"New dams call into question Cambodia’s commitment to REDD+ projects", 19 March 2025

The Cambodian government has approved at least three new irrigation dams across the Cardamom Mountains, carving even deeper into forests currently being used for the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ carbon credit projects.

Construction is yet to begin on the new dams, which are slated to be built in Battambang, Koh Kong and Pursat provinces. Officials from the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy all declined to comment on the irrigation dams or their environmental impacts.

The approval of these dams raises further questions about the government’s commitment to the REDD+ mechanism for preserving forests….

These same forests have already seen significant deforestation … due to the ongoing construction of five new hydropower dams with reservoirs that collectively span 15,000 hectares (about 37,000 acres).

… “It is true that the construction of these dams and roads will cause significant forest loss,” Suwanna Gauntlett, director of Wildlife Alliance, told …

Wildlife Alliance has consistently maintained that it works with communities across the REDD+ projects, pointing to various livelihood programs that it runs using funds generated from the sale of carbon credits. However, Indigenous communities have complained that these programs don’t make up for the conflicts caused by the REDD+ project.

Now, as hydropower dams and new irrigation dams proliferate across the Cardamoms, Si said she’s wary for the future of the forests that have long sustained the Indigenous communities.

… Another hydropower dam, Stung Meteuk, is being built across Koh Kong and Pursat provinces, overlapping with roughly 1,600 hectares (nearly 4,000 acres) of an area marked out for the upcoming Samkos REDD+ project…