Indonesian-Australian carbon project in Sumatra

Yahoo News 2 Mar 10;

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia and Australia announced on Tuesday a multi-million dollar initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The Sumatra Forest Carbon Partnership worth 30 million Australian dollars (27 million dollars) will address immediate threats to forest on mineral soils in Jambi province.

The announcement in a statement by Australian Climate Change Penny Wong and Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan is an expansion of an existing agreement.

"The partnership in Jambi is a demonstration activity, which is a pilot project to show how you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in practice," Indonesia-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership coordinator Neil Scotland told AFP.

"The first demonstration activity already takes place in Central Kalimantan (Borneo)," he said, adding that it was in line with the UN-REDD programme on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation.

Rapid deforestation in Indonesia by legal and illegal loggers has made Indonesia one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Indonesia plans to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2020.