Southern Cardamom REDD project still threatens Indigenous Chong communities’ livelihoods in Cambodia
“Their project helps us very little.”
Indigenous Chong communities have seen their livelihoods restricted and their rights violated as a result of the Southern Cardamom REDD project in Cambodia. In June 2023, following a letter from Human Rights Watch, Verra suspended the project, but it was reinstated in September 2024.
Carbon Market Watch has filed a complaint with the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Market about the way Verra carried out its “review” of the REDD project.
Verra did not employ an impartial third party to review the project, instead relying on the auditing companies SCS Global Services, Aster Global, and Aenor. These companies had been hired by the US-based project developer, Wildlife Alliance, to produce validation and/or verification reports for the project. This is a clear conflict of interest.
Recently Seoung Nimol wrote an excellent article for CamboJA News about the on-going problems that Indigenous Chong communities face because of the project.
The abuses documented by Human Rights Watch continued during Verra’s review period. Chong communities still have concerns about unresolved land claims, restrictions on their access to land, and a lack of transparency. Arrests and intimidation continue.
Verra did not travel to the project area to carry out its review.
A Verra spokesperson told CamboJA News that, “As a certification body, Verra does not conduct on-site investigations or directly validate projects.”
Chong villager arrested
On 27 June 2024, Chey Nov and her husband Pork Nget were cultivating their plot of land with their children, in Thmar Dounpov commune, less than 3 kilometres from their home.
While they were weeding, forest rangers from the Environment Ministry and Wildlife Alliance arrived. The rangers claimed that the plot was part of the REDD project. Nget was arrested.
He was charged with encroachment and received a five-year prison sentence. This was later suspended, but the charges remain.
Local authorities accused Nget of chopping down trees to clear land to grow rice. They also said that his family does not have proper ownership titles.
Nov told CamboJA News that their plot is recognised by commune authorities. Nov and Nget provided CamboJA News with documentation issued under a 2013 decree that surveyed land and titled it to rural residents.
But Human Rights Watch’s report about the Southern Cardamom REDD project reveals that Wildlife Alliance contested 1,851 hectares that had been surveyed to become part of Thmar Dounpov Commune.
Wildlife Alliance argued that the plots were forested land. An investigation by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction found that 35% of the contested land was farmland, 5% was a mix of field and forest, and the remaining 60% was forestland.
In October 2015, government officials and Wildlife Alliance agreed on a map, that eliminated almost all of the contested land from the Thmar Dounpov commune.
Nget told CamboJA News that when he was arrested there were no signs marking the land as part of the REDD project. Photographs from the day he was arrested show no signs prohibiting farming, or demarcating a protected area.
But in October 2024, when CamboJA News visited the area, they found a sign warning that anyone burning or cutting trees could face up to 10 years in prison, “suggesting it was added after his detention,” Seoung Nimol writes.
“I do not dare enter the farm because the organisation [Wildlife Alliance] does not allow it. If I go back, I fear they [forest rangers] will arrest me again,” Nget told CamboJA News.
Verra told CamboJA News that it was unaware of Nget’s arrest.
In June 2024, Nget’s brother, Pork Chuon broke his leg while running away from military police and Wildlife Alliance staff. This was a few weeks before Nget’s arrest.
Chuon was fishing when a “foreigner” from Wildlife Alliance and military police chased him. The military police fired a shot in the air to scare him. He tried to escape by jumping across a stream. He fell and broke his knee cap.
Chuon’s wife, Chhi, told CamboJA News that forest rangers and Wildlife Alliance staff destroyed their rice hut after they chased Chuon.
The photograph at the top of this post CamboJA News’ photograph of Pork Nget pointing at what remains of his brother’s rice hut.
Wildlife Alliance’s response
Wildlife Alliance has long faced criticism for its model of fortress conservation.
Wildlife Alliance claims that communities “overwhelmingly” support the REDD project and that the project has improved local livelihoods.
Wildlife Alliance said it was unaware of any property destruction in the area where Pork Chuon’s family lives.
Wildlife Alliance argues that many farmers in the project area are practising destructive slash-and-burn farming.
“We don’t do law enforcement,” Suwanna Gauntlett told the Phnom Penh Post in 2011. “It’s the government doing it, with our technical support.”
Wildlife Alliance told CamboJA News that it has no law enforcement authority. But as CamboJA News points out, this claim “is blurred by its frequent presence at arrests”.
Meanwhile, Wildlife Alliance is pretty quiet about the hydropower projects that are destroying forests inside and adjacent to the Southern Cardamom REDD project.
“The project helps us very little”
In August 2024, Wildlife Alliance filed a three month progress report to Verra. The report claims that within the Indigenous communities most impacted by the project, in Pralay, Chumneap, and Thmar Dounpov communes, support levels were between 81% and 88%.
But these figures come from a yes-or-no consent survey. In its February 2024 report, Human Rights Watch critiques this survey method.
Meanwhile, Wildlife Alliance’s own documents reveal that as few as one-third of the people living in these communes took part in the surveys.
Wildlife Alliance points to its “alternative livelihood” programmes in which it has invested US$3 million in 2023 and 2024. And the water wells, healthcare, and education facilities it has provided.
But Nheok Chhoeun, a Chong community member, told CamboJA News that,
“Their project helps us very little. They provide wells, hospitals, schools, and solar energy, but there are still many shortcomings, such as a lack of land for agriculture or building community housing. I wanted them to set aside land, especially for rotational farming, for the people.”
There is an unspeakable term for this collusion between business and govt against the people. And money is an unnatural liquid - it only flows uphill.