Real carbon, false credits? Investigating mass deforestation in Cambodia

13:01REPORTERS © FRANCE 24

Issued on: 22/11/2024 - 

With around 40 percent of its territory covered by forests, Cambodia has become Asia's champion of carbon credits. This system is supposed to finance the protection of the country's forests, thanks to money injected by multinationals from around the world. For the past decade, big companies – including French and American firms – have spent millions of euros buying these credits to offset their carbon footprint. But our Cambodia correspondents' investigation reveals mass deforestation within these protected areas. In 2023, the kingdom had lost 121,000 hectares of forest – an area the size of Los Angeles.


Cambodia, a country of 17 million inhabitants, is banking on the carbon market to protect its immense forests. But on the ground, our reporters discovered that these carbon offset projects are failing to live up to their promises. Instead, the protected areas are the scene of illegal logging and mass deforestation, leaving Indigenous populations disgruntled. The NGO Human Rights Watch is denouncing these projects, along with the British newspaper The Guardian, which calls them "likely junk" projects. Our Asia correspondents investigate.