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Good practice Imported

Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary REDD+ — Verified Carbon, Contested Indigenous Land Rights

Cambodia · Sen Monorom · See the Cambodia profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 58% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Cambodia's Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (292,690 ha) has issued 18.87M Verra-verified carbon credits since 2010, incl. a 2016 $2.6m sale to Disney, but a 2024 Mongabay/Pulitzer probe found Bunong land-rights violations and arrests on site.

18,874,423
Verified Carbon Units issued (2010-2021)
292,690 ha
Sanctuary area
$2.6 million
Credits sold to Disney (2016)
~$1 million
Community benefit-sharing distributed
85+
Threatened species recorded
3,348 ha
Illegally cleared protected-forest block (disputed)
Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary REDD+ — Verified Carbon, Contested Indigenous Land Rights

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Wildlife Conservation Society, Cambodia Ministry of Environment
Period
2010–2069 (60-year crediting period)
Keywords
REDD+, forest carbon credits, biodiversity conservation, indigenous land rights

Context

Since 2010, the Wildlife Conservation Society has worked with Cambodia's Ministry of Environment to run REDD+ forest-carbon protection across the 292,690-hectare Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, under a 60-year crediting period to 2069.

Activities

The project is certified under Verra's Verified Carbon Standard; in 2016 WCS sold $2.6 million in credits to the Walt Disney Company, and a 'Cash for Communities' mechanism has distributed close to $1 million to local communities under a policy committing 50% of net carbon revenue to community development.

Results

18,874,423 Verified Carbon Units were issued for 2010-2021, and WCS biodiversity monitoring has recorded over 85 globally threatened species in the sanctuary.

Conclusions

A July 2024 Mongabay/Pulitzer Center investigation found a 3,348-hectare 'protected forest' block overlapping Indigenous Bunong customary lands has been substantially cleared by outsiders despite weak enforcement, that Bunong communities have been blocked from securing land title, and that WCS-supported rangers have arrested and imprisoned Bunong farmers for clearing small plots amid disputed boundaries; a 2017 VOA investigation had already questioned the additionality of the Disney credits.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Large-landscape (292,690 ha) protected-area management with carbon-market revenue partly offsetting costs; specific implementation budget not published.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — REDD+ programme running since 2010 under a 60-year crediting period to 2069.
Staffing & skills
WCS field staff and biodiversity monitors, government rangers (Cambodia Ministry of Environment), community 'Cash for Communities' benefit-sharing administrators

Conditions for success

  • third-party Verra VCS certification
  • 50% net carbon revenue committed to community-directed development

Common failure modes

  • Mongabay/Pulitzer 2024 investigation found land-rights violations, weak patrol enforcement, and arrests of Indigenous Bunong farmers within a disputed protected-forest block
  • 2017 VOA investigation questioned additionality of credits sold to Disney

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