"Cambodia: Carbon Offsetting Project Violates Indigenous Group’s Rights ", 28 February 2024

A major carbon offsetting project in Cambodia shows that such initiatives can harm Indigenous people when communities’ effective participation and consent are not ensured, Human Rights Watch said in a report …

The 118-page report, “Carbon Offsetting’s Casualties: Violations of Chong Indigenous People’s Rights in Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project,” concerns a project carried out by the Cambodian Ministry of Environment and the conservation group Wildlife Alliance, that encompasses half a million hectares in the Cardamom mountains, a rainforest area that has been home to the indigenous Chong people for centuries…

Chong community members said that they shared the goal of protecting the rainforest, but they wanted the REDD+ project to treat them as partners, and that they would like to lead their own conservation activities independent of Wildlife Alliance.

“They [Wildlife Alliance] have no concern with our Indigenous identity,” said a Chong resident of Chumnoab commune. “They’ve never asked us for permission because from their perspective they already have an agreement with the government.”…

Verra, an organization that has certified nearly half of all projects in the global voluntary carbon market, accredited the REDD+ project ... Multinational companies buy carbon credits to compensate for their pollution, a practice known as “carbon offsetting.” …, after receiving a letter from Human Rights Watch sharing its findings, Verra stopped issuing credits for the project and said it would conduct a review.

… Verra should make reinstatement of the project conditional on comprehensive remediation for individuals and communities adversely affected by the project, including monetary compensation, and a new consultation process enabling the Chong to revisit the existing design, boundaries, activities, and project implementer of the REDD+ project, as well as benefit sharing arrangements…