Kheo Seyma - Cambodia
The Keo Seima REDD+ project in Cambodia aims to protect 166,983 hectares of tropical forest within the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, restore the reserve's rich biodiversity and develop the livelihoods of indigenous communities.
2021 - 2022
A financer
The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary covers nearly 300,000 hectares in eastern Cambodia and is rich in natural and cultural wildlife, forests, landscapes and indigenous communities. Its forest is home to 75 threatened species (classified as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List), over 350 bird species, 7 primate species and a population of Asian elephants. It is currently threatened by accelerated deforestation for agriculture and unsustainable resource extraction (including hunting, logging and fishing). These activities damage both biodiversity and the livelihoods of local people who depend on the forest.
The Keo Seima REDD+ project is reducing carbon emissions from deforestation to conserve the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary forest and preserve existing carbon stocks. A baseline scenario was designed to estimate the amount of carbon emissions avoided by the project over a 30-year period. This scenario was developed using a methodology approved by the Verified Carbon Standard programme and based on the local deforestation context. In concrete terms, the project activities combine measures to prevent illegal deforestation with actions to improve the livelihoods of indigenous communities, such as agricultural assistance on land that is legally cultivated, the development of ecotourism within sites that have received government approval, or the creation of economic channels around the sale of non-timber forest products.
