The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 674
“Siem Reap: A senior forestry official of the Kingdom of Cambodia said that to sell carbon credits based on Cambodian forests to companies in developed countries, which are polluting the environment, might begin late this year or in 2011.
“The Director General of the Forestry Administration of Cambodia, Mr. Chheng Kim Son, said at 11:47 a.m. on 19 July 2010, ‘We hope that at the end of this year or in 2011, Cambodia will be able to sell abundant carbon credits for the first time from our forest to highly industrialized countries around the world which are emitting a lot of pollutants or greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.’
“He added that currently, the forestry cover of Cambodia remains at 59.09% of the size of the country which can attract tonnes of gas, but in the first step, we can create forestry carbon credits on 60,000 hectares of forest from communities in Oddar Meanchey, and the same plan is to be carried out also in the Keo Seima district [in Mondolkiri].
“Mr. Chheng Kim Son explained that according to a study, the 60,000 hectares of forest can attract and ‘sink’ more than 8 million tonnes of carbon within 30 years. Negotiations on the price for selling are going on, but no prices have yet been specified, as this depends on buying requests by encouraging companies in developed countries to balance their carbon dioxide emissions by paying money to developing countries to protect their forests [so that this carbon dioxide can be absorbed and 'sunk' in, protecting the atmosphere].
“He added that forestry resources are globally valuable for biodiversity, especially for the living condition of people. Forests can contribute to the economic growth of a nation. Therefore, all development plans affecting forests must be studied and assessed carefully in order to avoid wastage in the future.
“The Minister of Environment of Cambodia, Mr. Mok Mareth, used to say about the loss of forest that, according to a report of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3), just the annual loss due to deforestation and the decline in forests amounts to US$2,000 billion to US$4,500 billion, but the amount received from unsustainable investment is just US$45 billion. This shows that to conserve the forest well, will provide 100 times of the price back. He said so on 20 June 2010 during a celebration of the International Day of Biodiversity in Cambodia, organized in Siem Reap.
“Mr. Mok Mareth added that “It is to be regretted that biodiversity – because of a niveau of high prices in the economy, with growing consumption, with a strongly increasing population, as well as with development without proper planing, the ecosystem of the nation is eroding, leading to the remarkable and alarming extinction of different species in the world . According to an estimation, about 10% of the biodiversity assessed is strongly in danger of extinction.
“Mr. Mok Mareth went on to say that such big failures are caused by poverty, by a lack of understanding about the importance and the value of biodiversity, and because of a lack of participation by all involved, including investors, local communities, and ethnic minority people. These negative experiences are a good lesson for the world, to reconsider human activities that destroy natural resources, so that it is necessary to work out new effective strategies to achieve the three goals of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity: 1. Conservation, 2. Sustainable Consumption, and 3. Equal distribution of benefit in the use genetic resources.
“Civil society organizations working to protect forestry resources in Cambodia welcome the initiatives to sell forestry carbon credits of Cambodia for the first time, and this will become an important message to publicize the universal value and benefit of forests, so as to guarantee national economic development and to stop deforestation countrywide.”Koh Santepheap, Vol.43, #7015, 23.7.2010
This article was first published by The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 674 - Friday, 23.7.2010
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Norbert Klein is the Editor of The Mirror – The Mirror is a daily comprehensive summary and translation of the major Khmer language press - More about The Mirror