Manulife, APSARA National Authority Partner to Preserve Cultural Heritage Sites Against Future Climate Impacts
NEWS RELEASE
January 20th, 2024
Siem Reap – Manulife Cambodia – the country’s first international life insurance company – and APSARA National Authority signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the project “Angkor Manulife Community Park,” to preserve cultural heritage sites in Cambodia against the impacts of climate change through over 10,000 trees to be planted on 5.5 hectares of land in Angkor Archeological Park located near Banteay Prei Temple.
We have the honorable presence of H.E Dr. Phoeurng Sackona, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts and President of the Administrative Board of APSARA National Authority; H.E Ms Mom Thony, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Environment (MoE), H.E Dr. HANG Peou Director General of APSARA National Authority; Mr. Ing Kimleang Deputy Governor of Siem Reap Province; representatives from Insurance Regulator of Cambodia (IRC) and UNESCO; Mr. Chan Rotha, CEO and General Manager of Manulife Cambodia; and relevant officials.
The project’s goal preserves the physical structures of the nation's cultural heritage site and helps to ensure future generations will have access to and benefit from the preservation of Angkor Wat, aligning to Manulife’s Global Impact Agenda and its commitments to accelerating a sustainable future and empowering health and wellbeing in Cambodia.
“We are honored to be in collaboration with APSARA National Authority in working together to safeguard the value of cultural heritage sites for the current and next generation,” said Rotha Chan, CEO and General Manager, Manulife Cambodia. “The project supports Manulife’s 1t.org partnership and accelerates a sustainable future with tangible results targeted in 2027.”
Manulife announced in 2022 a pledge to 1t.org through its partnership with the World Economic Forum’s Trillion Trees initiative to accelerate and scale nature-based solutions in efforts to mitigate climate change. To date, more than 1.3 billion trees have been planted by Manulife Investment Management since 1985.
H.E Dr. Phoeurng Sackona said that Manulife-funded project will play an important role in preserving cultural heritage sites and will contribute to socio-economic development by generating income and employment opportunities for local communities.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, H.E. Dr. PHOEURNG Sackona, Minister of Culture and Fine Arts and President of the Administrative Board of APSARA National Authority, said that millions of trees including the project of Manulife and the other private sectors cooperated with the APSARA National Authority, are continuously planted in Angkor Park. This is another new task in addition to our work as Cambodians to take care of the environment. Because there are hundreds of temples on this land, the temple is a link between nature and humans. All of that, without the help of forests, problems will arise, such as drought, and the green environment contributes greatly to human well-being. She expressed her pleasure that the government is paying more attention to increasing forest cover and this activity is becoming more productive, especially among young people. H.E. Dr. PHOEURNG Sackona continued that the next generation can live because of your achievements now and this is the desire for all of us to receive the heritage from our ancestors to have temples with natural resources. Therefore, we have to take care of it and continue creating something for the next generation.
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