Cambodia. Report shows slowdown of forest loss in recent years

The report titled “Cambodia Forest Cover 2018” defined forest cover as natural and planted trees so  when excluding rubber and palm oil plantations, 43.62% of Cambodia’s area qualifies for the REDD+ carbon credit scheme. At the time of the report, 46.86% of Cambodia’s area was defined as forest cover for a total of 8,510,807 hectares and only 115,797 hectares were lost from 2016 to 2018.

The ministry has projected that over the next two years forest cover loss could be further reduced depending on the effectiveness of the government’s reform of Protected Area management and conservation as well as the participation of local communities, the armed forces and authorities at all levels.

Collaboration between the ministry and development partners, agencies and relevant stakeholders was identified as a key factor for natural resource protection, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Obstacles occur when various human activity, like the conversion of forest cover into agriculture land, causes deforestation, the report said.

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