The Southern Cardamom REDD+ is a forest protection project located in the Koh Kong Province in Cambodia. The 445,339 hectare project area encompasses parts of Southern Cardamom National Park and Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary. It also protects a critical part of the Cardamom Mountains Rainforest Ecoregion – one of the 200 most important locations for biodiversity conservation on the planet. Annually, the project prevents almost 3,6 million tonnes of CO₂e from being released into the atmosphere. The combination of high rainfall and sandy soils in the majority of the project area supports tropical evergreen rainforest.
The project promotes climate change mitigation and adaptation, maintains biodiversity and creates alternative livelihoods for the local communities. The project provides new employment and income opportunities to the local communities through developing community-based ecotourism, training on improved agricultural methods, securing land tenure rights, and law enforcement and protection of the project area.
Increasing food security while protecting forests
Mountainous regions in Cambodia, including the remote villages in the Southern Cardamom, suffer the highest rate of poverty, where most households derive their livelihood from illegal logging and firewood cutting. The project directly supports the livelihoods of 29 communities within the project area, involving approximately 16,500 individuals.
Prior to beginning of the project, 100% of families are engaged in farming activities, for 32% of whom cultivation is the main occupation. Agricultural production involves unsustainable permanent clearance of forests and slash and burn in cycles of 2-3 years. Helping families to develop modern agriculture on permanent land lots allows them to escape the cycle of poverty and destruction, while simultaneously protecting the forest and improving income. The project is enhancing land security in 36 villages by enabling communities to claim enough land for permanent agriculture. In Q2 2020, Wildlife Alliance implemented the expansion of sustainable agriculture to 3 new communities following local people’s preference for livelihood activities including sugar cane, corn, bananas, buffalo and chicken, and high-value fruit trees of durian and mango.
Providing direct employment and creating jobs
Project’s community based ecotourism initiatives are very successful and have resulted in at least 250 full-time staff by 2020 working and 147 ecotourism service providers. 604 families who have been trained and act as service providers in 12 villages are fully or partially supported by community-based ecotourism benefits in Chi Phat and Chhay Areng Valley. The ecotourism centre in Chi Phat is the most successful in Cambodia. The average annual income to 15 villages as a direct result of Community Based Ecotourism since 2010 is 371 105 USD. 44% of community management positions are held by women. Due to the high interest, the ecotourism initiative is expanding to 8 forest dependent communities.
Despite the drastic declines in international tourism, there has been an unexpected boom in domestic tourism during Q2 2020. Increase of domestic tourism is driven by the joint efforts of Wildlife Alliance and the Ministry of Environment to promote the Community Based Ecotourism initiatives domestically.
Protecting critical habitats
The Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project is part of the Indo-Burma Hotspot, one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots and it is a critical watershed for the Gulf of Thailand. Habitats are diverse and mosaic ranging from dense evergreen and pine forests on the mountain tops to wetlands, flooded grasslands, lakes and coastal mangroves in its lowlands. This mosaic habitat supports at least 52 species of IUCN Threatened birds, mammals, and reptiles including 17 endangered or critically endangered species, such as Siamese crocodile and one of Cambodia’s two viable populations of Asian elephant, sun bear, the pileated gibbon, clouded leopard, the hairy-nosed otter and the Asian wild dog. The Siamese crocodile is a critically endangered on the IUNC Red List and the Cardamom mountains are one of the only places on Earth where the Siamese crocodile survives. Similarly, the Cardamom mountains is one of the last stronghold for the Asian wild dogs - Endangered on the IUCN red list, estimating there are only 950 - 2 200 mature adult species left globally. In August and September 2020, in the south-western area of the Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project area camera traps recorded a pack of at least ten Asian wild dogs.
The project partners with the Royal Government of Cambodia to implement effective and professional law enforcement patrolling. So far the project has been effective in reducing deforestation by bringing 3 482 land encroachment cases, seizing 5 432 chainsaws and reducing the annual deforestation rate to <0.074% (vs. nat average ~0.93%). In terms of wildlife, the project has removed 301 816 snares, dismantled 6 190 illegal hunting camps and rescued 6 749 animals. There has been zero poaching of Asian elephants since 2006.
The project area is also home to one of Southeast Asia’s largest remaining intact mangrove ecosystem. Mangroves are truly a climate champion being the only forest that grows in salt water and they sequester up to 5 times more CO2 than rainforest trees.
Photo credit: Wildlife Alliance
The project supports 8 out of the 17 SDGs. It has been effective in reducing deforestation by bringing 3 482 land encroachment cases, seizing 5 432 chainsaws and reducing the annual deforestation rate to <0.074% (vs. national average ~0.93%). In terms of wildlife, the project has removed 301 816 snares, dismantled 6 190 illegal hunting camps and rescued 6 749 animals. There has been zero poaching of Asian elephants since 2006.