Illegal Logging Threatens UN’s Carbon Trading Project

The military’s ongoing clearing of community forests in Oddar Meanchey province risks derailing Cambodia’s first forest-based carbon trading scheme backed by the U.N., according to the latest assessment of the project. Community forest groups, who stand to earn millions from the project, said on Wednesday that they have proposed a meeting with officials at the provincial government’s headquarters in Samraong City for Wednesday in order to discuss illegal logging in the area. Members of the network of 13 community forests that make up the 68,000-hectare project area have been complaining about the illegal for years and more recently about a proliferation of military bases in the forests. … With the potential risks down the line, and more projects from REDD- a U.N. sponsored initiative for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation- in the works around Cambodia, the outcome of the project in Oddar Meanchey could prove critical. … As part of the REDD initiative, the project aims to convince western companies looking to offset their carbon emission to pay for the carbon the community forests will keep locked in the trees. The scheme only works, of course if the trees remain standing. Sa Thlai, who heads the provinces community forest network, has been warning that military bases have been “destroying” the project for months, and that more than half of one of the 13 forests had already been felled. …

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-logging-threatens-uns-carbon-trading-project-21395/