Forest Service Strengthens Supervision of 'REDD+' Project Sites Including Cambodia

Conceptual Diagram of REDD+ Project. Provided by Korea Forest Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service is strengthening management and supervision of REDD+ project sites, including those in Cambodia.

According to the Korea Forest Service on the 16th, the core goal of the REDD+ project is to reduce carbon emissions by preventing deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.

The project originated from the idea that developed and developing countries should share joint responsibility for addressing the destruction of tropical rainforests, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

In particular, the REDD+ project is recognized internationally as a representative carbon reduction activity, and the Paris Agreement includes a standalone clause (Article 5) encouraging the legitimacy of the project and the implementation of REDD+ by the parties involved.

Currently, the Korea Forest Service is conducting REDD+ projects in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and other regions. For example, in Cambodia, the REDD+ project is being promoted over 41,196 hectares of forest.

Before the project began, the forest in this area showed severe levels of deforestation, leading both Korea and Cambodia to evaluate the REDD+ project as urgently needed. As a result, the local REDD+ project, which started in 2015, achieved a 30% reduction in the deforestation rate by 2019.

This corresponds to an average annual forest loss of 1.68%, which is significantly lower than Cambodia’s nationwide annual deforestation rate of 2.38%.

Furthermore, the Korea Forest Service plans to enhance the substance of the project by strengthening management and supervision of REDD+ project sites.

They also clarified misunderstandings regarding recent allegations of wage exploitation of local residents in REDD+ project areas.

A Korea Forest Service official explained, “There have been claims that local residents were exploited for wages during the REDD+ project, but this misunderstanding arose because the REDD+ project operates forest monitoring teams with local residents participating as volunteers, and no labor costs beyond actual expenses are paid.”

The official added, “Some have also raised issues about illegal land occupation such as land grabbing within REDD+ project sites, but these are common problems in developing countries including Cambodia and are issues that the project countries themselves need to resolve independently of the REDD+ project.”

However, the official noted, “To resolve other problems occurring within the project sites, we plan to request the governments of REDD+ project countries such as Cambodia to prevent recurrence of such issues.”

He emphasized, “The Korea Forest Service will continue to participate in international efforts to respond to the climate crisis within the scope of the REDD+ project explicitly stipulated in the Paris Agreement, and based on this, we will strive to establish Korea as a leading country in REDD+ within the international community.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.