Indonesia leads on REDD despite fears
Carbon Positive, Thursday, 11 June 2009
Indonesia continues to warn that unless the emerging global REDD avoided deforestation initiative is made simple it will not work in developing countries. But despite its concerns, the government appears to be leading the development of REDD capacity among developing countries.
UN agencies led by the United Nations Environment Programme, along with the UN climate change convention (UNFCCC), are developing a global system for tackling high rates of deforestation in rainforest nations such as Indonesia, DR Congo and Papua-New Guinea (PNG). Forest clearing is thought to contribute up to 20 per cent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, as well as threatening species of flora and fauna and compromising fresh-water supplies.
REDD, or Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, would see payments made by rich nations to developing nations to preserve, rather than cut down, their native rainforests. Financing would be either via government funding or a carbon market mechanism similar to Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The aim is to include REDD in the next global climate treaty due to start in 2013, details of which are supposed to be finalised by December in Copenhagen. Negotiations have been slow but there are hopes this week that the current UNFCCC negotiating session in Bonn will reach draft agreement on technical rules.
The Indonesian government last month issued national-level regulations for REDD, a first among developing countries. While only a small part of the framework, the rules set up a process for central registration of pilot projects - a necessary prerequisite for a credible scheme. The regulations also make clear that REDD activities should be consistent with a UN global agreement that emerges from Copenhagen.
Indonesia was also one of the countries granted at total of $US18m in pilot funding for REDD in March. The Centre for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia, says a consultative process is now underway on how to allocate $5m in a ‘quick start’ program for REDD capacity building and other activities in the country. The government has also received financial support from Japan, Australia and the World Bank.
However, mixed messages have been coming from Jakarta over Indonesia’s support for UN REDD. Forestry Minister M.S. Kaban says the evolving scheme risks being too complicated for Indonesia and other developing countries. Kaban fears complex processes of monitoring and verification might repeat the failures of the afforestation and reforestation segment of the CDM.
Addressing a Bali conference on REDD and illegal logging in late May, the minister called on UN negotiators to learn from the CDM experience. Few forestry projects have been approved under the Kyoto mechanism and none in Indonesia. The government is also committed to increased biofuels production and supports the expanding palm oil industry, one of the drivers of high rates of forest clearing in the country.
Kaban maintains, however, he and the Indonesian government support the REDD concept and the UN efforts to build an international mechanism.
“They want to make sure REDD is do-able for developing countries, provides livelihood benefits and avoids the difficulties of the CDM,” said Stibniati Atmadja, Climate Change Research Fellow at CIFOR.
The UN and other stakeholders are determined to ensure that a rigorous and transparent scheme emerges – one that delivers reduced deforestation rates along with benefits to forest communities and the wider environment. There is a variety of stakeholder interests trying to balance the wide range of climate, environmental, social and economic factors. This makes it a tough task to keep a REDD scheme simple.
In neighbouring PNG, disputes have already arisen between government authorities and landholders over how REDD revenues should be shared. Question marks over whose pockets early REDD carbon market payments are ending up in were raised by Reuters last week.
Poor governance is a potential threat to a fair and effective REDD scheme in all developing countries, Atmadja says. “There is a lot of interest and scepticism in Indonesia over REDD.” Indigenous groups are sceptical against a background of ongoing land rights issues that go back long before REDD. Environmental groups are also sceptical while other aid NGOs and the various levels of government – national, provincial and district – are positive.
“But in most instances, people are still uncertain what REDD is about, and its implications,” Atmadja says. Views may change as awareness and experience on the REDD scheme develops in Indonesia, she added.
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