PURSAT, Cambodia — The Cambodian government has approved at least three new irrigation dams across the Cardamom Mountains, carving even deeper into forests currently being used for the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ carbon credit projects.

Construction is yet to begin on the new dams, which are slated to be built in Battambang, Koh Kong and Pursat provinces. Officials from the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy all declined to comment on the irrigation dams or their environmental impacts.

The approval of these dams raises further questions about the government’s commitment to the REDD+ mechanism for preserving forests. The Ministry of Environment, alongside New York-headquartered NGO Wildlife Alliance, co-manages both the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and the Samkos REDD+ projects, which will lose a further 5,200 hectares (about 12,850 acres) to the new irrigation dams.

These same forests have already seen significant deforestation in recent months due to the ongoing construction of five new hydropower dams with reservoirs that collectively span 15,000 hectares (about 37,000 acres).

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Dr. Eang Sophalleth, Minister of Environment, received Ms. Rebekah Bell, Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Cambodia, and her colleagues for a courtesy call on September 13, 2023, at the Ministry of Environment.

Sophalleth welcomed and appreciated the cooperation between the Ministry of Environment and FAO on new initiatives, including the Green Climate Fund project and the Global Environment Facility, in response to natural resource management, conservation of protected areas, biodiversity conservation, adaptation to climate change, and REDD+ programmes.

The Minister also outlined the Ministry of Environment’s short-term priorities for activities, focusing on activities to reduce the use of plastic bags in schools with 3.7 million students, the development of protected area communities through the establishment of natural and historical corridors, community livelihoods, and the establishment of carbon neutrality and climate change responses.

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The post FAO Representative in Cambodia supports Ministry of Environment’s priority strategy first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

A new Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)-For-Trade project, in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) Programme’s initiative for the Lower Mekong, will promote trade and sustainable forest management (SFM) and at the same time reduce pressure on forests through improved governance in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

PEFC’s Forestry and Trade for Development in the ASEAN region aims to strengthen trade through improved forest certification infrastructure, supporting the reduction of trade barriers, promoting sustainable wood trade, improving livelihoods and contributing to biodiversity protection.

The UN-REDD Programme involves working with key institutions in these ASEAN countries, and in China, to reduce the opportunities for forest crime by strengthening governance, particularly by increasing the effectiveness of systems designed to ensure legal and sustainable trade in timber. 

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The post Mekong: Reducing Forest Crime And Deforestation first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The Lao PDR and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) have signed an agreement to provide up to $42 million between now and 2025 to support the country’s efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). A ceremony today marked the launch of this forest- and climate-focused program.

Under this Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA), the World Bank commits to making payments to the Lao PDR for verified reductions of up to 8.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in northern Laos. The program aims to address the drivers and underlying causes of forest loss in six provinces (Houaphanh, Luang Prabang, Oudomxay, Luang Namtha, Bokeo, Xayabouly), encompassing a third of the national territory. The region has been responsible for 40 percent of nationwide deforestation and forest degradation between 2005–15.

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Vietnam is set to receive tens of millions of dollars to help it keep a promise not to cut down trees, part of a controversial World Bank program that critics say does not produce its intended effect — carbon emission reductions.

The Southeast Asian nation has signed a contract that calls on the World Bank to pay out $51.5 million if Vietnam makes good on multiple pledges to protect its forests. It is the first Asian country to make such a deal.

Vietnam must measure how much future deforestation could contribute to emissions and, to qualify for the money, show how it is preempting forest loss.

The post Vietnam agrees to World Bank deal to stop forest loss first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

A meeting was held in Hanoi on June 26 to review the project on support for preparing the readiness to carry out the international framework “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (REDD+) in Vietnam Phase 2 (FCPF-2).

The programme, from November 2016 to June 30, 2020, has been implemented in Hanoi and the six northern central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien-Hue, at a total cost of 5.696 million USD, including 5 million USD of non-refundable ODA capital from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).

The FCPF-2 project aims to assist relevant agencies at the central level and in the six northern central provinces to improve their institutional and technical capacity to prepare for the REDD+  implementation in Vietnam.

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We didn’t expect a junkyard in the jungle, but that’s what we found: chainsaws – hundreds of them – piled high, along with old trucks, dozens of battered cars, countless motorbikes and scores of giant, illegally-harvested timbers.  It had all been confiscated by rangers working to protect the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, which is one piece of a massive effort to build a sustainable rural economy while saving and restoring forests in Cambodia.

In the mid-1960s, nearly three quarters of Cambodia was covered by lush tropical forests that provided clean, reliable supplies of drinking water and resilience in the face of natural disasters. Then came the Khmer Rouge and a devastating civil war.  As with other countries that experience civil unrest, the period that follows is, by necessity, focused on rebuilding the economy and reducing poverty.  In Cambodia, this led to uncontrolled logging and agricultural expansion that resulted in one of the highest rates of deforestation, forest degradation, and forest fragmentation in the world.  Today, forests cover less than half the country, much of which is heavily degraded.

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The post Cambodia: Building a Nested System to Protect Remaining Forests first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

To meet the target of limiting global warming to 2-degrees-Celsius established in the Paris Climate Agreement, it is crucial to curb tropical deforestation and encourage the reforestation of tropical forests that have already been cut down. Not only is tropical deforestation and forest degradation the source of 10 to 15 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, but tropical forests are an invaluable carbon sink that play a huge role in regulating the global climate. It’s been noted many times before that indigenous peoples and other forest communities who act as guardians of the forest are important partners and allies in the world’s efforts to slow climate change. Empowering Indigenous and forest communities as official stewards of their territorial lands has great climate potential: indigenous peoples and traditional communities own or have designated use rights to about 18 percent of the world’s tropical forests, comprising more than 350 million hectares in 30 tropical nations. Indigenous territories alone account for more than 20 percent of tropical forest carbon stocks. 

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The post How to increase REDD+ benefits to indigenous peoples and other traditional forest communities first appeared on Open Development Mekong.