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Indonesia's Aceh, Papua pledge to protect forests Reuters April 26, 2007 Governors from three Indonesian provinces which are home to most of the country's rainforests pledged on Thursday to conserve them as part of efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change. The governors of Aceh, Papua and West Papua provinces appealed for the government and the international community to provide financial incentives through carbon trading schemes. "We are determined to implement environmentally friendly policies, sustainable development and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," the governors said in a statement after the World Bank sponsored meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. They said the policies would also help reduce poverty, create jobs and attract investment. Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf said his administration would enforce a moratorium on logging pending a review of forest sustainability. Papua governor Barnabas Saebu said he would revoke licences of timber companies unless they were proven to have contributed to the preservation of the regions' forests. Thousands more forest rangers would be recruited as part of the effort, the statement said. Environmentalists say illegal logging in Indonesia strips 2.1 million ha (5.2 million acres) of forest every year in a trade worth $4 billion. Indonesia wants rich countries to pay developing nations to preserve their forests and plans to push this proposal at a U.N. conference on climate change in December. The talks are expected to launch formal negotiations about extending the Kyoto Protocol after its first period ends in 2012. The pact is the main U.N. plan for curbing global warming and the annual gathering will attract government officials and non-governmental organisations from around the globe. Joe Leitmann, the World Bank's environment coordinator for Indonesia, said the bank had earmarked $200 million for pilot projects aimed at preserving forests. Conservation efforts would cost between $10-15 billion annually, he said. About 10 percent of the world's remaining tropical forest is found in Indonesia, which has a total forest area of more than 90 million ha (225 million acres), according to Rainforestweb.org, a portal on rainforests (www.rainforestweb.org). It said Indonesia has already lost an estimated 72 percent of its original forest and half of what remains is threatened. Related articles California joins effort to fight global warming by saving rainforests (11/19/2008) California has joined the battle to fight global warming through rainforest conservation. In an agreement signed yesterday at a climate change conference in Beverly Hills, California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged financial assistance and technical support to help reduce deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia. The Memorandum of Understanding commits the California, Illinois and Wisconsin to work with the governors of six states and provinces within Indonesia and Brazil to help slow and stop tropical deforestation, a source of roughly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Oil palm expansion in Indonesian Borneo increased 400-fold from 1991-2007 (10/30/2008) Annual forest conversion to palm oil plantations increased 400-fold from 1,163 hectares in 1991 to 461,992 hectares in 2007 in Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, reports a new report published by Forest Watch Indonesia, a local NGO. Malaysian oil palm firms eye Papua for expansion (9/26/2008) Malaysian palm oil firms are looking to aggressively expand operations in Papua, the Indonesian part of New Guinea, reports Bernama. Markets could save rainforests: an interview with Andrew Mitchell (8/17/2008) Markets may soon value rainforests as living entities rather than for just the commodities produced when they are cut down, said a tropical forest researcher speaking in June at a conservation biology conference in the South American country of Suriname. Andrew Mitchell, founder and director of the London-based Global Canopy Program (GCP), said he is encouraged by signs that investors are beginning to look at the value of services afforded by healthy forests. "Turtle carbon" could help protect rainforests and save endangered sea turtles (8/12/2008) Using carbon credits to promote rainforest conservation could help protect endangered sea turtles in some parts of the world, argues a carbon finance expert. Comments? News options News index | RSS | Add to MyYahoo! |
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