The Fonds pour l'édition des manuscrits du Cambodge (FEMC) team of the École Française d'extrème-orient (EFEO), Phnom Penh, is active in restoring, microfilming, cataloguing and publishing ancient Cambodian sastra or palm leaf manuscripts.

Tragically 83 per cent of Cambodia's wats lost their libraries during the Khmer Rouge period, representing the destruction of between 95 and 98 per cent of the traditional literary heritage of Cambodia which had existed before 1970. Measures to protect what was left were thus urgently required. After a period of recruitment and training of specialised staff in the techniques of manuscript conservation, the FEMC team travelled around the country restoring, inventorying and copying the texts of manuscripts, whether on palm leaf or on paper. Since 1991 the FEMC team has worked in more than 750 pagodas (around a quarter of the total in Cambodia), restoring and inventorying more than 6,500 bundles of manuscripts. A master inventory and catalogue of Cambodian manuscripts has been developed at EFEO's headquarters in Phnom Penh. The special collection of 710 sastra at the National Library was restored, catalogued, microfilmed and rehoused with EFEO's assistance, and in recent years EFEO has also organised and set up several wat libraries, notably the Library of Preah Vanarat Ken at Wat Saravan in Phnom Penh and the Library of Wat Phum Thmei in Kompong Cham.

The Buddhist Institute Library and the National Museum Library also hold important palm leaf manuscript collections.