eeds of the Forest
by John Seed, OAM
Join us in protecting Cambodia’s Areng
Valley from a destructive dam.
For the last year, the inhabitants of the
Areng Valley in Cambodia’s Cardamom
have done everything within their power
to prevent their forest from being flooded by a planned hydroelectric development - the Cheay Areng Dam. As a result,
they have received support from around
the world, which has helped to force the
original company to abandon the project.
In fact, two Chinese companies have already backed out of their involvement
in the Cheay Areng Dam, citing concerns
over its environmental impacts and poor
economic feasibility. These companies
have faced stiff resistance against the destruction of the beautiful valley from indigenous peoples, grassroots activists of
the NGO “Mother Nature” and a network
of monks who have helped bring the case
to the world’s attention.
However, since this victory, a new
company, Powerchina, has secured permission to study and build the project.
Please lend your support to the indigenous peoples of the Areng Valley to cancel this dam once and for all.
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“We will not give up until the government
abandons its dam plans for good,” said
the Buddhist monk Ven Vorn standing in
front of the Ministry of Energy and Mines
in Phnom Penh with a look of determination. Together with five indigenous representatives, he has traveled from the Cardamom Mountains to the capital to save
the Areng Valley – his home - from this
destructive dam.
Orange-robed Buddhist monks have
been central in this campaign. They have
been ordaining trees – by performing the
ceremony by which a man is turned into
a monk and tying an orange cloth around
each tree, they turn the trees into monks
and make them sacred in a bid to persuade people not to cut them down or
flood them.
If the dam is built, 20,000 hectares of
rainforest would be submerged. The area
is particularly rich in rare and endangered
species such as Siamese crocodiles, Asian
elephants and clouded leopards. More
than one thousand indigenous people
would be driven from the land that their
families have called home for centuries.
Please help us save Areng Valley
click here to sign the petition
Since mid-March, local residents and
environmentalists have been blocking
the way into the valley to prevent Powerchina’s workers and machines from blasting the river.
As a way to protect the valley, an
eco-tourism project for the Areng Valley
has been created to help bring sustainable development to the valley, while
Buddhist monks have begun to catalogue
the valley’s trees for their protection.
Australian and other rainforest protection groups like the Rainforest Information Centre supported these activities
with a donation drive, by organizing tree
sponsorships, and by collecting more
than 90,000 signatures on a petition demanding the cancellation of the dam.
Now we need to convince Powerchina
to abandon the Areng Valley dam project
and are launching a new petition. Please
sign our petition to Powerchina in Beijing: