Launching ‘The Value of Forests’ video competition

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests (IDF) in 2012. The day celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests. On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organise activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns. 

This year, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Sri Lanka is joining forces through the Sri Lanka UN-REDD Program with the Forest Department and Climate Change Secretariat of Sri Lanka, as well as SLYCAN Trust, Thuru App Team and IUCN Sri Lanka to organise a one-minute video competition under the theme: ‘Value of Forests’, as a part of IDF celebrations. The competition aims to create awareness on the important role played by forests. This includes fighting climate change; regulating weather patterns; providing livelihoods; preserving biodiversity; ensuring water security; preventing natural disasters; and maintaining soil quality, etc. 

“Forests play an important role in fighting global warming and regulating climatic conditions. People all over the world are now uniting to protect existing forests and to increase forested areas in order to face this common threat,” states FAO Representative in Sri Lanka Nina Brandstrup. She further stressed the need for creating awareness on the issue on the need to protect forests and its benefits through creative means. 

The competition focuses on developing an MP4 or AVI video of a maximum duration of 1 minute, which could be filmed using a video camera, a smartphone, or computer-generated animation (or a combination of these). It aims to raise awareness among public on the protecting forests through highlighting benefits in an engaging manner. 

“Public needs to play a key role in protecting forests. The more there is awareness on the issue, then there is more action taken to protect forests. Campaigns such as this focuses on engaging the public which creates interest on the topic, as well as provides space for them to be part of the solution and changemakers in protecting the environment,” says SLYCAN Trust Executive Coordinator Vositha Wijenayake.

The video would be judged on creativity, relevance to theme and clarity of message. The winning entries will receive wide national and international exposure, together with exciting prizes. 

For further information call Avanthi on: 077-0092141 or visit www.facebook.com/SriLankaREDDplus.