Project/activity information

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has great potential for reducing emissions and achieving sustainable development, but it is a relatively new concept in Cambodia. The Forestry Administration (FA) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is the lead government agency responsible for the management of state-owned forests and, increasingly, it is assigning forest management responsibilities to local communities with the capability to receive approval to manage Community Forests (CF). The Forestry Administration plans to expand the outreach of its REDD+ program to the management of both state-owned forests and Community Forests.

REDD+ project development activities in Cambodia were initiated in 2008 and these initiatives continue to inform, as well as influence, the development of the national framework for sustainable forestry. The collective experiences of these REDD+ initiatives at the project level underscore the importance of standardizing the procedures to meet the technical specifications associated with carbon standards to ensure that current and future REDD+ projects are developed and implemented in an efficient and effective manner. Cambodia is also in the early stages of developing a jurisdictional REDD+ program consistent with the development of current REDD pilot projects and it will be imperative to determine the manner in which that jurisdictional program will be established to accommodate each of those projects. Standardizing the procedures and developing a jurisdictional REDD+ program will present significant challenges.

The Forestry Administration seeks the support of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) to implement a project that will respond to these challenges to advance the REDD+ program in Cambodia by building on the experiences of these REDD+ activities to standardize the procedures to meet, in an efficient and effective manner, the technical specifications of REDD+ jurisdictional standards capable of reducing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the Tomring Forest in Kampong Thom province.