7 January 2010, Carbon Positive - Indonesia says reforestation and cuts to deforestation will enable it to meet its target of reducing emissions by 26 percent from business as usual levels by 2020. The minister for forestry, Zulkifli Hasan, says a national plan to plant 21 million hectares (52 million acres) of new forest by 2020 and eradicate illegal logging and land-clearing would see the country drastically reduce its emissions. The minister also said the plan involves planting 500,000 hectares of new forest a year at an annual cost of $269 million. A further 300,000 hectares of degraded forest would be rehabilitated per year with the help of REDD funding from Australia, Norway, Korea and investment from the private sector. The plan is expected to turn the country from a net carbon emitter to into a net carbon sink.
However reaching these targets will be a challenge. The Indonesian government has for some time had ambitious plans for reforesting land. But its ability to bring them to fruition has been hampered by the obstacles that lie in governing a disparate and under-developed island nation with three tiers of government – bureaucratic red tape, corruption and the difficulties of law enforcement. International project developers have experienced long delays in securing the approvals required to get forest-related projects underway. To meet the government emissions goals, it would need to tackle the causes of deforestation and land degradation directly, including illegal logging, land clearing for agriculture, mining expansion and other unsustainable development.
Unlike other big emitting nations, a large part of the Indonesian carbon footprint comes not from industry and energy production but from deforestation. It is estimated that illegal logging may account for up to half of logging in Indonesia. Meanwhile palm oil producers are eagerly eying peatlands for new plantations. Last year President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened up some 2 million hectares of peatlands for development. Indonesia was named in a 2007 World Bank study as the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States, largely due to its rapid rate of deforestation.
A report released last year by the Indonesian government revealed that degradation and destruction of peatlands (45 percent) and forests (35 percent) account for 80 percent of Indonesia's 2.3 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year. Emissions are projected to rise to 2.6-2.8 billion by 2020, although Indonesia's new plan calls for a target of 1.9-2.1 billion tons, a 700-million-ton reduction.
Indonesia last year set up a legal framework to encourage forest preservation projects operating under a U.N.-backed scheme called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). Indonesia hopes to win compensation under the REDD. It is estimated that Indonesia could earn billions of dollars a year under a carbon trading scheme that counts carbon credits generated from forest conservation activities.
