Cambodia's carbon market: two REDD+ giants and a rulebook built for Article 6

The policy picture

Cambodia moved early on rules. The Ministry of Environment's Article 6 Operations Manual, approved in December 2023, sets out a three-step path to authorisation: a Letter of No Objection, a Letter of Positive Examination, and then issuance and transfer or cancellation with 20 working days' notice. Authorisation periods run 5, 10 or 15 years, and up to 45 years for removals. A share of every project's reductions is reserved for Cambodia's own NDC, which matters for any buyer pricing authorised tonnes.

What Cambodia does not yet have is the Singapore deal. The two governments signed a carbon credit MoU in April 2023 and said in March 2025 that they aimed to finalise an Implementation Agreement that year. It has not appeared: Singapore's twelve Implementation Agreements include Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos, but not Cambodia, so Cambodian projects cannot bid into Singapore's 12 million tonne tender.

The forest projects carry history. Verra paused issuance at Southern Cardamom REDD+ in June 2023 after Human Rights Watch raised concerns about the Chong Indigenous community, and reinstated it in September 2024 subject to reforms. Keo Seima was the subject of a 2024 Mongabay investigation into Bunong land disputes; Verra said it would review the findings. Any buyer of Cambodian REDD+ credits will be asked about both.

What the registries show

Cambodia has issued more credits than any Southeast Asian country except Indonesia, and almost all of them came from two REDD+ projects with the Ministry of Environment as proponent: Southern Cardamom and Keo Seima. Household projects (cookstoves and ceramic water filters) are the largest group overall. The pipeline looks different: rice methane projects using alternate wetting and drying are now its largest category, and Cambodia's largest mangrove project reappeared on Verra in September under a new name and a Singapore-registered proponent.

Where the credits have come from

Credits issued and retired to date, Berkeley Voluntary Registry Offsets Database (2026-06 release).

The largest projects not yet issuing

Claimed tonnes per year are the proponent's own estimate as filed with the registry, before validation.

Who is developing

The Ministry of Environment appears as proponent on the big forest projects, under two spellings that we have not merged. The rest of the market is international household-energy specialists and a handful of new rice and blue carbon entrants.

Developers grouped across registries and spellings by CarbonIntel. A project with several proponents counts for each.

Latest registry moves

• 2026-09-25CAMBODIA PREY MOAN KHMER IMPROVED COOKSTOVE PROGRAM IVerification approval requested → Registered
• 2026-09-25Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary REDD+ ProjectRegistration requested → Registered
• 2026-09-25KRASOP BLUE CARBONNew listing

What we are watching

• Whether Singapore and Cambodia sign the Implementation Agreement they targeted for 2025. Until they do, Cambodian supply is outside Singapore's tender.
• The first Letter of Positive Examination issued under the Operations Manual, and the share of tonnes Cambodia keeps for its NDC.
• Krasop Blue Carbon's path from pipeline to validation under its new proponent.
• Any further Verra action on Southern Cardamom or Keo Seima.