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Indonesia needs $4b to avert deforestation
Thursday, 4 June 2009
The
government is upbeat that Indonesian deforestation could be averted if
international communities grant US$4 billion until 2012 to finance the
livelihood of local people and stop forest conversions.
The
Forestry Ministry said the money would be used to address the main
causes of deforestation prior to the implementation of the reducing
emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) mechanism.
“We
need an investment of $4 billion to address the causes of deforestation.
The fund should be from world communities as deforestation has become a
global problem, especially concerning climate change,” Nur Masripatin,
secretary for the ministry’s forestry research and development agency
told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
“Tackling deforestation is not merely about law enforcement, money talks
here, including on how to finance the livelihood of local communities
around the forests or how to deal with the expansion of plantations.”
She
said the government only had a limited budget to handle deforestation.
She did not elaborate the exact amount.
“Deforestation in developing counties will continue to increase if there
is no policy intervention that enables the countries to reduce emissions
from forests without sacrificing their national development.”
The
world countries have long eyed Indonesia’s forests as one of the lungs
to “clean” the atmosphere from rising greenhouse gas emissions.
Many
have criticized the Indonesian government for its failure to combat high
rates of deforestation, which have risen to over one million hectares
per year.
Indonesia has about 120 million hectares of rainforest – the
third-largest on the planet after Brazil and Congo.
Deforestation contributes about 20 percent to global greenhouse gas
emissions, with about 75 percent from developing countries.
Seeing the impact of the deforestation, the world countries have adopted
the use of the REDD mechanism to help protect the forests by providing
financial incentives to forest nations. The government hoped the
upcoming REDD mechanism would also cut the country’s illegal logging.
Forestry Minister Malam Samat Kaban said illegal logging cases, which
also caused deforestation, had declined sharply over the last four years
with only hundreds of cases currently compared to about 9,600 in
Soeharto’s era.
Executive Director of Greenomics Indonesia Elfian Effendi said the
illegal logging practices remained rampant in the country due to the
government’s poor monitoring.
“Yes, there is a decline in term of illegal logging cases but such
practices remain rampant in places,” he said.
“The
fact is that illegal logging and illegal trade along the borders of
Kalimantan-Malaysia, Riau-Malaysia-Singapore and in Papua remains
unresolved.”
He
said illegal logging could also be seen from the expansion of oil palm
estates in protected areas and conservation forests in the country.
Even
worse, he said the local administrations still awarded licenses for
forest conversion, including for plantations. (The Jakarta Post)
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