Norway-Indonesia: UN-REDD Speech March 2010

Minister of Forestry and the United Nations launch joint effort to combat deforestation and forest degradation

Jakarta, 30 March 2010 – Today the Ministry of Forestry and the United Nations launched The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD) with a kick-off workshop opened by H.E. Zulkifli Hasan, Minister of Forestry.

In his opening remarks the Minister emphasized the danger of climate change and the need for action to reduce emissions “Our country is very vulnerable: it has 80,000 kilometre coast line, more than 17,000 islands, many people depend on agriculture, forestry and fisheries for their income and food security. Many of these forest dependent communities still live in poverty”.

REDD has become an eminent priority for Indonesia because deforestation and forest degradation still represent a major source of  Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, in addition to hindering human development and causing environmental problems in the country. Most of Indonesia’s GHG emissions are related to land degradation, inappropriate land uses, and land conversion. Agus Purnomo, Special Advisor for Climate Change to the President said “the UNREDD initiative will play an important role to support Indonesia’s voluntary commitment to reduce its emissions with 26%”.

With the world’s third largest tropical rainforest, Indonesia plays an important role as one of nine pilot countries in the global UN-REDD initiative. The minister highlighted the importance of local communities in REDD, “We have to make sure that REDD will help them with getting a better life while preserving our forests and biodiversity”

Under this joint initiative of UNDP, FAO and UNEP, and funded by the Government of Norway, the United Nations will assist the Indonesian Government preparingfor National REDD Implementation. This requires preparation of policy, coordination between different REDD initiatives and testing of methodologies on province and district level. The programme will pilot its activities in Sulawesi. With other REDD initiatives being located in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java, this further expands REDD in Indonesia.

The UN Resident Coordinator, El-Mostafa Benlamlih, highlighted that the UN-REDD programme will support the Ministry of Forestry to get ready for national REDD implementation. “The UN gives technical and policy advice and facilitates coordination between different REDD initiatives”. “As part of a global programme, UN-REDD takes lessons learned during this readiness phase to a global level where they influence and shape global decisions”. 

The Norwegian Ambassador applauded the commitment shown by the Ministry of Forestry and said “Norway fully supports Indonesia and the UN with this programme, and is ready to discuss further cooperation between Indonesia and Norway on this important issue”

The Speech:at UN-REDD INCEPTION WORKSHOP, Gran Melia Hotel, 30 – 31 March 2010

Welcome,
Your Excellency Zulkifli Hasan, Minister of Forestry;
Your Excellency UN Resident Coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih;
Your Excellency Agus Purnomo, Executive Director of DNPI and Special Advisor on climate change to the President.
Distinguished participants, Ladies and gentlemen; Dear friends; Selamat pagi

I am most honoured to be given this opportunity to take part in today’s opening of the UN-REDD Programme’s inception workshop. The UN-REDD Programme is a unique construction, a cooperation between the three UN organisations; UNDP, UNEP and FAO. This Programme brings together their collective competence in areas that all are important for REDD to succeed: Poverty reduction and development, environmental analysis and research, as well as monitoring and verification of results. We all want the UN to play a leadership role in combating climate change.  The UN-REDD Programme is one example of how our common world organization can contribute to coordinated efforts, within a sector of critical importance for reaching the goal of maximum 2 degrees Centigrade increase of global temperature, as agreed upon in Copenhagen.

Indonesia has a crucial role to play in these global efforts. We know that about 17% of global emissions of green house gases are from deforestation and forest degradation. That is why a big forest country like Indonesia is so important for the global solution. Indonesia’s huge rainforests and peat lands play a significant role in mitigating climate change, for the local as well as for the global good. By pledging to reduce 26% of its emissions through the national budget, or up to 41% with foreign assistance, Indonesia takes forward the spirit of the Bali conference in 2007, continues to be in front and inspire other countries to follow. This spirit and commitment I highly commend!

In Indonesia’s hard work to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, I do hope you will benefit the maximum from the UN-REDD Programme. The Programme will be addressing the need for a multi-stakeholder policy development process, aiming to establish reference emission levels, MRV and fair payment systems, and last, but not least, to build capacity for REDD+ at the local level. As such the outcomes of the UN-REDD address some of the very issues that are vital for making Indonesia ready for accessing global REDD+ funds. 

UN-REDD will work to develop local capacity in Sulawesi. I would like to especially welcome those of our friends here today who have travelled from the beautiful forest provinces in Sulawesi for this workshop. The loss and degradation of rainforests is a concern for all of us, but the immediate consequences in terms of loss of livelihood and ecosystems is most deeply felt by those who live in and close to the forest. We deeply appreciate that you are standing up to the challenge posed by the global community. Norway also anticipates the co-benefits in terms of poverty reduction, indigenous peoples’ rights and preservation of biodiversity that this pioneering UN-REDD Programme will contribute to.

Norway is also s strong supporter of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility; FCPF. From the last board meeting of UN-REDD I hear that measures are being taken to work closely with FCPF. UNREDD and FCPF are considering common meetings and are looking at the possibility for transferring funds between the two initiatives. This is a very positive development! UN-REDD and the FCPF is facing some of the same challenges, and need to work together to overcome them. Indonesia was just chosen as one of the pilot countries for the World Bank’s Forest Investment Program which has been set up to finance major reforms and investments in the forestry sector. This opens for new possibilities for cooperation and cross-fertilization of efforts.

To support the United Nations and Mexico in the negotiating process leading up to the COP 16 in Mexico later this year, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Mr. Stoltenberg, has invited President Yudhoyono, together with leaders of state of all other relevant developing and developed countries to a conference in Oslo on the 27th of May to establish a global partnership for forests. The partnership would be about fast start implementation of REDD+ while the negotiations on outstanding issues should be left to the UNFCCC process. When a UNFCCC REDD+ mechanism is set up, it would replace or subsume the interim partnership. The President of Indonesia is invited to play a special and significant role in Oslo.

Norway is ready to step up its support to Indonesia on REDD+ when Indonesia launches its strategy to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Norway will closely monitor the outcome of the UN-REDD Programme, and use the lessons-learned from the Programme as stepping stones for developing a results-based bilateral initiative. 

In concluding, let me underline that coordination is a key word when we talk about REDD+. The need for coordination reflects the many initiatives that are now being taken by multilateral and bilateral parties, by NGOs and by private enterprises. The UN-REDD Programme may take on a special role in helping coordinate the various initiatives taken and help link them, both in Indonesia and the world. The importance of coordination and transparency should not be underestimated. We all need to learn more about REDD+ as we go along, and the UN-REDD Programme has a key role to play in helping the global community do so.

I wish all involved the very best of success in implementing UN- REDD in Indonesia. 

• Thank you – terima kasih.