This project is designed to promote climate change mitigation and adaptation, maintain biodiversity, and create alternative livelihoods. The 445,339 ha area includes parts of Southern Cardamom National Park and Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia and protects a critical part of the Cardamom Mountains Rainforest Ecoregion—one of the 200 most important locations for biodiversity conservation on the planet.
The project’s climate benefits include avoided emissions of approximately 12 million tCO2e during this first monitoring period and over 115,000 million tCO2e over the project's lifetime. It also generates important biodiversity and community co-benefits, including new and sustainable livelihood opportunities from direct employment and alternative income generating activities (IGAs) to initiatives to stimulate investment in businesses. These opportunities will be designed to reduce pressure on the environment while significantly increasing community well-being.
Additional programs will address food security, improve health and education facilities, as well as raise environmental awareness. Biodiversity co-benefits get a greater protection of the ecosystem predominantly by means of increased security and improved monitoring. The project also protects critical habitat for significant populations of many IUCN-listed species—including the Asian elephant, Asiatic black bear, sun bear, large spotted civet, clouded leopard, and dhole—as well as the critically endangered Siamese crocodile and southern river terrapin.
Certifier
Verified Carbon Standard
Registry ID
VCS1748
Developer
Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), Ministry of Environment
Crediting period term
Latest project methodology
VM0009 Methodology for Avoided Ecosystem Conversion | Version 3.0
Project design document (PDD)
PDD: Southern Cardamom REDD+ Forest Protection
Current verifier of project outcomes
SCS Global Services
The Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project aims to protect and restore 149,800 hectares of peatland ecosystems, offering local people sustainable sources of income while tackling global climate change. The project area stores vast amounts of CO2 and plays a role in stabilizing water flows, preventing peat fires, enriching soil nutrients, and providing clean water. Rich in biodiversity, it is home to large populations of many high conservation-value species, including some of the world’s most endangered, such as the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) and the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus). It is surrounded by villages whose traditional livelihoods include farming, fishing, and non-timber forest product harvesting.
The project area lies entirely within state-designated production forest which, without the project, would be converted to fast-growing industrial pulpwood plantations. The project prevents this by securing full legal control of the area through an Ecosystem Restoration Concession license, thereby blocking plantation company applications.
The project has also achieved certification under the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards. The forest habitat supports two critically endangered, 11 endangered, and 31 vulnerable species. Preliminary estimates indicate populations of nearly 4,000 orangutans and 10,000 Bornean gibbons, as well as more than 500 proboscis monkeys. These populations represent over 5% of the remaining global totals for these species. Overall, the project area’s biodiversity includes 157 bird, 67 mammal, 41 reptile, eight amphibian, 111 fish, and 314 plant (flora) species.
Certifier
Verified Carbon Standard
Registry ID
VCS1477
Developer
PT. Rimba Makmur Utama (PT. RMU)
Project registration date
Crediting period term
Latest project methodology
VM0007 REDD+ Methodology Framework (REDD-MF) | Version 1.5
Current verifier of project outcomes
Aster Global Environmental Solutions, Inc.