Indonesia has applied to join the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, becoming the largest developing country to apply to a program that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by saving tropical forests, reports Reuters.
This week Indonesia submitted an application to join the partnership, which has raised $350 million to support projects under the United Nations’ Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism. REDD could eventually send billions of dollars to tropical nations for forest conservation and sustainable development activities.
Indonesia already has more than 20 REDD projects in development, most of which are in Kalimantan, Papua, and Sumatra.
More than 80 percent of Indonesia’s emissions result from deforestation and degradation of tropical forests and peatlands.
Deforestation and degradation account for roughly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Many analysts see REDD as an opportunity to engage developing countries in climate negotiations set to resume in Copenhagen this December.
Papua signs REDD carbon deal to generate income from rainforest protection
(05/14/2008)
The government of the Indonesian province of Papua has entered into an agreement with an Australian financial firm to establish a forestry-based carbon finance project on the island of New Guinea.
$100 billion worth of carbon released from deforestation in Riau, Sumatra
(02/27/2008)
A WWF study found that deforestation of nearly 10.5 million acres of tropical forests and peat swamp in central Sumatra’s Riau Province over the past 25 years has generated 3.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide. Based on today’s $32 closing price for a ton of carbon dioxide for European Union Allowances, the emissions had a theoretical trading value of $118 billion, assuming they could have been traded at the full E.U. carbon price at the time (voluntary offsets would have been worth about $13 billion).
First rainforest-for-carbon-credits deal becomes a reality
(02/07/2008)
Villagers in Aceh, the Indonesian province that suffered through three decades of civil war and lost some 170,000 people to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, could soon see $26 million in carbon credits for protecting rainforests from logging under a deal announced today between conservationists, carbon traders, and the Aceh government.
Aceh, Papua, Amazonas governors sign carbon-for-forests pact
(12/08/2007)
Three governors have signed the Forests Now Declaration to protect tropical forests for their carbon value. The Governors, Irwandi Yusuf (Aceh, Indonesia), Barnabas Suebu (Papua, Indonesia), and Eduardo Braga (Amazonas, Brazil), agreed to the declaration’s action plan which calls for compensation for reduced greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and protection of standing forests. Deforestation and forest degradation account for roughly 20 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, but steps to reduce forest loss will help mitigate climate change. The UK government’s 2005 Stern Review said that forest protection could be one of the most cost-effective ways to address climate change.
Is the oil-palm industry using global warming to mislead the public?
(11/23/2007)
Members of the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission are distributing materials that misrepresent the carbon balance of oil-palm plantations, according to accounts from people who have seen presentations by commission members. These officials are apparently arguing that oil-palm plantations store and sequester many times the amount of CO2 as natural forests, and therefore that converting forests for plantations is the best way to fight climate change. In making such claims, these Indonesian representatives evidently are ignoring data that show the opposite, putting the credibility of the oil-palm industry at risk, and undermining efforts to slow deforestation and rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon offset returns beat forest conversion for agriculture in Indonesia
(11/21/2007)
Conversion of forests and peatlands for agriculture in Indonesia has generated little economic benefit while releasing substantial amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, reports a new study from the the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and their Indonesian partners.
Carbon for forests will help Aceh recover from war, tsunami
(09/18/2007)
Carbon credits through forest conservation will play an important role in Aceh’s recovery from decades of civil war and the devastating 2004 tsunami, which left more than 167,000 people dead and 500,000 homeless in the Indonesia province, said Aceh governor Irwandi Jusuf in meeting in San Francisco.
Could peatlands conservation be more profitable than palm oil?
(08/22/2007)
This past June, World Bank published a report warning that climate change presents serious risks to Indonesia, including the possibility of losing 2,000 islands as sea levels rise. While this scenario is dire, proposed mechanisms for addressing climate change, notably carbon credits through avoided deforestation, offer a unique opportunity for Indonesia to strengthen its economy while demonstrating worldwide innovative political and environmental leadership. In a July 29th editorial we argued that in some cases, preserving ecosystems for carbon credits could be more valuable than conversion for oil palm plantations, providing higher tax revenue for the Indonesian treasury while at the same time offering attractive economic returns for investors.