Germany Pledges $39m for REDD Pilot Project

Germany has committed 27 million euros ($39 million) for a pilot project that would demonstrate how the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation program would work ahead of its implementation in 2012.

The pilot project is scheduled to begin this month in three districts in Kalimantan — Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan and Malinau and Berau in East Kalimantan — and will continue until 2016.

The project will help prepare the districts for international carbon credit trading under the REDD scheme, including teaching them how to monitor carbon emissions and increase local residents’ income through environmental conservation efforts.

REDD aims to encourage developing nations to preserve their forests by measuring and giving an economic value to the carbon saved by stopping deforestation. Under the scheme, the saved carbon would be sold as “credits” to investors and industrialized nations with higher emissions.

Agus Widiarto, head of the planning section at the Ministry of Forestry, said the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) would provide technical assistance for the pilot project.

“The budget for technical assistance from the GTZ will be 7 million euros, and the other 20 million euros will come from the German [state-owned] bank KfW. So, in total, it will be 27 million euros,” Agus said on Wednesday.

Two other countries have committed funds to similar REDD pilot projects in Indonesia. Norway has provided 2 million euros for a three-year project that started last year, while Australia has committed 40 million Australian dollars ($36 million) for a project in Kalimantan and another 30 million Australian dollars for a project in Jambi.

The International Tropical Timber Organization has also committed $900,000 to a project that is expected to run for four years beginning this year in the Meru Betiri conservation forest in East Java.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan has said that while the government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, with the help of other countries, Indonesia could achieve a 41 percent reduction by 2020.

“If those programs were seriously implemented, we could reduce emissions by 41 percent by 2020, including from our own efforts in reducing [them] 26 percent,” Zulkifli said on Wednesday in Jakarta. Arti Ekawati

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Issue date: January 6, 2010

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Indonesia wants forestry to meet climate target
Indonesia says reforestation and cuts to deforestation will enable it to meet its Copenhagen emissions reduction commitment solely from the land-use sector.

Along with other developing nations such as China, India and Brazil, the Indonesian government announced a commitment in the lead up to the Copenhagen climate conference to cut greenhouse emissions – in its case by at least 26 per cent below business as usual levels by 2020. Like Brazil, and unlike other big emitting nations, a large part of the country’s carbon footprint comes not from industry and energy production but from deforestation.

Now the minister for forestry, Zulkifli Hasan, says a national plan to plant 21 million hectares (52 million acres) of new forest by 2020 and eradicate illegal logging and land-clearing would see the country drastically reduce its emissions. "If the scenario described proceeds, if the planting proceeds, we can reach more than 26 per cent,” Reuters reports Hasan saying at a news briefing.

The minister said the plan involves planting 500,000 hectares of new forest a year at an annual cost of $269 million. A further 300,000 hectares of degraded forest would be rehabilitated a year with the help of REDD funding from Australia, Norway, Korea and investment from the private sector.

The Indonesian government has for some time had ambitious plans for reforesting land. But its ability to bring them to fruition has been hampered by the obstacles that lie in governing a disparate and under-developed island nation with three tiers of government – bureaucratic red tape, corruption and the difficulties of law enforcement. International project developers have experienced long delays in securing the approvals required to get forest-related projects underway.

The issues are not uncommon in the developing world but the country’s move to grant more autonomy to provincial and district governments over the past decade has only made it harder for the national government in Jakarta to implement nationwide programmes of the type that would be needed to meet the forestry and emissions targets.

The climate change programme director for WWF in Indonesia, Fitrian Ardiansyah, told Reuters that for the government emissions goals to be met it would need to tackle the causes of deforestation and land degradation directly; illegal logging, land clearing for agriculture, mining expansion and other unsustainable development.

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Issue date: January 7, 2010

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