At The Little Green Pet Shop we are committed to continuously improving our due diligence processes and the standards we set for the projects we support. This means that whilst project pages like this one are still available for transparency, occasionally projects which we historically supported – including this one – no longer meet our increasing standards for receiving funding. The last time we supported this project was in January 2024.
Cambodia’s rainforests are some of the most biodiverse in the world. The Seima Protection Forest was created by a Prime Ministerial Subdecree in late 2009. This upgraded the conservation status of the former Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area, which operated during 2002-2009. Until 2016, the Seima Protection Forest was reclassified by the Royal Government of Cambodia as the Keo Seima Wildlife Santuary (KSWS).
The area is part of the ancestral homeland of large number of ethnic Bunong people, for whom the forest is a key source of income and central to their spiritual beliefs. The area is also a meeting place for two important ecoregions – the Annamite Mountains (notable for high levels of local endemism among evergreen forest species) and the lower Mekong dry forests (which are crucial for the survival of many species typical of lowland deciduous forests). There are 41 Globally Threatened vertebrate species recorded in the Project Area (including 4 Critically Endangered and 14 Endangered). Many of these occur in globally or regionally outstanding populations, including Asian Elephants, primates, wild cattle, several carnivores and birds such as the Giant Ibis and Green Peafowl.
Unfortunately, the sanctuary is currently under threat from accelerating forest clearance for agriculture together with unsustainable resource extraction (including hunting, logging and fishing). These activities harm both biodiversity and local forest-dependent livelihoods.
The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary (KSWS) is a haven for biodiversity and a vast storehouse of forest carbon. Spanning over 290,000 hectares, the protected area is home to a diverse array of wildlife, including 84 globally threatened species and the world’s largest population of black-shanked douc and yellow-cheeked crested gibbon. The project area covers 166,983 hectares of forest in the Protection Area.
The Sanctuary also holds a unique cultural significance for the Indigenous Bunong people, who have called this forest home for centuries and whose culture and livelihoods are deeply entwined with the forest. However, it faces a high threat of deforestation due to various factors, including forest conversion for agriculture and illegal logging. The project was launched in 2010 from a collaboration between the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). It has prevented the release of more than 20 million tons of CO2e emissions and saved 25,000 hectares of forest from destruction.
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