a treasure trove of natural resources, including foods . Medicinal herbs and supplies for household use, as well as products with commercial value such as resin.
Foods from the forest include fruits, such as Plew, Pnew, and Soeung, vegetables such roots and wild mushrooms, protein from fish in the rivers and streams.
Home remedies, based on traditional knowledge, are often the only health care option for isolated forest dwellers in Prey Lang. Tree bark and leaves of more than 100 plants, native to the forest, are believed to possess medicinal properties which are widely depended upon.
Resin is a crucial source of income for many families residing in surrounding villages of Prey Lang; it’s collected in soft and hard form from old growth trees, mainly Dipterocarpus species.
Leaves of trees are also utilised for thatch roofing and mats, species such as palm leaves and grasses, are ideal.
Protecting the Forest
Communities around Prey Lang periodically gather to celebrate the forest and discuss ways in which they can protect and sustainabley manage it for future generations. Activities such as community-led biodiversity surveys, active forest patrols, and the development of community media for information-sharing have helped to engage and empower communities to sustain their traditions and protect the forest for future generations.
Prey Lang’s protection is vital to Cambodia, the Indochina Peninsula, and the world. Prey Lang is critical for regulating water flow to the Tonle Sap basin and for counteracting the effects of global warming.
Prey Lang Threats
Illegal logging and anticipated industrial development of the area are severe threats to the forest and also placing additional pressure upon communities and their livelihoods.
Large scale mining operations are not only destructive in the immediate vicinity of mines. Run-off from toxic chemicals pollute water ways and threaten ecological systems, livestock, and human health.
Extensive logging and the clearing of forest for large plantations, predominantly rubber, contribute to soil erosion and losses in biodiversity, and destruction of vital watersheds. Plantations are also far less efficient than are forests in countering the effects of global warming.
Prey Lang Biodiversity
Mixed Dipterocarp and Evergreen Forest landscape dominate the area. The greater Prey Lang Forest includes seven different types of forest habitats. Once the most common type of forest in Indochina, Prey Lang is the last large remaining forest of its kind.
Studies show the presence of rare and endangered animals such as bears, elephants, Sambar and Banteng.
Giant palms break the canopy of Prey Lang’s primordial swamp forests, unique in all the world.
The elusive Siamese crocodile is thought to still inhabit streams within the forest.
