Indonesia

The past few decades have witnessed the increasing importance of forest resources for humankind.

Since the new partnership on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation between Norway and Indonesia was signed last Thursday, the Royal Norwegian Embassy has received a number of questions on how the partnership will work and why Norway chose to work with Indonesia.

The government says it has identified four forests to host potential pilot projects as part of a billion-dollar agreement signed by Indonesia and Norway to protect the country's natural forests and peatlands.

Forestry Ministry Zulkifli Hasan said the Finance Ministry had agreed to proposals to remove value-added tax (VAT) imposed on log products.

He claimed former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had signed a proposal to cancel the tax when she was in the office.

“[Mulyani] agreed to cancel VAT for log products. The regulation will take effect this month. This is good as it will not burden industries because raw materials were not supposed to be taxed,” he said Sunday.

Campaign group asks HSBC to close investment fund loophole in bank's forest ethics policy.