The REDD Project

By Barrie | December 7th, 2007 | No Comments

Indonesia’s much-anticipated REDD program — a pilot forest project to help tackle climate change — is set to be launched Thursday in Bali by the republic’s Forest Minister MS Kaban, but he said it was still unclear how exactly the project would work. REDD details mechanisms for incentives, loans and finance, but Kaban said no plans had been devised yet to measure a country’s contribution to reducing deforestation.

Forests in South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and North Sumatra have been chosen for the program, called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD).

“What’s important is that Indonesia is very committed to reducing deforestation as shown by our achievements in the last couple of years,” Kaban said.

He said since 2003, the allocation of forested areas for productive use had been set at 12 million hectares, but only nine million hectares had been awarded to the private sector.

The deforestation that has been avoided is worth an estimated Rp 16.5 trillion, Kaban said.

Head of research and development with the ministry of forestry Wahyudi Wardoyo said the exact mechanism and methodologies used within REDD had not been decided yet.

“But from what I have heard from the Indonesian delegation in the climate change conference, most delegations support REDD and will further discuss the exact methodologies,” Wahyudi said.

The reason behind the apparent acceptance, he said, was because the idea for REDD itself came not only from Indonesia, but also from several other countries after the last climate conference.

The “Heart of Borneo” has also been targeted for the program including a 220,000 square meter tropical forest area along the equatorial encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Kaban said Tuesday he would outline the potential financial incentives Indonesia would secure by avoiding deforestation and degradation.

The proposal was prepared by the ministry’s research and development department.

Indonesia said it wanted parties committed to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to adopt REDD as a new tool to help combat climate change, and in the lead up to Kyoto expiry date in 2012.

Indonesia wants REDD to become an alternative to Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism (CDM). If successful, the program would see developing, forested countries reap financial benefits by better-managing their forestry sector.

Under the REDD scheme, developed countries would have an obligation to contribute funds to countries successfully reducing deforestation.

Indonesia is home to 120 million hectares of forest and is the world’s third largest after Brazil and Congo.

The deforestation rate in Indonesia has sat at an average of one million hectare annually over the last three years.

This figure is reportedly down from three million hectares annually between 1987 and 1990.

Some 24 CDM projects have been developed across the archipelago, most of which have focused on alternative energy sources. Bit none of these projects have been so far approved by the UN.

Andi Haswidi