Oil palm plantation with the rainforest of Gunung Leuser National Park in the background. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler, 2009.
With a one billion dollar fund from Norway, Indonesia is implementing a bold plan to drastically reduce deforestation as a part of its climate pledge, including a two-year moratorium on new concessions in forested areas and a REDD pilot project. However, the plan faces a number of big obstacles: entrenched corruption, a powerful forestry industry, lack of enforcement of environmental laws, and the simple scope of the problem.
Mongabay.com recently spoke with Agus Purnomo, head of the secretariat of Indonesia’s National Climate Change Council, and his colleague Yani Saloh to find out how Indonesia plans to overcome these difficulties.
To read the interview: Indonesia’s plan to save its rainforests.