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Indonesia: Provincial Government Signs REDD Carbon Deal
In a May 14 piece for Mongabay.com, Rhett Butler reports on a new carbon deal struck between the government of the Indonesian province of Papua and an Australian financial firm. The deal would create a forestry-based carbon finance project modeled after the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) financing mechanism. The carbon project could potentially encompass more than one million hectares of forestland on the island of New Guinea. Significantly, the project aims to establish “a perpetual financial base for local communities” by compensating them for their efforts to conserve the forest.
The deal emerges in the wake of Papuan Provincial Governor Barnabas Suebu’s December 2007 moratorium on logging, which he declared in part because he hoped conservation would lead to more secure livelihoods for local people. “Conversion of these spectacular forests to agribusiness would be a great loss,” Governor Suebu said. “I hope this approach can provide a new development path for the forests and people of the Province of Papua.”
As deforestation’s role in contributing to global greenhouse
gas emissions has become increasingly clear, carbon projects that implement the
REDD financing mechanism have gained momentum. Deforestation accounts for
approximately one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, an alarming
figure that highlights the importance of incentivizing conservation. However, REDD financing schemes are not a panacea. Clearly defined land rights and legally-established benefit flows are just some of the important prerequisites for REDD to achieve positive human outcomes.
Read Butler’s article in its entirety here.
Learn more about REDD here.
Posted By Colby Clabaugh at 3:21pm on June 03, 2008
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