Redd scheme to keep forests in the black
Indonesia's tropical forests, the most extensive in Asia and the third-largest in the world, are rich in many ways. But striking a balance between their continued economic development, and conserving them to protect the local environment and the global climate, is difficult.
It is one of many contentious points in international negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Officials from Indonesia and other countries will meet again in Bonn, Germany, next month to try to conclude a deal by December.
Forests play a crucial role in regulating greenhouse gases blamed for warming the world. Their foliage absorbs huge quantities of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. When forests are cut or burned, they release the gas into the atmosphere.
However, Indonesia's forests and the land they cover are also an immediate and major source of wealth for the nation as it seeks to sustain growth and employment.
Exports of timber and other forest products, including pulp and paper, are worth more than US$5 billion a year. Forest-related activity remains an important source of income and employment for hundreds of thousands of people.
In the 1960s, 82 per cent of Indonesia was forested. Today, the figure has dropped to 49 per cent. Between 1990 and 2005, Indonesia lost 28 million hectares of forest, including nearly 22 million hectares of virgin forest. The destruction and degradation are the result of various forces. Logging (much of it illegal), mining, human settlement, subsistence farming and cutting firewood have all played a part. So, too, has the clearance and burning of forests to make way for palm oil and timber plantations.
But, scientists say this pattern of development, including the draining of vast peat swamps for plantations, comes at a high cost for the environment and climate change.
More than 17 per cent of the world's emissions of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases stem from deforestation. By some measures, Indonesia has become the third-largest greenhouse gas polluter, after China and the US, if its emissions from deforestation and changes in land-use are included.
Scientists warn that, unless forests can be conserved, we will stand no chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. Yet the 1997 Kyoto Protocol failed to include effective provisions to protect and restore forests by valuing them as a carbon store.
Negotiations for a follow-on pact focus on a new approach, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Redd). The main idea is that companies or governments in advanced nations compensate developing economies for preserving forests, either by paying into a fund or by purchasing credits on carbon markets.
Whether the international community can agree on a well-funded Redd programme remains to be seen. But, if successful, it would give a big boost to poverty alleviation in remote rural areas, while helping control greenhouse emissions and climate change.
