Long read:

REDD+ Projects Still Struggling to Live up to Expectations in Cambodia
Gerald Flynn 07/06/2021 9:19 AM
While Environment Minister Say Samal tried to sell carbon credits to the UK during Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s visit, critics warn that REDD+ has done little for conservation or indigenous communities
[excerpt]
PHNOM PENH--During his meeting with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on June 23, Cambodian Minister of Environment Say Samal said he suggested that the United Kingdom purchase carbon credits from Cambodia.

“In the field of environment, the UK can buy carbon credits from Cambodia and that money will be used to serve conservation of forests and wildlife and local economic development by providing new options of employment and income for the people,” Samal said.

According to the Ministry of Environment, Samal also requested that UK provide technical assistance in training human resources in relation to environmental conservation.

Raab, whose brief visit to Cambodia aimed to focus on environmental partnerships between the two countries, declined to comment on whether he would push the UK to purchase carbon credits, instead saying that a team of experts would need to visit Cambodia to assess the actual needs of the environment and natural resources.

Cambodia has, to date, embarked on five REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) projects—environmental conservation projects that generate carbon credits, which can in turn be sold or traded to companies, organizations or governments looking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

So, should the UK purchase Cambodian carbon credits, the British government would effectively be paying the Cambodian government not to deforest areas of carbon-absorbing ecosystems that typically make up a REDD+ project.

However, reiterating Raab’s apparent hesitance, the spokesperson also cautioned that any carbon credit purchase would need strong assurances from the Cambodian government and its implementing partners.

“It is essential that carbon pricing promotes strong environmental integrity, as well as social and biodiversity benefits, and the UK does not sign contracts for carbon credits without these assurances,” they said.

While Cambodian participation in the Asia-Pacific Climate Week, which kicked off on July 6, could prove an indicator of regional commitments to environmental protection and could help determine the viability of Cambodia’s carbon credits in the eyes of the British government, Raab’s own visit was marred by the recent arrest of environmental activists from the outlawed NGO Mother Nature.

The arrests proved impossible for Raab to avoid after public pressure from civil society organizations—who have condemned the arrests as unlawful and extreme in response to the group’s documentation of sewage flowing into the Tonle Sap—but it is unclear what effect, if any, Raab’s words had as the government has so far stood by its controversial decision to brand the environmentalists as “terrorists.”

A Rocky Start
However, the success of REDD+ in Cambodia has been mixed and progress has taken years, many of which have seen conflicts between government agencies, the implementing NGOs and the communities who call REDD+ sites home.

Cambodia’s first foray into carbon credit producing projects began in Oddar Meanchey Province in 2008 and the project spanned almost 64,000 hectares with the aim of ending deforestation, which had been rising steadily since 2002—similarly, the project aimed to meet two market standards at once: Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity (CCB) standard.

Essentially this means that the project is supposed to go beyond simple preservation of forested areas and help preserve the livelihoods and cultures of the communities who live in the protected area.

The Oddar Meanchey REDD+ project claimed to secure land tenure for 13 community forests, encompassing some 8,000 households throughout the protected area. What happened however, was that the land tenure was “secured” by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), who were then accused of running lucrative forest-clearing operations. Deforestation actually increased and the RCAF presence led to frequent conflicts, often armed, between communities living on the land and soldiers with orders to clear it.

In turn, airliner Virgin Atlantic, which had been purchasing carbon credits from the Oddar Meanchey REDD project, pulled out and ended payments to the project in January 2018.

The same year that Oddar Meanchey Province’s REDD+ kicked off, international NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)—in partnership with the Cambodian Forestry Administration—were planning their own REDD+ project in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary.

While the project surpassed the Oddar Meanchey REDD+ efforts, even selling carbon credits worth $2.6 million to the Disney Foundation, it too was beset with problems—particularly in relation to indigenous rights.
Full article: https://cambodianess.com/article/redd-p ... n-cambodia

REDD+
Huge potential, starting to be realised
"Issues"
Huge potential, starting to be realised

Last time i looked, it seemed to me that Oddar Meanchey was a grand plan gone wrong.
Ground breaking, fab idea, but possibly an overreach.
not to mention over-optimistic about the commitments of "some" of the stake-holders regarding actual long term protection of the forests.

The Wildlife Alliance program looks viable to me, all 'round.
At least they have enough muscle and commitment to get real about protection.

nb. ^^ from an uninformed outside observer.
But I do know there are some very bright, very experienced, hardcore realists working on this. (including at O.Meanchey)

So to understand this, the Cambodian government in the name of caring for thier environment, will keep clearing the forest, unless other governments pay them not to do so, have I misunderstood something or looking at it to symplectic.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:26 am REDD+
Huge potential, starting to be realised
"Issues"
Huge potential, starting to be realised

Last time i looked, it seemed to me that Oddar Meanchey was a grand plan gone wrong.
Ground breaking, fab idea, but possibly an overreach.
not to mention over-optimistic about the commitments of "some" of the stake-holders regarding actual long term protection of the forests.

The Wildlife Alliance program looks viable to me, all 'round.
At least they have enough muscle and commitment to get real about protection.

nb. ^^ from an uninformed outside observer.
But I do know there are some very bright, very experienced, hardcore realists working on this. (including at O.Meanchey)

SternAAlbifrons then it all looks good, then you come across the following and it may just make the decision not too easy.

Carving up the Cardamoms: Conservationists fear massive land grab in Cambodia
Conservationists have expressed concern over a recently published regulation that makes nearly 127,000 hectares (313,800 acres) of previously protected land potentially available for sale or rent to politically connected businesses.

By Mongabay -July 2, 2021
A new regulation signed into law in March this year but only unveiled publicly in May will see almost 127,000 hectares (313,800 acres) of previously protected land in Cambodia made available for sale or rent, prompting fears among conservationists about a land grab for some of the country’s best-preserved ecosystems.

On paper, Sub-decree No. 30 , signed March 2 by Prime Minister HE, transfers ownership of 126,928.39 hectares from the Ministry of Environment and the various conservation NGOs that assist in the management of the protected areas, to the Koh Kong provincial administration. Ostensibly, this transfer of land, measuring half the size of Luxembourg, is meant “for distribution to people, while retaining partial land as private property to be held by Koh Kong Provincial Administration.”

It’s seen as a readjustment of the protected areas, the mapping of which saw thousands of Cambodians lose their homes as the government and conservation NGOs took control of land that had housed many communities for generations. As such, this latest sub-decree presents an opportunity for many communities living in cleared sections of the protected areas to acquire land titles — but it also presents an opportunity for tycoons with connections to the Koh Kong provincial land management committee, chaired by Governor Mithona Puthong of HE’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

In full: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/carvi ... -cambodia/

Clueless... The government has no will you stop deforestation. It's still going on at a rapid pace as we speak. Very little left.

No Andy, all does not look good. Who said that?

But making an effort is not clueless.
Giving up on the planet is dumb, and gutless.
Thank God not everybody are just egg throwing professional armchair cynics and smart alec know-it-all nay sayers, or it all would be gone.

Fact is Cambodia is still a repository for a whole bunch of fauna that has disappeared everywhere else. What are they living on? Scotch mist?
"Very little left" is just defeatism, apart from being wrong.

Or is it just the old story of people who don't give a fuck and who get very annoyed by those who do?

National parks, marine parks, world heritage sites, clean air and water acts, threatened species protection, heritage buildings and precincts not bulldozed, all kinds of poison and pollution laws... etc etc etc

Nearly all of these are given a "no chance" by the nay sayers when they are first proposed in the West.
The proponents are usually called fools, ratbags, anti-society, anti economy.
eg. I am often labelled an arsehole simply because i want to protect some shit or another.
If it was for my personality i could understand it - but ffs, for pushing for a marine park? That makes me both a fool and an arsehole in the eyes of a sizable % of the Au population.
(The park by the way is now a raging success on all levels)

Yet these measures (first paragraph) are all now institutions that 95% of our populations support as being absolutely crucial to our well being.
(ok, maybe only 94% of CEO readers. )

Fact is. Despite all - Cambodia is a much better place than it would have been without the conservation efforts of the the past 30 years.

The efforts of the new and future generations of Cambodians who will keep fighting instead of just throwing in the towel, will be disparaged. They will be abused. A few will get locked up or be murdered. People will roll their eyes and many will spit.
They will never be thanked, but some of their work will also go on to become treasured national institutions.
arseholes, clueless too

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sat Jul 10, 2021 10:52 pm National parks, marine parks, world heritage sites, clean air and water acts, threatened species protection, heritage buildings and precincts not bulldozed, all kinds of poison and pollution laws... etc etc etc

Nearly all of these are given a "no chance" by the nay sayers when they are first proposed in the West.
The proponents are usually called fools, ratbags, anti-society, anti economy.
eg. I am often labelled an arsehole simply because i want to protect some shit or another.
If it was for my personality i could understand it - but ffs, for pushing for a marine park? That makes me both a fool and an arsehole in the eyes of a sizable % of the Au population.
(The park by the way is now a raging success on all levels)

Yet these measures (first paragraph) are all now institutions that 95% of our populations support as being absolutely crucial to our well being.
(ok, maybe only 94% of CEO readers. )

Fact is. Despite all - Cambodia is a much better place than it would have been without the conservation efforts of the the past 30 years.

The efforts of the new and future generations of Cambodians who will keep fighting instead of just throwing in the towel, will be disparaged. They will be abused. A few will get locked up or be murdered. People will roll their eyes and many will spit.
They will never be thanked, but some of their work will also go on to become treasured national institutions.
arseholes, clueless too

I agree with what you believe in, and I am on your side over matters of environmental concerns, like yourself I would hope there is little change to what is shall we call a natural balance too the eco systems that are left in their natural habitats. Has for Cambodia, being a developing country, time will tell if it maintains its conservation of a natural landscape.

^ Yes, I'm with Andy - we (us-treehuggers) are all on the same side. Even if there are differences of opinion on how to get things done, we all want a better environmental protection for Cambodia.
I haven't finished reading the OP yet tbh, but it's interesting, so will get back to you.

I am probably showing the signs of my burnout (x half a dozen times)
sorry, sniper fire sometimes sets me off.