On the Tonle Sap – Working as a Videographer for the EU’s #OurPlanet project

Biodiversity

After spending a wonderful Christmas and New Year with my family in France for the first time. Since COVID, it was great to kick off the year working as a videographer for the EU to direct, shoot and edit 6 videos to showcase their Our Tonle Sap project.

It was good to work on a series of campaign videos for a campaign as the videos could clearly follow the central tenets of the project.

The 6 videos I made were, an intro video to the visit and videos about how the Our Tonle Sap project supports biodiversity, climate, community, conservation and sustainability on the lake.

Since 2021, the EU-funded project 'Our Tonle Sap' has helped preserve biodiversity and support communities against environmental changes.

The Tonle Sap is a biodiversity hotspot. Home to over 700 animal species, Including fish, reptiles, birds and mammals.

H.E. Igor Dreismans. The EU ambassador to Cambodia, visited the lake to promote the Our Tonle Sap project.

‘Protecting the environment, protecting biodiversity, may be the biggest challenge our generation faces,’ he said.

The EU is actively involved in projects to conserve the lake's biodiversity.

Supporting the replanting of the flooded forest lost to fire, to ensure a climate resilient future.

Climate

Due to climate change, there are more fires in the flooded forests on the lake.

We interviewed, Mean Bunthong, a ranger on the Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary. ‘We've built 3 towers to monitor for forest fires,’ he said.

As well as monitoring for fires, rangers are planting saplings to restore the forest.

We spoke also spoke to Hou Kaylan, who trains the rangers. ‘We train rangers to plant saplings

to stop the fires from spreading,’ she said.

‘If there are enough trees, the biodiversity will be preserved,’ added Bunthong.

Community

There are 170 villages on the Tonle Sap with a population of 80,000 people.

Working with local partners, the EU has facilitated training for female entrepreneurs living on the lake.

Rouen Chantha an entrepreneur spoke to us about the training she’s received.

‘We received training on running a small business and processing fish products,’ she said.

‘Making prahok (fermented fish paste) makes me happy. I earn enough income to support my family.’

We also spoke to Rob Tizard a technical advisor working with Wildlife Conservation Society.

‘By working with the EU we're able to expand our activities to more communities, more activities hopefully have a greater impact on the lake’ he said.

Conservation

The EU works with local partners to support the Ministry of Environment in the development of the Prek Toal Ramsar Site

We spoke to Rob Tizaed about the conservation efforts that are being made as part of the project.

‘We protect the bird species, the bird populations have continued to rebound,’ he said.

Thanks to the EU funding, the protected bird sanctuaries bring income to communities through eco-tourism.

Stefan Messerer, German Ambassador to Cambodia, said, ‘We acknowledge Cambodia's

commitment to conservation. Let us work together and make this happen.’

Sustainability

The EU supports the Fisheries Administration in managing the Prek Toal Fish Conservation Are.

To protect the lake’s fish stocks, only small-scale, sustainable, community-based fishing is allowed in the conservation area.

We spoke to Duch Dam, a local fisherman. ‘The rangers make it easy for us to make a living. If they see illegal fishing activity, they stop it.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any videography projects you would like to discuss. You can see more examples of my videos for social media here.