Cambodian Preserve Provides Safekeeping for Wildlife, Carbon

An area of Cambodia the size of Yosemite National Park, once subjected to logging activities, has been rededicated to the purpose of conserving native wildlife as well as to ensuring that as much carbon as possible remains stored in the form of wood.

The Seima Protection Forest sits along the border that Cambodia shares with Vietnam. The establishment of the park has just been announced by Cambodian government officials, and as we learn from a press release published at Newswise, the achievement of the conservation milestone came about with the assistance of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a globally active wildlife protection organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo.

The collaboration is rooted in WCS’s Carbon for Conservation project, whose focus is on preservation of forest ecosystems, habitat protection and carbon offset attributes of healthy forests. After all, carbon contained in trees that are not chopped down is carbon that does not go into the atmosphere. Let the trees stay standing and keep growing, and even more carbon benefits accrue.

WCS scientist Jane Carter is quoted in Newswise as looking ahead and seeing good and hopeful things that will arise from the project launch in Cambodia:

"In addition to safeguarding the wildlife of Cambodia, Seima Protection Forest will serve as an important model for demonstrating how REDD [Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation] could be implemented on the ground. Forests provide numerous benefits for both wildlife and rural communities, so efforts such as these will help on local, regional and global scales."

Photo courtesy of Albeiror24, via Wikimedia Commons