Illegal logging associated with hydropower dam construction in Southern Cardamom REDD project, Cambodia

New documentary by France24 looks at illegal logging in two REDD projects in Cambodia.

France24 recently broadcast a short documentary about REDD in Cambodia. The journalists travelled with Cambodian activists and a British journalist who investigate illegal logging in the country. The documentary found illegal logging taking place in the Keo Seima REDD project and the Southern Cardamom REDD project.

The Cambodian government reacted by claiming that the documentary used “old images to spread false information and cause confusion”. The day after the documentary was broadcast, six Cambodian activists who were involved in uncovering illegal logging were arrested.

The government made no attempt to investigate who was behind the illegal logging. Neither did it take any measures to stop the illegal logging.

This post looks at the illegal logging currently taking place in the Southern Cardamom REDD project. It’s the largest REDD project in Cambodia and also the most controversial one, as France24 notes.

Hydropower dams and deforestation

Five large dams have been built in and close to the REDD project. Five more are currently under construction. The Cambodian government has authorised the dams.

France24 states that,

These sites lead to deforestation of large parts of the protected area, potentially jeopardising the carbon credits sold to companies like Delta Airlines, Air France, and La Poste.

The France24 documentary team travels to the Southern Cardamom REDD project area with Gerald Flynn, a journalist with Mongabay. Flynn takes aerial pictures using a drone of one of the hydropower construction sites.

“This bit looks pretty bad,” Flynn says as he operates the drone. “They are destroying this place.”

Flynn’s drone photographs clearly show roads coming out from the logging camp. “They just go snaking off into the jungle. That’s how they’re getting the protected timber.”

The logging is supposed to be limited to the reservoir area behind the dam. the reality is that many more trees are being cut down than were originally allowed — including well outside the reservoir area.

“We now have the evidence that they’re logging in the REDD+ project area,” Flynn says.

“People are buying carbon credits under the illusion that that is going to help protect the forest. And yet what we see time and time again in Cambodia is that these REDD+ projects often fail to prevent large-scale deforestation that’s being caused by the development of these hydropower dams.”

France24 spoke to Naomi Swickard, Senior Director; REDD+ Programme, at Verra. Swickard says that,

“You have a dam that’s under development and is causing deforestation. It doesn’t mean that you haven’t had a benefit to the broader area. The project absolutely avoids deforestation. You would see something that is much, much higher if you did not have that project in place.”

Human rights and Indigenous Peoples

France24 notes that it’s not just nature that the REDD projects fail to protect. REDD projects can have a devastating impact on the livelihoods of the people living in and around the projects.

Following an investigation by Human Rights Watch into the Southern Cardamom REDD project, the project was suspended by Verra, the carbon certification company.

But in September 2024, after carrying out its own “investigation”, Verra reinstated the project.

Luciana Téllez Chávez, senior researcher on environment and human rights at Human Rights Watch told Mongabay that,

“During an entire year-long process, Verra didn’t interview a single victim of this project. Their report has no independent findings: it simply restates the assertions of the Wildlife Alliance that they don’t think they did anything wrong. It’s like a police department relying on an officer’s word, even when the evidence overwhelmingly points to abuse.”

France24 points out that when the REDD project area was defined, some people lost access to land that their families had farmed for generations. They speak to a farmer called Bo who is a member of the Chong Indigenous community.

He takes them to where his rice field used to be. In 2022, he says, “It was burned by the military police, forest officers, and members of an NGO, foreigners.”

“I have nothing against nature. But we can’t just admire nature. We need to live with it. We don’t have fixed incomes like civil servants or people with jobs. If we don’t have our fields, and life is too harsh for us, and I’m not the only one in this situation, there are hundreds of families.”

The REDD project has funded schools, sanitation blocks, wells, and solar lamps. But Bo’s children had to leave the village to look for work. He lives with his wife, and barely earns enough to survive. He has had to take out loans to buy rice — to replace the rice he can no longer grow himself.

“The rice we used to grow was much better,” Bo’s wife says. “The one we buy at the store has no taste. But we have no choice.”

Bo is now forced to catch fish to feed him and his wife.

In Paris, France24 speaks to Luciana Téllez Chávez of Human Rights Watch. Chávez says that,

“The Environment Ministry has vowed to turn every national park in the country into a REDD+ project. And national parks make up 41% of the country. So we’re talking about a commitment to turn about half of the country into a REDD+ project. That’s incredibly significant.

“At the same time it’s a country with a long history of lands rights violations. You know for a fact that if you’re setting up a project in this context, this is a risk.

“At the very end of that chain, you have the company that’s actually buying the credits. They are not responsible for implementing the project, but obviously given all the scandals in this market, at the very least out of a concern for reputational exposure, they should be doing due diligence on the credits that they buy.”

None of the companies that France24 contacted, that have bought credits from the Southern Cardamom REDD project, agreed to an interview. Boeing simply stated that, “Boeing procures carbon offsets through a globally recognized agency”.