HRW’s report on “Carbon Offsetting’s Casualties: Violations of Chong Indigenous People’s Rights in Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project,” raises concerns over 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.

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.