Asia governors endorse U.N. forest carbon scheme

David Fogarty, Reuters 12 Nov 09;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Six provincial governors from Indonesia, Laos and the Philippines on Thursday backed an expanded U.N. scheme aimed at protecting and conserving forests in return for carbon credits.

In a joint statement after a meeting on the sidelines of an annual gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders, the governors said the scheme, called REDD+, held the promise of boosting livelihoods for local communities, a key step in curbing deforestation.

But fair distribution of wealth was key.

"People in the cities have better education, they are richer but actually they produce carbon poison," said Abang Tambul Hussin, regent of Kapuas Hulu in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province.

"The communities in the forest area have to be more prosperous," he told the meeting, convened by the Asian Development Bank and ecosystems service firm Carbon Conservation.

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) aims to reward developing countries for saving their forests in return for carbon offsets that they can sell to rich nations.

The United Nations hopes REDD will be part of a broader global climate pact from 2013, ushering in a potentially multi-billion dollar boost to the global carbon market.

REDD+ expands the idea to protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests.

The governors said that the REDD+ "approach offers tremendous promise in creating a new set of incentives for the preservation and sustainable management of forests," and urged world leaders to push the concept at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month.

FIRES, ILLEGAL LOGGING

Four of the governors were from Indonesia, including Central and West Kalimantan on Borneo island, South Sumatra and West Papua. Attapeu province in Laos and Albay province in the Philippines also endorsed the scheme, with some of the provinces already starting pilot REDD+ projects.

Indonesia is on the front line of effort to save the world's remaining tropical forests, with deforestation responsible for more than 10 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions.

But the meeting also underscored the challenges facing the scheme that many rich nations support in the hope of offsetting some of their planet-warming emissions at home.

Ensuring the money from forest carbon credits flowed to local communities, awareness of the scheme on the ground, poverty, fighting illegal deforestation and curbing the expansion of palm oil estates were among the key issues facing REDD+, they said.

"It's very important for us that people know exactly that if they take care of the forest they can have also the money," Central Kalimantan Governor Agustin Teras Narang told Reuters.

"The challenge for us is to maintain our forests, especially dealing with fires, illegal logging," but added the threat from illegal logging had eased and that the province would cap palm oil plantation coverage.

"Maybe at the end of this month, about 900,000 hectares. Enough," he said. Central Kalimantan has lost about a third of its forest area and has Borneo's largest peat carbon store.

The governor of West Papua, Abraham Octavianus Atururi, said his province still had 85 percent forest cover but pointed to the region's poverty, population of under one million, limited infrastructure and problems in monitoring illegal land clearing.

(Editing by Ron Popeski)

Asian Governors see REDD, in fight to halt climate change
WWF 13 Nov 09;

Asian Green Governor’s meeting, Singapore, 12/11/2009 - A group of Asian governors from forest rich countries, meeting in Singapore on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, have urged APEC leaders and UNFCCC* negotiators to place forest protection, restoration and payments for environmental services at the forefront of agreed efforts to halt climate change.

The participating governors (convened by the Asian Development Bank) are targeting compensation under the emerging global forest carbon market – including the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism – to support local development. Discussions at the meeting featured examples of specific pilot project efforts and initial REDD design concepts.

Specifically, the Heart of Borneo (HoB) Initiative was raised as a prime example of the sort of action needed in the region to mitigate the effects of climate change. The HoB was established in 2007 by joint declaration of the three Bornean governments - Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei - and commits to the preservation and sustainable development of around 240,000 km2 area of continuous forest in the Heart of Borneo.

Speaking at the meeting, Indonesia’s governor of central Kalimantan (on the island of Borneo), the Honourable Augustin Teras Narang, said:

“The Heart of Borneo Initiative is an opportunity to address climate change through REDD, sustainable forest management and payment for environmental services, but we need real incentives and equitable financing mechanisms to realise the ambitious goals of the Heart of Borneo.”

REDD financing mechanism and the HoB
Large scale carbon-rich forest landscapes such as the HoB can play a major role in achieving emission reduction targets while conserving and sustainably managing the contiguous trans-boundary forests of Borneo. The basic idea behind REDD is that countries willing and able to reduce emissions from deforestation should be financially compensated for doing so. REDD financing as a win-win instrument can bring a whole range of benefits. For HoB countries, REDD would represent a new source of financing for national and provincial conservation and responsible growth; for developed countries it would be a cost-efficient option for offsetting Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
The Heart of Borneo is globally one of the most important centres of biodiversity with record rates of endemism. In addition, the tropical forest and important peatlands of the HoB hold significant amounts of carbon and therefore, play a vital role in mitigating global warming.
Adam J. Tomasek, WWF's Leader for the Heart of Borneo Initiative, addressed the Governors and noted the opportunities and difficulties faced.

"The Heart of Borneo is a global treasure chest of ecosystem goods and services, but these life-sustaining functions are not valued or properly compensated. It is important that the bold commitments made by the three governments under the Heart of Borneo are met with new and viable financing mechanisms for large-scale forest conservation and sustainable management. Equitable compensation for REDD is not just a good idea, it is absolutely necessary,” he said.

At the closing reception, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda highlighted the importance of initiatives such as REDD in addressing climate change.

“Addressing climate change, via reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, is one of the central goals of the ADB,” he said.

The ADB and WWF are jointly supporting the Heart of Borneo initiative through mobilizing much needed financial and technical resources to deliver the goals agreed by the three Bornean governments.

* UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Notes to editors.

Asian Green Governors Meeting
The Roundtable meeting of progressive "Asian Green Governors" was convened in Singapore on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. They represent both those who have already begun specific efforts at the sub-national level and those just beginning to develop REDD concepts.

A Green Governors Roundtable was first convened in December 2007 on the sidelines of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 13th Conference of the Parties (COP-13) held in Bali. That meeting promoted the still young REDD concept, and it was considered instrumental in having supported the inclusion of REDD in the Bali Action Plan as one element of the emerging post-2012 global climate change framework to be finalized in Copenhagen at COP-15 in December 2009.

The Heart of Borneo Initiative
In February 2007, the governments of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia signed the Heart of Borneo Declaration to protect an area of around 240,000 square kilometres in the centre of the island and bordering all three countries. Together they emphasised the fact that these tropical rainforests have strategic, global, national and local functions, not only for citizens of these three countries but for the global human race.
The declaration is supported under important regional and international agreements such as Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).