The ASEAN Peatland Media Award has been launched to promote sustainable management of peatlands in Southeast Asia.

The
contest was announced by the ASEAN Secretariat and the Global
Environment Centre (GEC) with the support from the IFAD/GEF-ASEAN
Peatland Forests Project (APFP) and of EU-SEApeat Project.

Themed
“Peat for Life”, the contest will honour individuals or journalists for
their reporting on peatlands that covers sustainability, biodiversity,
community livelihood and environmental issues in Southeast Asia
region.

Peatlands was one of the focal areas under the ASEAN
Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution to tackle the root cause of
transboundary haze caused by peat fire, said Raman Letchumanan, Director
of the Environmental Division of the ASEAN Secretariat, who is also
Project Director of the APFP project.

The ASEAN Peatland Media
Award aims to raise awareness on issues and challenges in peatland
management in the region and bring success stories of government action
and grassroots peatland conservation efforts in ASEAN countries to the
public’s attention, he added.

The contest is divided into 2
categories, Print and New Media and submission is open to all
individuals and organisations for articles on peat related topics
published between January 1-December 31, 2013.

The prizes
totaling 3,600 USD in cash and a stay in the award winning resort of
Frangipani Langkawi worth 1,000 USD will be presented to the winners of
both categories for their outstanding reporting.

Submission will be accepted from April 1-December 31, 2013.

More
than 24 million ha of peatlands are found in the Southeast Asian
region. Peatlands are naturally forested and provide valuable goods and
services including timber and non-timber forest products, fish, water
supply, flood control, carbon storage and climate regulation.-VNA