“If we lose the forest, we will also lose our traditional beliefs. The existence of the forest and our beliefs are intertwined; the forest’s presence allows our beliefs to persist.” -Ly Sareoun, Indigenous Bunong Community Member
“What I want to share with other young women in my community is to stay motivated and believe in yourselves. Whatever men can do, women can do.” -Yorn Sordet.
KSWS is home to more than 950 wild species, including 75 globally threatened species and plays a vital role in the preservation of the region’s important and vulnerable wildlife, including the world’s largest populations of endemic primates.
At the age of 34, she is the REDD+ Community Chief of the Sre Lvi village and is a role model for young girls in her community.
Phyee Ruonh works tirelessly to improve his community’s livelihood, to protect the spiritual forest and his ancestral land.
Nested between two important ecoregions within the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot – the Annamite Mountains evergreen forests, and the lower Mekong dry forests – the 167,000 hectare Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (KSWS) is home to more than 950 wild species, including 75 globally threatened species, and is the ancestral home of the indigenous Bunong people. The Project has defended the traditional rights of over 12,000 Indigenous Bunong and Stieng people from 20 villages within the Project Area by helping the indigenous communities to secure the first Indigenous Community Land Title in Cambodia.
Parents living in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary REDD+ Project zone help send their children to school through their involvement in forest protection
The Keo Seima REDD+ Project will use carbon revenues to strengthen and expand a number of priority interventions that are strategically placed inside and outside the project area
Self-identification of land tenure has been completed in Bunong villages across the project area, cementing their legal rights to their ancestral land. Land plots have been demarcated to protect against illegal land clearance by outsiders. Hundreds of community members participated in biodiversity education events. New eco-tourism spots are being scouted in the project area, but expansion has been challenging.
Peon, Korn, and Srev from the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary REDD+ Project in Cambodia share how the impacts of climate change are affecting their ability to cultivate food and are calling on World Leaders to help protect their natural resources.
