The Ministry of Environment will organise the three-day “Ponlork Baitong” exhibition at the Win-Win Monument in Phnom Penh next month, along with the “One Million Sugar Palm Trees” planting campaign.
The exhibition will take place from August 5 to 7 and be presided over by Prime Minister Hun Manet and his wife Pich Chanmony.
Over the course of the event, the ministry will distribute saplings to the public, free of charge. They are intended for planting at homes, pagodas, schools, communities, protected areas and other public spaces. The initiative aims to encourage citizens across Cambodia to love and plant trees, expanding the country’s forest cover in pursuit of carbon neutrality by 2050.
The exhibition will showcase the achievements of the environment ministry, local and international NGOs, development partners, private sector entities and youth associations, and will also include displays of Cambodian products and biodiversity-based goods from local communities.
Minister of Environment Eang Sophalleth chaired a July 11 meeting to prepare for the event.
“The ‘Ponlork Baitong’ exhibition and the free tree sapling distribution, along with the One Million Sugar Palm Trees campaign in 2025, aim to cultivate among Cambodians a love for trees, greenery and the environment,” he said at the meeting.
The initiative is aligned with the environmental sector master plan, part of Phase 1 of the government’s Pentagonal Strategy, and follows the prime minister’s instruction to strengthen natural resource management.
A key focus is the expansion of Cambodia’s forest cover. The ministry launched the “Ponlork Baitong” campaign to instil eco-conscious values through seedling nurseries, sapling distribution and tree planting — targeting at least one million trees per year.
Cambodia currently has 73 protected areas, covering more than 7 million hectares, or over 40 per cent of the Kingdom’s land mass.
The ministry reported that the Forestry Administration has grown and planted more than 21 million tree saplings. This figure does not include the millions more planted independently by citizens across the country.
