“Fifteen years in the past, this complete village was forest,” stated Phan, sipping an power drink and leaning again in his plastic chair. “At first, I didn’t need to keep right here as a result of the highway circumstances had been so dangerous, and regardless that we had some cash, it was troublesome to search out meals and to outlive.”
However these instances, and far of the forest in Pursat province’s O’Soam commune, are lengthy gone as hydropower dams have prized open the distant Cardamom Mountains since 2012, actually paving the way in which for communities like Phan’s.
Plumes of mud rose from the purple dust highway as Phan sat watching the development crew working a number of hundred meters farther down the highway, ready for them to rehabilitate the part in entrance of his small picket dwelling.
Phan, who requested neither his full identify nor the identify of his village be revealed for worry of retribution from authorities, has lived in O’Soam for greater than 15 years.
“We’re all migrants right here; we lower the forests to construct our homes right here. We will’t do this now,” he stated, chuckling to himself. “This complete space is underneath the administration of a conservation NGO, Wildlife Alliance.”
O’Soam commune sits within the southwestern province of Pursat, on the border of Koh Kong province, nevertheless it’s additionally nestled inside the sprawling Phnom Kravanh Nationwide Park, a colossal protected space that stretches greater than 926,000 hectares (2.3 million acres) throughout the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia.
The park can be dwelling to the Southern Cardamom REDD+ venture, which spans 465,839 hectares (1.15 million acres) inside Phnom Kravanh Nationwide Park and is collectively managed by the New York-headquartered Wildlife Alliance and the Cambodian Ministry of Surroundings.
The conservation objectives of the NGO and its authorities companions seem like at odds with the broader goals of the Cambodian authorities, which previously decade has set about damming the Cardamoms at an alarming tempo.
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With the earlier Cardamom dams, it was disappointing to see how ineffective the protected areas had been in stopping large-scale extractive infrastructure tasks, corresponding to giant dams.
Mira Käkönen, analysis fellow, Australian Nationwide College
When reporters visited in April, staff had been getting ready the highway in O’Soam for concrete — a welcome change for Phan and his household — however the residents on this small village are incidental beneficiaries of the highway enchancment. The principle goal for the highway is to move heavy equipment wanted to construct the 70-megawatt Stung Russei Chrum Kandal hydropower dam (the Center Russei Chrum River dam).
The two,898-hectare (7,160-acre) reservoir of the dam is deliberate to jaunt some 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) out east into the huge untamed rainforest of Phnom Kravanh Nationwide Park, which is able to should be cleared forward of inundation. A failure to correctly clear a hydropower dam’s reservoir basin of vegetation can result in elevated methane emissions because the natural matter decays as soon as submerged in water.
This in flip can produce dangerous algae blooms in a course of often known as eutrophication, additional degrading the waterways on which the dam is constructed. Clearing these reservoirs, nonetheless, creates a profitable alternative for dam builders and corporations employed to chop the vegetation, with the timber from one close by dam’s reservoir valued at roughly US$450,000 in 2022.
There at the moment are 5 hydropower dams operational and one other 5 underneath development within the Cardamoms. The reservoirs of those 5 new dams alone span greater than 15,000 hectares (37,065 acres) collectively, however that’s assuming the dam builders follow their plans.
Extra dams, much less forest
With 5 new dams being constructed, the scenario appears bleak for the Cardamoms’ forests.
Already on the web site of certainly one of these new dams— the Stung Meteuk, at present being constructed some 50 km (30 mi) west of O’Soam — Mongabay uncovered what seems to be deliberate trespass logging within the surrounding protected forests the place Wildlife Alliance is trying to ascertain a brand new REDD+ venture in Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary.
At yet one more hydropower dam —Stung Tatai Leu (Higher Tatai River), which is at present being constructed 25 km (15.5 miles) south of O’Soam — Mongabay discovered timber from the location being traded by a logging community working out of the Koh Kong provincial jail. A 3rd new dam being constructed, the Stung Pursat 1, featured in a 2018 research that warned extreme deforestation may impair the performance of hydropower dams within the Cardamoms.
In the meantime, the Center Russei Chrum dam and, 22 km (13.7 mi) south, the 100 MW Stung Veal Thmor Kambot venture had been each permitted for development by the federal government in November 2023 and are anticipated to end in vital deforestation inside Phnom Kravanh Nationwide Park.
However that is nothing new. As Phan has skilled instantly, hydropower improvement in Cambodia has usually gone hand in hand with unlawful logging and timber laundering.
“I’ve been right here 15 years; I used to be right here throughout Attempt Pheap’s rosewood buying and selling days,” Phan stated, decreasing his voice.
Attempt Pheap, a timber baron and adviser to former Prime Minister Hun Sen, made his identify by logging the critically endangered Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis) whereas clearing the reservoir for the Stung Atay hydropower dam simply 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the Center Russei Chrum dam.
Regardless of the Atay dam’s 4,179-hectare (10,327-acre) reservoir basin holding solely an estimated 1,000 cubic meters (35,300 cubic ft) of rosewood, Pheap was estimated to clear 200,000 hectares (494,200 acres) of protected forest, promoting roughly 16,000 m3 (565,000 ft3) of rosewood for some US$227 million throughout the early 2010s.
The Atay dam is operational now and the injury is completed, however there may be nonetheless time for conservationists to make sure that extra of the huge forests don’t meet the same destiny.
In accordance with Phan, rangers from Wildlife Alliance have visited the location of the Center Russei Chrum dam, “to examine the timber scenario,” however as builders will not be but clearing the reservoir, there isn’t a large-scale forest clearance underway.
The builders in query are Khmer Electrical Energy, owned by Kok An, a ruling get together senator and a tycoon famed for making his fortune in on line casino improvement, imported beers, bottled water and tobacco. Khmer Electrical Energy is constructing each the Center Russei Chrum and the Veal Thmor Kambot in Koh Kong province.
An’s popularity for wealth, energy and connections to the very best ranges of presidency have afforded him an immunity, even after he was tied to human trafficking in latest years.
Khmer Electrical Energy couldn’t be reached by telephone or electronic mail.
“I don’t know if Kok An will do like Attempt Pheap,” stated Phan, in reference to Pheap’s plundering of the Cardamoms whereas creating the Atay dam.
“We now have not seen any timber vans but and O’Soam nonetheless has lots of forest,” he added. “However the rich folks in our society can entry these forests; for folks like me, we will’t even have land to farm.”
New roads result in outdated issues
The two,898-hectare reservoir of the Center Russei Chrum dam instantly abuts the boundary of the Southern Cardamom REDD+ venture space, and when Mongabay reporters visited the location in April, the crisscrossing community of entry roads had been dotted with dozens of items of heavy gear, churning up the mountains.
Located in Tatai Leu commune, simply south of O’Soam, the Center Russei Chrum dam’s reservoir sits exterior of the REDD+ venture space, however there are already roughly 15 km of entry roads might be seen through satellite tv for pc imagery working from the boundary of the reservoir into the forest from which the venture goals to promote carbon credit.
In the meantime, in Koh Kong province’s Pak Khlang commune, the place the Veal Thmor Kambot dam can be being constructed by Khmer Electrical Energy, everything of the dam is being constructed instantly contained in the REDD+ venture.
The 314-hectare (776-acre) reservoir has not but seen any large-scale forest clearance, however already satellite tv for pc imagery exhibits some 12.5 km (7.8 mi) of red-dirt roads have sprung up across the web site of the dam, which was abuzz with exercise when Mongabay reporters managed to entry the location in April.
However neither the Khmer Electrical Energy’s dams in Koh Kong province displayed the identical extent of trespass logging as that witnessed on the Meteuk hydropower dam farther west. Nor did reporters see timber depots just like the one recognized on the Meteuk development web site when visiting the Center Russei Chrum and Veal Thmor Kambot.
Throughout the dam, different infrastructure developments corresponding to bridges and roads had been being constructed, additional fragmenting the rainforest and opening up entry to the precious timber that also resides inside the Cardamom Mountains.
Most of the indicators erected along side these tasks bore Chinese language characters — most had no Khmer or English signage in any respect — suggesting an array of Chinese language-funded developments are set to brush by Phnom Kravanh Nationwide Park, piling extra stress on Wildlife Alliance’s REDD+ venture.
Forest cowl loss inside the nationwide park reached a peak in 2016, when roughly 4,760 hectares (11,760 acres) had been cleared, though World Forest Watch information present that 2023 was the second-worst yr on report, with some 4,560 hectares (11,270 acres) of forest cowl misplaced.
“With the earlier Cardamom dams, it was disappointing to see how ineffective the protected areas had been in stopping large-scale extractive infrastructure tasks, corresponding to giant dams,” stated Mira Käkönen, a analysis fellow on the Australian Nationwide College’s Crawford College of Public Coverage who has written extensively on hydropower developments within the Cardamoms.
There was an extra irony, Käkönen stated, to the truth that these dams had been additionally a part of the Clear Growth Mechanism, a UN scheme that goals to assist the financing of unpolluted power sources. This was presupposed to make the dams extra sustainable than what can be achieved by nationwide regulatory measures, she added.
Käkönen stated that if REDD+ tasks fail to forestall deforestation linked to hydropower dams then the venture builders must be clear about their assessments of the impression in order that knowledgeable selections about carbon credit score purchases are potential.
An unclear future for the forest
Wildlife Alliance’s government director Suwanna Gauntlett stated that 16 per cent of the Center Russei Chrum’s land space shall be within the Southern Cardamom REDD+ venture space and that patrol items in O’soam will monitor this, whereas the rest of development is deliberate exterior the venture space. Rangers from each Wildlife Alliance and their companions within the Ministry of Surroundings shall be monitoring the clearance of the reservoir on the Veal Thmor Kambot when it begins, she added.
Gauntlett confirmed that patrols across the Higher Tatai hydropower dam need to date confiscated 1.5 tons of illegally harvested luxurious wooden and nearly 15 m3 (530 ft3) of development timber.
The deforestation inside REDD+ areas will end in fewer credit being issued, she stated, however this received’t have an effect on the online emissions discount every credit score represents.
“And whereas we remorse the federal government’s resolution to proceed with these development tasks,” Gauntlett stated, “we recognise this sits inside a broader context of unavoidable trade-offs that each one nations face as they chart a sustainable improvement path.”
Officers from the Ministry of Surroundings, Ministry of Mines and Power and the Koh Kong provincial administration all declined to remark.
The Southern Cardamom REDD+ venture continues to be suspended from issuing new credit, pending the end result of an investigation into alleged human rights abuses being carried out by Verra, the carbon credit score certifier that Wildlife Alliance works with.
At press time, Verra had not responded to questions despatched by Mongabay in regards to the dams’ impacts on REDD+ efforts within the Cardamoms.
Whereas Käkönen famous that almost all dams within the Cardamoms have confirmed much less dangerous than others inside Cambodia which have resulted in mass pressured evictions and violent protests, the injury performed to biodiversity in necessary protected areas shouldn’t be neglected.
“Clearly the sample of timber laundry established by the earlier dams deserves consideration and severe preventive measures,” she stated, pointing to the distinction between the intensive logging of worthwhile timber round earlier dams whereas many reservoirs had by no means been totally cleared earlier than being inundated. “I assume there may be comparable irony, if this occurs once more, now with dams located inside REDD+ zones.”
Chhen Kaen, O’Soam commune chief, instructed reporters throughout an interview in April there was no unlawful logging linked to the Center Russei Chrum, however the caveat was that the corporate wasn’t clearing the reservoir at the moment.
He directed reporters to the district and provincial authorities, stating that as commune chief, he’d obtained no formal data relating to the dam.
Few inside the Pursat and Koh Kong provincial administrations would converse, however Veal Veang district governor Eang Voeung agreed to fulfill with reporters on the district corridor in Pursat province, saying he was conscious that Kok An has employed Chinese language engineering contractors to assist construct the Center Russei Chrum and Veal Thmor Kambot dams, however he didn’t know the Chinese language firm’s identify.
“There have been no new paperwork issued, the [Middle Russei Chrum] dam has been deliberate for a very long time,” he stated, including that he was conscious of logging that was linked to the higher and decrease dams on the Russei Chrum River that make up a three-part cascade of dams by the Cardamoms.
“Attempt Pheap’s firm M.D.S. was answerable for clearing the basins for the opposite Russei Chrum dams, however I’m undecided if that’s [the same] for the brand new one or not,” Voeung stated.
Initially jovial within the runup to Khmer New Yr, Voeung grew extra involved when reporters requested in regards to the hydropower developments inside the Cardamoms.
“I give it some thought [the risk of logging] usually,” he stated in a guarded tone. “I used to be only a common citizen when Attempt Pheap was clearing the Atay dam, however the nationwide degree of presidency is extra educated than us; even when we didn’t approve, they might approve and nonetheless go forward.”
This story was revealed with permission from Mongabay.com.
