Forest conservationActive

Kuamut Rainforest Conservation Project

Kuamut protects and restores 83,381 hectares of tropical rainforest in Sabah's Tongod and Kinabatangan districts, developed as a public-private partnership between the Sabah Forestry Department, Yayasan Sabah and Permian Malaysia. It is described as Malaysia's first nature-based project to achieve Verra verification, generating its first tranche of credits in 2024.

Tongod and Kinabatangan districts, Sabah, MalaysiaTropical rainforestVerra VCS + CCB
Image credit
Kuamut Forest Reserve Sabah - heavily logged forest. Western part of the reserve. Reclassified as a Class 1 (protection) forest reserve in 2015. Historical location context; not a photograph of the project’s current work.Location context · K. Yoganand · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2017 · Resized; display cropImage source ↗Licence ↗
OperatorSabah Forestry Department, Yayasan Sabah and Permian Malaysia
EcosystemTropical rainforest
StandardVerra VCS + CCB
StatusActive
LocationTongod and Kinabatangan districts, Sabah, Malaysia
Overview

Inside the project

The project is a public-private partnership between the Sabah Forestry Department, Yayasan Sabah's Rakyat Berjaya subsidiary and Permian Malaysia, a subsidiary of Permian Global.

It is verified to Verra's VCS and Climate, Community and Biodiversity standards, with the developer targeting up to 16 million tonnes of CO2e in emission reductions over 30 years, against an estimated 800,000-plus tonnes a year.

Kuamut’s 2022–2023 monitoring summary names Permian Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. as project proponent. A monitoring estimate is not an issued-credit total. The developer separately describes PACOS Trust and SEARRP as operational support partners.

83,381 ha
Project area
800,000+ tCO2e/yr
Estimated annual emission reduction
16,000,000 tCO2e
30-year target

Objectives

  • Protect and restore 83,381 ha of tropical rainforest in Sabah
  • Achieve Verra VCS and CCB verification
  • Generate up to 16,000,000 tCO2e in emission reductions over 30 years

Approach

  • Verified under Verra's VCS and Climate, Community and Biodiversity standards; the project's first Monitoring Report was independently verified before its first tranche of Verified Carbon Units in 2024.

Sources

Inspect 4 sources
  1. searrp.org ↗https://www.searrp.org/2024/03/29/the-kuamut-rainforest-conservation-project-verified-to-verra-standards/
  2. permianglobal.com ↗https://permianglobal.com/projects/kuamut-rainforest-conservation-project/
  3. malaysiaairlines.com ↗https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/mh-media-centre/news-releases/2024/malaysia-airlines-carbon-credit-portfolio.html
  4. permianglobal.com ↗https://permianglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kuamut-Rainforest-Conservation-Project-MR-2022-2023-summary-Eng.pdf

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