Social and Environmental Safeguards: Lessons from Cambodia REDD+ Pilot Projects
This article examines social and environmental safeguards in two REDD+ pilot projects in Cambodia: Oddar Meanchey Community Forestry and Seima Protection Forest. It compares how the projects address social, environmental, and procedural risks and identifies lessons for Cambodia’s national REDD+ safeguards system, particularly concerning community land rights, informed participation, grievance mechanisms, and forest protection.
Following the 2007 meeting of UNFCCC, the Royal Government of Cambodia decided to implement REDD+ pilot projects, with approval in 2008 of Oddar Meanchey Community Forestry, followed in 2009 by the Seima Protection Forest in Mondolkiri. Both projects have applied certain sets of social and environmental safeguards towards meeting the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS) requirements. The objective of this paper is not to assess the application of UNFCCC safeguards in Cambodia, but rather to examine and compare the experiences of the two projects in applying VCS and CCBS requirements. To illuminate how these measures help to reduce different risks, this paper adopts a method developed by Roe et al. (2013), who divided REDD+ safeguards into three categories: social, environmental and procedural.
Note: This article was published in Cambodia Development Review, Volume 20, Issue 2 (2016), pp. 11–15.
Citation:
Nguon P. and Chhun D. (2016). Social and Environmental Safeguards: Lessons from Cambodia REDD+ Pilot Projects. Cambodia Development Review 20(2): 11–15. CDRI Cambodia.
Following the 2007 meeting of UNFCCC, the Royal Government of Cambodia decided to implement REDD+ pilot projects, with approval in 2008 of Oddar Meanchey Community Forestry, followed in 2009 by the Seima Protection Forest in Mondolkiri. Both projects have applied certain sets of social and environmental safeguards towards meeting the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS) requirements. The objective of this paper is not to assess the application of UNFCCC safeguards in Cambodia, but rather to examine and compare the experiences of the two projects in applying VCS and CCBS requirements. To illuminate how these measures help to reduce different risks, this paper adopts a method developed by Roe et al. (2013), who divided REDD+ safeguards into three categories: social, environmental and procedural.
Note: This article was published in Cambodia Development Review, Volume 20, Issue 2 (2016), pp. 11–15.
Citation:
Nguon P. and Chhun D. (2016). Social and Environmental Safeguards: Lessons from Cambodia REDD+ Pilot Projects. Cambodia Development Review 20(2): 11–15. CDRI Cambodia.
