Michael Richardson, Straits Times 4 Dec 08;
CAN the world's remaining tropical forests in Indonesia and elsewhere be protected and brought into the battle against climate change?
Working out ways of halting or slowing the cutting of forests for timber and agriculture will be one of the key issues discussed this week and next at the United Nations forum on climate change, which reconvened in Poznan, Poland, on Monday.
Trees soak up and store carbon dioxide when they grow and release it when they rot or are burnt. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas blamed by many scientists for warming the planet. Deforestation contributes about 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and most of it occurs in forest-rich developing nations in Africa, South-east Asia and South America. So any international deal to preserve forests is of critical interest to the world.
The talks in Poznan are part of a process that began in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago to try to reach agreement on a new climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, all developed economies, except the United States, have agreed to cut greenhouse gases by an average of 5 per cent by 2012 from 1990 levels. The Bush administration rejected Kyoto, arguing that it unfairly excused China, India, Indonesia and other emerging economies from binding commitments. US President-elect Barack Obama has promised to bring America back to the negotiating table as a constructive partner in climate change talks.
Kyoto includes national cap and trade systems, which allow countries and companies to achieve reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions by buying and selling carbon credits. Kyoto also permits tree-planting programmes in its carbon trading scheme, but not forest preservation. This is expected to change in a post-Kyoto arrangement.
The Poznan meeting will consider proposals for a pay-to-preserve forest scheme known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD. Under this scheme, richer countries would pay to maintain forests in tropical regions to offset their own emissions.
Many countries favour such forestry offsets, both as a means of directing billions of dollars to developing nations that protect their forests, as well as making it cheaper for advanced economies to meet their greenhouse gas emission limits.
However, there are many challenges. How accurately can forest carbon emissions savings be measured and what sort of forest should be included: Only primary jungle or re-grown forests and plantations as well, even if they hold less carbon? Will REDD forests remain standing for the long term and can illegal logging and fire be prevented? Will a halt in logging in one area cause deforestation in another?
Some non-government organisations (NGOs) fear that attaching a substantial preservation value to forests could lead to land disputes, loss of livelihoods and intervention by corrupt officials and profit- seeking outsiders. Other NGOs say that cheap REDD credits could allow rich nations to avoid making deep emission cuts at home and thus do little to help reverse global warming.
Indonesia has become the centre of REDD trial programmes in Asia because it still has large areas of forest, despite rapid deforestation. The country has 91 million hectares of tree cover, although it is estimated to have lost 70 per cent of its original forest. As a result, South-east Asia's biggest country is among the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, according to a report commissioned by the World Bank and Britain's international aid agency.
Last month, California and two other states in the US signed an agreement with Indonesia's Aceh province to integrate forest carbon credits from Aceh into US emissions trading schemes. The pact, the first of its kind, is a significant step towards global acceptance of carbon credits from forest protection. It is linked to the preservation of a 750,000-ha forest reserve in Aceh called Ulu Masen, which will save 3.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted each year (if the trees were to be cut), or 100 million tonnes over the project's lifetime.
Australian firm Carbon Conservation teamed up with the Aceh government last year to sell the offsets, known as verified emissions reductions. These usually trade from US$4 to US$10 (S$6 to S$15) for a tonne of carbon saved.
International NGO Fauna and Flora International, which supports the Ulu Masen project, is also working with Australia's Macquarie financial services group to develop three REDD projects in West Kalimantan and Papua.
Investment firm New Forests, headquartered in Sydney, has signed a deal with the government of Papua province, the location of much of Indonesia's remaining pristine forest. The deal will protect 200,000 ha and save up to 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being emitted over the lifetime of the project.
Meanwhile, the Australian government has pledged A$30 million (S$29 million) as part of a project to protect 50,000 ha of Kalimantan forest and rehabilitate at least 50,000 ha of drained peat swamp, which could become a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions if it were to dry out and catch fire.
These are promising projects not just for forest preservation in Indonesia but also for poverty alleviation and local empowerment - provided they are well-run and corruption is kept at bay.
The writer is an energy and security specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
