Cambodia approves, then suspends, marble mine in Keo Seima REDD+ project
Cambodia approves, then suspends, marble mine in Keo Seima REDD+ project
Gerald Flynn & Meng Kroypunlok, Mongabay
August 31, 2023
See link
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/cambodia-approves-then-suspends-marble-mine-in-keo-seima-redd-project/
for photos.
In a rare win for conservationists and Cambodia’s Indigenous communities,
the Ministry of Environment has opted to suspend a planned marble mining
operation within a wildlife sanctuary along the border with Vietnam.
A letter dated June 27 from then-environment minister Say Samal ordered
that the mining exploration operation be suspended before it even broke
ground in Mondulkiri province. The decision came just 10 weeks after Samal
had approved the roughly 4,000-hectare (9,900-acre) exploration license
within the heart of Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary on April 24.
The marble mine had prompted consternation among conservationists working
in the sanctuary and outrage among the communities who stood to be
affected. The area covered by the exploration license not only fell within
the core zone of the protected area, but was also situated in the Keo Seima
REDD+ project area, which generates funding to support the traditional
conservation methods of the Bunong Indigenous groups who make up the
majority of the population in Sre Preah commune where the license was
granted.
Niv Kanong, a Bunong resident of O’Chra village, said he hadn’t heard about
the mine’s suspension when contacted in early July, adding that a public
forum had taken place in late June, just prior to the announcement of the
mine’s suspension.
“Officials told us at the forum that the company would conduct a study
first and that they would not affect the environment,” Kanong told Mongabay
by phone. “I was really worried about it all. We live downstream of the
mining project site, so we worried it would affect our farmland and the
health of our livestock.”
Kanong also expressed concerns about the community’s resin trees, which the
Bunong have tapped sustainably as part of their traditional culture. The
Keo Seima REDD+ project offers a financial incentive to communities that
help preserve the forest, with five villages across Sre Preah commune set
to receive $135,887 from the project in 2023 alone.
Documents seen by Mongabay show that, over the course of the year, the
village of Gati is set to receive $45,325, while Pu Cha is expecting
$32,511 and Pu Kung stands to gain $24,199. Both Sre Preah and O’Chra
villages are on course to receive $16,926 each as a result of their
participation in the REDD+ project.
“They would have destroyed 4,000 hectares of the forest,” Kanong said. “If
we lose the forest, we lose the REDD+ project.”
An Opaque Process
It wasn’t just residents who had been kept in the dark. When contacted in
July, Sai Bunthoeun, the head of the environmental department in
Mondulkiri, said he hadn’t heard about the suspension of the marble mine
and declined to answer further questions about it.
But if the suspension of the mine hadn’t been widely disseminated, its
approval had been equally shrouded in mystery.
“There was no discussion,” Pie Pe, the commune chief of Sre Preah, said in
a June interview before the suspension letter had been issued. “We just
received a letter [in April] so whether people are affected or trees are
affected, I don’t know.”
Pe, who is also ethnically Bunong, said that between the initial approval
of the mine and the public forum just prior to its suspension, there had
been no consultation between local officials and the mining company or the
national government.
While local officials weren’t consulted prior to the approval of the mine,
many residents who would have been affected hadn’t even heard that there
was the possibility of a mining operation opening up in their forest.
“I don’t know about the mining company,” said Tung Dim in O’Chra village
when reporters visited in early June. “If they take over [the forest], then
the REDD+ project will probably get canceled. I don’t know how to express
my feelings about this, because they are powerful feelings and if I say
what I feel, I may go to prison.
“Whenever people advocate for the environment or complain, they end up in
prison,” Dim added.
Some 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of O’Chra, in the village of Pu Cha, Leos
Pheuk was acutely aware of the mine’s approval and feared the environmental
destruction it would bring if it came to pass.
“I don’t believe that the government cares about us. How can they when they
allow this company to come and destroy the forest?” said Pheuk, who also
belongs to the Bunong Indigenous group. “I fear the REDD+ project will be
lost for this community; the company has already begun to build a fuel
station in the forest for their equipment.”
Rallying for REDD+
The REDD+ project covers 166,983 hectares of Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary’s
317,456 hectares (412,624 of 784,451 acres). When it was established in
1994, it fell entirely within the boundaries of a 470,000-hectare
(1.16-million-acre) logging concession operated by Samling, a
Malaysian-headquartered logging firm that managed to acquire rights to fell
forests across more than 800,000 hectares (1.98 million acres) throughout
Cambodia.
But Samling was unable to fulfill the 60-year lease it was granted on its
sprawling timber empire in Cambodia. After years of gutting forests across
the country, violating a 1996 ban on exports of timber, and illegally
logging beyond its concession boundaries, Samling pulled out of Cambodia in
2003.
Samling’s exit came shortly after the effective demise of logging
concessions (known formally as forest concessions), which covered a
combined 7 million hectares (17 million acres) nationwide at their peak.
Tighter regulations were introduced in 2002 after almost a decade of
mismanagement.
Alistair Mould, country director at Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia
(WCS), confirmed that the Samling logging concession overlapped with what
is now Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, but said the type of logging meant the
forest was still worth conserving.
“The focus was primarily on commercial logging, specifically targeting
high-grade value species,” he said in an email to Mongabay. “While this led
to a depletion of certain key tree species, it did not result in widespread
deforestation of the area.”
This led WCS to conduct biodiversity surveys across Keo Seima which found
that high levels of globally significant faunal biodiversity remained
intact. The forest serves as a habitat for one of the country’s largest
populations of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), estimated by WCS at
between 100 and 130 of Cambodia’s 400-600 remaining wild elephants.
Although the last published population studies are roughly a decade old,
WCS hopes to produce updated data on the protected area’s elephants in the
coming months.
Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary is also home to the largest variety of bird
species in Cambodia, with more than 350 species found within the protected
forest. Researchers have found at least 75 threatened species within the
sanctuary, as well as describing 15 new-to-science species, making Keo
Seima one of Cambodia’s last remaining biodiversity hotspots.
WCS’s studies led to the establishment of the 305,000-hectare
(754,000-acre) Seima Biodiversity Conservation area in 2002, which was then
whittled down into the 296,000-hectare (731,000-acre) Seima Protection
Forest in 2009. In 2010, WCS established the REDD+ project, and then,
ultimately, Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in 2016, when the REDD+ project
began generating financial benefits for the communities in surrounding
areas.
A July 17, 2023, subdecree saw Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary expand again,
from 292,690 hectares to 317,456 hectares (723,253 to 784,451 acres), but
the boundaries of the REDD+ project remain unchanged.
Conservation Versus Concessions
While Samling had exited from Keo Seima, the government rapidly replaced
forest concessions with economic land concessions, which largely served the
same purpose. By December 2021, these covered almost 2.2 million hectares
(5.4 million acres) nationwide. A moratorium on new concessions was issued
in 2012, but they continue to be issued in an apparent violation of the
policy.
“The expansion of [economic land concessions] in the late 2000s and early
2010s was a significant concern for us,” Mould said. “We observed firsthand
the risks posed by [economic land concessions] to protected areas, coupled
with the subsequent expansion of small-holder agriculture.”
Over the course of 2011, three concessions spanning a combined 14,908
hectares (36,838 acres) were awarded inside what is now Keo Seima Wildlife
Sanctuary, while at least nine other concessions surround the sanctuary,
covering a total 57,578 hectares (142,278 acres) — much of which touches
the border of the protected area.
These concessions inside Keo Seima resulted in a huge spike in
deforestation, Mould said.
Data from Global Forest Watch support his claim, showing that between 2001
and 2010, Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary lost some 5,600 hectares (13,800
acres) of tree cover. After the concessions were issued in 2011, that
accelerated, with 37,200 hectares (91,900 acres) lost between 2011 and
2016, and an additional 20,600 hectares (50,900 acres) lost between 2017
and 2022.
By contrast, since its establishment in 2010 and 2022, the Keo Seima REDD+
project area has seen just 532 hectares (1,314 acres) of tree cover vanish,
Global Forest Watch data show.
But Mould warned that while Global Forest Watch is a valuable resource for
tracking global deforestation trends, the satellite monitoring technology
it uses doesn’t capture all land-cover changes with the same granularity as
project-specific monitoring, and that there may be heavier losses within
the REDD+ project area.
Pheuk from Pu Cha village, for whom the REDD+ project isn’t just a project
but also his home, said neither formal protected status nor the sale of
carbon credits has stamped out illegal logging in Keo Seima.
“To be honest, the forest crimes still happen. We patrol [the forest]
without salary and we are all very tired of seeing the forest disappear,”
said Pheuk when reporters visited in June. “Before the REDD+, though,
companies saw our communities as having a lot of valuable resources, but
now our community members know that when those companies affect the forest,
it will affect our community, as well as the wildlife and biodiversity we
have here.”
Pheuk pointed out that neither protected status nor the REDD+ project
prevented the Ministry of Environment from issuing the marble mining
license. Should the mine go through, he said, “It will destroy many old,
big trees inside the project area and the protected area, it will destroy
the habitats of many wild animals; elephants, deer and monkeys — a lot will
be lost.”
In addition, Pheuk said, mining the forest would risk the future of carbon
credit sales he credits with funding community-led forest patrols, as well
as developments in education, health care and sustainable livelihoods. In
June, the community planned to use the REDD+ money to build a public
restroom in Pu Cha village.
Further east, in O’Chra village, Dim shared Pheuk’s sentiments, noting that
the REDD+ project funding allowed residents of the village to conduct
patrols of their community forest, buy livestock, and finance the
construction of a small reservoir to help with farming during the dry
season.
“Say Samal promised to protect this area,” Dim said, referring to the
environment minister at the time. “Bunong people would go to prison if they
tried to mine [the forest], so it’s only powerful people who can destroy
the forest and face no consequence.”
The Minister and the Miners
And in Cambodia, opening up a marble mine in a protected area remains the
preserve of powerful people. Cambodian Basalt Investment is headed by Kong
Kanyka, a trilingual lawyer at CSP & Associates where she’s a senior
partner specializing in real estate and construction.
Kanyka confirmed that she works both as a lawyer registered with the
Cambodian Bar Association and as chair of Cambodian Basalt Investment, but
declined to answer questions about why or how her company was approved to
mine for marble inside both a protected area and a REDD+ project area.
“What I can provide to you is that, the project [has been withdrawn] and
[canceled] by the Ministry of Environment when they know this area is
wildlife zone,” she told Mongabay in a text message. “That’s all I can
share to you.”
Article 53 of Cambodia’s Law on the Bar states that “The legal profession
shall be incompatible with the performance of public functions and
commercial businesses, whether directly or indirectly.”
Kanyka would not address whether her role at Cambodian Basalt Investment,
or another company that she owns, was in breach of the legal profession’s
regulations.
Her business partner at Cambodian Basalt Investment is prolific Chinese
mining and mineral magnate Yu Zhijian, who has been involved in at least
seven mining companies in Cambodia, including Cambodian YJ Stones, which
claims to be “The Largest Black Green Granite Supplier in Asia.”
This link offers a glimpse into what could have happened had Cambodian
Basalt Investment’s operation gone ahead. Cambodian YJ Stones owns a
granite quarry in Kratie province, just 5 km (3 mi) east of the border of
Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, where satellite imagery shows the mine’s
environmental impact across some 350 hectares (865 acres).
Yu has operated there since 2008 through Cambodian Yuan Jing Mineral, where
he served as chairman of the board of directors until the company ceased
operations in 2017. The same year, Yu opened Cambodian YJ Stones, which
took over Cambodian Yuan Jing Mineral’s mining license in Kratie province.
An Uncertain Future for Keo Seima
But while the Cambodian Basalt Investment mining license has been
suspended, it hasn’t been canceled.
The possibility remains that a new mining company could approach the area,
or even that Cambodian Basalt’s license could be renewed, especially since
the proposed site for exploration overlaps with a historical expired
8,036-hectare (19,857-acre) mining license awarded in 2008 to Cambodia Hai
Lan Mineral/Wang Fa Investment.
When questioned about the Cambodian Basalt Investment mine,
then-environment minister Say Samal would not explain why the mine was ever
approved in the first place, why it was suspended, or whether the move had
harmed Cambodia’s reputation within the carbon credit marketplace.
Samal was appointed as land management minister on Aug. 22 as part of a
post-election cabinet reshuffle.
“Decisions regarding mining operations within protected forests are made
with the utmost consideration for environmental protection and sustainable
development,” he said in response to questions posed by Mongabay. “The
ministry is committed to responsible natural resources management and
strives to minimize any adverse impacts on protected areas.”
Samal added that any future mining operations in other protected forests
would be rigorously assessed to ensure compliance with environmental
regulations and that there would be consultations with relevant
stakeholders, along with greater coordination between government agencies.
The government, he said, is working to strike a balance between economic
growth and conservation, with responsibility for Cambodia’s protected areas
and carbon credit assets shared across various ministries and institutions.
But for those working in Keo Seima, there’s concern that this balance isn’t
being struck and that unexpected mining operations could jeopardize current
and future REDD+ projects in Cambodia.
“The possibility of an abrupt large-scale commercial operation like a
marble mine presents challenges for the long-term viability of REDD+
projects like Keo Seima,” said Mould of WCS, adding that the Keo Seima
REDD+ project played a role in the cancellation of Cambodian Basalt
Investment’s exploration license.
From an ecosystem and biodiversity perspective, the mine reflected the
precarious nature of what protected status means in Cambodia when a mining
operation that would likely cause significant damage to a protected forest
is approved by the country’s leading environmental authority.
“The mining operation could have resulted in extensive deforestation,
habitat loss, and fragmentation, which in turn could disrupt wildlife
movement patterns, alter waterways, and cause soil erosion, among other
ecological impacts,” Mould said. “Moreover, such damage could have ripple
effects, affecting the ecosystem’s resilience and the overall health of the
forest that forms the bedrock of the Keo Seima REDD+ project.”