Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary

Audit Analysis

A large-scale REDD+ avoidance project in Cambodia's Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary with a 60-year crediting period, verified by Aster Global. The project demonstrates solid structural safeguards (VVB-confirmed investment additionality, 10% buffer pool, FPIC, grievance mechanism) but is undermined by a 0% leakage deduction in a context of documented illegal logging pressure, multiple calculation non-conformities found during verification, a project-specific modeled baseline, and a low extraction confidence rating across the document set.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠0% leakage deduction despite documented illegal logging, hunting, and land-grabbing pressures in the surrounding area; NCR 2 specifically flagged that positive leakage was incorrectly accounted for in years 5 and 6
• ⚠4,327 hectares of forest loss occurred within the project area during the 2020–2021 monitoring period, raising questions about the robustness of the avoidance claim of 4.78 million tCO2e
• ⚠46 Non-Conformity Reports were issued during validation, including errors in carbon stock change factors, fire emission calculations, and leakage accounting — all resolved but indicative of weak initial MRV quality
• ⚠Min extraction confidence rated 'low', meaning at least one key document was poorly readable, reducing assurance in the extracted data
• ⚠60-year crediting period (2010–2069) with a project-specific modeled baseline that was last reassessed in 2021, creating long-term baseline drift risk

Credit Vintages