One-minute video competition to mark International Day of Forests

The International Day of Forests (IDF) is celebrated globally on 21st March each year under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

This global celebration of forests is used as a platform to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests and of trees outside forests for the benefit of current and future generations. Therefore,on each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local and national efforts to organize activities involving forests and treesunder an annual theme.

While this year’s global Idftheme will concentrate on Forests and Energy, FAO Sri Lanka is joining forces through the Sri Lanka UN-REDD Programme with the Forest Department and Climate Change Secretariat of Sri Lanka, as well as SLYCAN Trust, Thuru App Team and IUCN Sri Lanka to organize a one-minute video competition under the theme: Value of Forests. Market leader of Sri Lanka’s cement industry INSEE Cement has come forward as the private sectorsponsor of the event.

“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 Ms Nina Brandstrup. She further stressed the need to create awareness on the need to protect forests and highlight the benefits forests provide through creative means.

The one-minute video competition aims to create awareness on the important role played by foreststhat include fighting climate change; regulating weather patterns; providing livelihoods; preserving biodiversity; ensuring water security; preventing natural disasters; and maintaining soil quality, among other.

The competition, which is open to all citizens of Sri Lanka encourages entrants to develop 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 all these. The video would be judged on creativity, relevance to theme and clarity of message.

The winner of the 1st Prize will be awarded with a cash prize of Rs. 100,000 by INSEE Cement with the 2nd and 3rd prizes being set at Rs. 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively .