Logging green miles

Vinod Thomas, Straits Times 7 Dec 07;

ECONOMIC growth has been the source of rapidly rising living standards in much of the world. Yet experience tells us that what matters for people's well-being is not just how much an economy expands, but also how.

The drive for growth at the expense of the environment can set back human well-being, and ultimately obstruct growth itself.

Nowhere is this threat more evident than with climate change, entrenched in decades of environmental disregard. But the mounting scientific consensus on its perils stands in sharp contrast with continuing policy inaction over it. Underlying this bewildering gap is the view of most policy leaders and economic advisers that it's environmental protection, not environmental degradation, that impedes growth.

This inverted view has been costly. The world economy expanded sevenfold in the past 100 years. Meanwhile, the global population rose from 1.6 billion to 6.5 billion, the world lost half of its tropical forests and carbon dioxide levels rose to 380 parts per million (from the pre-industrial 280 ppm). The 0.74 deg C increase in average temperatures in the past century is causing sea levels to rise, melting glaciers and destroying species.

Local trends too are of concern. The health and productivity losses from particulate air pollution alone amount to 2 per cent to 3 per cent of GNP in China, India and elsewhere.

The relentless destruction of forests in Asia and other regions is not only devastating precious biodiversity, but also affecting local ecological conditions - bad for crops and people. Deforestation and soil erosion are compounding the damage of natural disasters such as flooding.

Estimates of these environmental losses vary substantially. But regardless of the exact numbers, prevention - experience tells us - is far cheaper than cure: whether it's in curbing industrial pollution or reinforcing structures in disaster-prone areas. The question then is why more governments and businesses don't take protective steps rather than waiting for disasters to strike.

One reason is that few countries, rich or poor, large or small, are motivated enough to tackle these global problems alone. That's because only a part of the benefits accrue to those taking action while others can have a free ride, a dilemma compounded by competitive pressures on everyone to keep costs down. Even when the gains are local, they are often spread beyond the time frame of most politicians.

Recognising the differences between what is good for society and what drives the private interest, policy leaders would need to insert environmental concerns in growth policies and in measures of economic success. For business and individuals to align with such a philosophy, environmental policies need to be more efficient, transparent and predictable.

Such a more environmentally friendly approach to growth should lead to deep cuts in carbon emissions. Measured per person, the United States, Japan, and European nations make by far the biggest contribution to global emissions. So their policy must lead the way.

But in total amount, middle-income countries - including China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Indonesia - now account for half of the emissions. So they too must participate in the solution.

Another area involves deforestation, as the loss of forests accounts for a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, more than from all modes of transportation. It is also a source of local damage, especially affecting the poor. One approach would be to open markets for permits for emissions that can be traded to avert deforestation, in turn bestowing financial benefits on countries for conserving forests.

Finally, there will be huge gains from stopping subsidies that encourage waste, politically hard as it is. The world spends a quarter of a trillion US dollars a year on energy subsidies, draining the public purse, promoting energy waste and locking in polluting infrastructure for decades.

As the world's leaders discuss global warming at the ongoing Bali summit, it's time to realise that growth without environmental care will in the end be impoverishing. As such, the lasting contribution of the deliberations will come from a change in the mindset of policy leaders in giving the environment high precedence in the growth agenda.

The writer is director-general of the Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank. The views expressed are personal.

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Hope and despair over Riau's forests

Carbon-trading plan may curb rampant logging, but doubts linger
Straits Times 7 Dec 07;

KUALA CENAKU (RIAU) - HERE on the island of Sumatra, about 1,930km from the global climate talks under way in Bali, are some of the world's fastest-disappearing forests.

From here, to anybody looking out over a vast wasteland of charred stumps and dried-out peat, the fight to save Indonesia's forests can seem nearly impossible.

'What can we possibly do to stop this? I feel lost, I feel abandoned,' said Mr Pak Helman, 28, a villager here in Riau province.

In recent years, dozens of pulp and paper companies have descended on Riau, which is roughly the size of Switzerland, snatching up generous government concessions to log and establish palm oil plantations. And villagers are in a state of panic.

Responding to global demand for palm oil, which is used in cooking and cosmetics and, lately, in an increasingly popular biodiesel, companies have been claiming any land they can.

Fortunately, from Mr Helman's point of view, the issue of Riau's disappearing forests has become a global one. He is now a volunteer for Greenpeace, which has established a camp in his village to monitor what it calls an impending Indonesian 'carbon bomb'.

Deforestation now accounts for 20 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to scientists. And Indonesia releases more carbon through deforestation than any other country in the world.

According to the World Bank, it is the third-leading source of carbon emissions caused by human activity, behind the United States and China.

Within Indonesia, it is in Riau that the situation is most critical. But it is also in Riau that a new global strategy for conserving forests in developing countries might begin. A small area of Riau's remaining forest will become a test case if an international carbon-trading plan called REDD is adopted.

REDD, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, is to be one of the central topics of discussion at the United Nations Climate Change Conference now under way in Bali.

Essentially, it would involve wealthy countries' paying developing countries for every hectare of forest they do not cut down.

At a meeting of 40 environment ministers near Jakarta in October, Indonesia won support for the carbon-trading plan from other tropical countries like Congo and Brazil.

But there are plenty of sceptics, who doubt it will be possible to measure just how much carbon is being conserved - and question whether the plan, once in place, can be safeguarded against illegal logging and corruption.

Monitoring the activities of pulp and paper companies in this extremely remote area would be a major undertaking. Companies are cultivating land legally sold to them by the Indonesian government, but maps of their projects obtained by Greenpeace indicate that many of them have also moved into protected areas.

Illegal logging is commonplace in Indonesia, with the government admitting it cannot be everywhere.

Most worrying to critics is the country's endemic corruption.

At the Bali conference, the Woods Hole Research Centre, an environmental group based in the US, has presented research showing that new satellite technology can make it more feasible to track illegal logging.

Such developments are good news to Mr Helman who, using his wooden boat, has been ferrying foreign environmentalists and journalists in and out of the forest in recent weeks.

'I am so thankful for the recent attention,' he said. 'At times it seems too late. But I see some hope now.'

NEW YORK TIMES

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Race against time to hammer out deal

Arti Mulchand, Straits Times 7 Dec 07;

Delegates, regional blocs trying to reach consensus before next week's ministerial meetings

BALI - NUSA Dua's palm-fringed beaches are mere steps away, but leisure is no option for hundreds of delegates at a two-week UN conference as they try to hammer out agreements on how to tackle climate change.

Holed up in windowless rooms for informal meetings away from the gaze of the media at the Bali International Convention Centre (BICC), they are racing against time to bridge their differences before high-level ministerial meetings begin next week.

By yesterday, at least five contact groups were trying to reach unified stances on single issues. These include how to kick-start a fund to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, and deciding on what, if any, incentives to offer countries to reduce emissions from deforestation.

By all accounts, things seem to be going well - for now. One delegate told The Straits Times countries were 'treading cautiously...and reserving their ammunition...for when hard talks begin'. The groups have to report to Indonesian Minister Rachmat Witoelar, who is presiding over the talks, tomorrow and on Monday.

And United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary Yvo de Boer said it is important that the 'huge challenge' of reaching agreements is achieved by then, clearing the decks for ministers to tackle the key task when they meet on Wednesday. That is when they will try to finalise the road map guiding proceedings to 2009, when a successor to the Kyoto Protocol will hopefully be born, he added.

Meanwhile, by far the most crowded and most contentious of the meetings is the one trying to pin down what comes after Bali. While some countries want formal negotiations on a framework to start right away, others think talks should stay informal, said Mr de Boer. And that is just one of several sticking points.

There is also a 'particular sense of urgency' for the group trying to reach agreement on compensating nations for not chopping down their forests, an issue which has been on the negotiating table for almost two years. There is little consensus on who should provide the funds, how countries should be given the money and even how to calculate the level of emissions avoided.

Yet more meetings are being held by negotiating blocs, like the Least Developed Countries group and the Alliance of Small Island States, to try to align their stands on the issues.

It is no easy task for some, like the G77 and China - a grouping of about 130 developing countries, including Singapore - which meets twice daily to try to agree on a common stand for countries at different stages of development.

Away from the venue, there will be more meetings ahead of the high-level segment, with trade ministers discussing trade-related climate change issues, and finance ministers talking about investments and funding for low-carbon technologies. But even as they meet, perhaps the real heat of global warming will be most felt back at the BICC as the contact groups attempt to finalise their positions and put them in black and white.

As one delegate put it: 'Now it's cordial because people are just testing the ground. But when they are trying to reach a written stand, that's when you'll get your late-night sessions and fierce debates.'

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Can Bali successfully replace Kyoto?

Ivan Png, Business Times 7 Dec 07;

At Bali, the question will be by how much China should reduce greenhouse gas emissions

OVER 10,000 delegates from all over the world are converging on Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. For twelve days, representatives of over 180 countries will negotiate a greenhouse gas policy to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

By the Kyoto Protocol, most developed countries have committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5 per cent relative to 1990 levels. The commitment period lasts from 2008 to 2012. The Protocol exempted less developed countries, including the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases - China - from target reductions. Among developed countries, two holdouts - Australia and the United States - refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

US President Bush was long hostile to the Kyoto Protocol. He seems to have adjusted his position, perhaps responding to a popular groundswell, driven in part by Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth. The United States appears to have, grudgingly, agreed to negotiations over new targets for greenhouse gas emissions.

In last week's general elections, John Howard, prime minister of Australia since 1996, was trounced by the Labour Party. To add insult to injury, Mr Howard even lost his own seat. Labour made climate change a key issue in the election. Incoming prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has initiated the process to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. He will attend the Bali conference.

So, in Bali, all eyes will be on China and other developing countries. On current trends, China will soon surpass the United States as the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases.

China is aware of the spotlight. In June, prior to President Hu Jintao's meeting with the G-8 leaders, China unveiled its climate-change plan. The plan aims to reduce the energy intensity of economic production by 4 per cent annually between 2005 and 2010.

However, China's government stressed that its top priority remained 'sustainable development and poverty eradication'. This is not surprising considering the widening urban-rural gap and when over 100 million people struggle on less than US$1 per day.

Moreover, China considers that, as a developing country, it is not obliged to cut emissions. Rather, the responsibility rests with the developed countries.

Nevertheless, China is making some progress on climate change. In 2006, energy intensity fell by 1.2 per cent, far short of the 4 per cent target. However, in the first nine months of this year, energy intensity fell by 3 per cent.

At Bali, the question will be by how much China should reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Critics emphasise that China's emissions will soon be the world's highest. However, Chinese officials respond that, on a per-capita basis, emissions are low.

The simplest answer would be a market solution - to establish a global price for emissions. The acceptable level of greenhouse gas emissions is just like the consumption of any scarce resource, whether it be alumina, iron, soybeans, or wheat.

China, India, and other developing countries pay international market prices for minerals and grains. They should do the same for greenhouse gas emissions.

Multi-lateral government negotiations over China's emissions would make no more sense than multi-lateral government negotiations over China's consumption of iron ore or soybeans.

There are no multi-lateral government negotiations to allocate scarce resources of iron ore or soybeans. Rather, China buys minerals, grains, and other primary products on global markets. Free market forces ensure that all countries - developing and developed - use the appropriate quantities of these resources.

What if some countries - whether developing or developed - refuse to implement pricing of greenhouse gas emissions? Under such circumstances, it would be appropriate to levy a countervailing tariff on imports from such countries to compensate for the unpriced emissions. This would ensure a level playing field in international trade.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France visited Beijing last week. He warned that Europe might impose a greenhouse gas emissions tariff if China did not adopt an acceptable emissions policy.

Would such a 'carbon tariff' be an unwarranted interference with free trade? That free trade increases overall welfare is one of the most celebrated propositions in economics.

However, the free trade proposition assumes that there are no externalities. Greenhouse gas emissions are a negative externality.

Emissions from China and other developing countries affect the worldwide climate. They cause global warming, not local warming.

Almost as celebrated a proposition in economics is that externalities must be corrected, or else, they would be excessive. Accordingly, it is entirely reasonable to correct the international externality through a countervailing import tariff.

Incidentally, I will not travel to Bali, and by doing so, I make my contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The convenors of the Bali conference are making their contribution as well - to save on air-conditioning, all delegates are encouraged to dress casually. Every gram counts.

Dr Png is a professor of information systems, business policy, and economics at the National University of Singapore and consultant with Economic Analysis Associates LLP. He is an academic visitor at Nuffield College, Oxford, for the Michaelmas Term. The opinions expressed here are personal

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IMF Considers Impact of Climate Change on Economy

Lesley Wroughton, PlanetArk 7 Dec 07;

"One thing to be cautious about is that these revenues are well used, well directed in efficient local spending," he said. "But it is quite possible that the best use of these funds is to save them to avoid a Dutch Disease-type of problem if you ramp up spending too quickly."

"Dutch Disease" was a name given to the Netherlands' economic problems following the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, which resulted in currency disruptions, increased imports, decreased exports and a fall in productivity.

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund will spell out the economic implications of climate change in research and discussions set for early 2008, a senior IMF official said on Wednesday, as governments gather in Bali for post-Kyoto negotiations.

In the IMF's first news conference to discuss the economic effects of climate change, Takatoshi Kato, the IMF's deputy managing director, said these global changes posed "many and complex" challenges as shifting and unreliable weather patterns force governments to adapt and climate-proof their economies.

"This research will analyze in greater depth the macroeconomic implications of climate change and policy responses to it, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation," Kato said.

"The IMF executive board will discuss possibly early next year the fiscal implication of climate change," he added.

The IMF was considering new tax mechanisms and other fiscal measures for countries affected by climate change, he said.

According to the IMF, economic challenges from climate change will include direct negative impacts on output and productivity; weaker traditional tax bases and increased spending; balance of payments problems due to reduced exports of goods and services such as agricultural products, fish and tourism; and private economic costs from higher energy prices.

While fiscal positions could deteriorate, there were also opportunities to boost revenue from efficient carbon-pricing schemes, he added.

Kato will join world leaders in Bali next week for UN climate change negotiations to shape a global agreement for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Kyoto created a carbon market as a way to reduce carbon emissions by encouraging governments and the private sector to offset their climate footprint by purchasing carbon credits.

The carbon trade has attracted speculators including investment banks and specialized carbon project developers.

Developing countries stand to earn billions of dollars through carbon trading by reducing deforestation and preserving tropical forests, which store huge amount of carbon.

Charles Collyns, deputy director for research at the IMF, said potential flows from payments for carbon credits could have implications for balance of payments and exchange rates.

"One thing to be cautious about is that these revenues are well used, well directed in efficient local spending," he said. "But it is quite possible that the best use of these funds is to save them to avoid a Dutch Disease-type of problem if you ramp up spending too quickly."

"Dutch Disease" was a name given to the Netherlands' economic problems following the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, which resulted in currency disruptions, increased imports, decreased exports and a fall in productivity.

Collyns said governments were more aware of the need to prepare for climate change but the response so far was "relatively muted," mainly due to the lack of an efficient carbon pricing system.

"Until investors are faced by a set of prices that prices in the true cost of carbon emissions, there won't be a full response," he said, "which is why it is important to move ahead with a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in order to establish carbon prices not just in the near term but also in the longer term."

(Editing by Braden Reddall)

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Indonesia's Papua to Protect Forests, Seeks Cash

Adhityani Arga, PlanetArk 6 Dec 07;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia - Indonesia's Papua wants to preserve part of its rainforest in exchange for cash to help the world slow global warming, the governor said at UN climate talks.

"We have decided to set aside a large part of our conversion forests to save the planet," Governor Barnabas Suebu told Reuters during UN climate talks in Bali. Conversion forests are earmarked for clearance for palm oil or pulp plantations.

Deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of all man-made carbon emissions blamed for global warming -- trees soak up carbon when they grow and release it when they rot or burn.

Stopping or curbing the destruction is widely regarded as a crucial part of any new climate pact to succeed the UN's Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

Suebu said that the remote forest-rich province on the Indonesian half of Guinea island was offering to preserve 7 million hectares (17.30 million acres) -- an area almost the size of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

In return, Papua hopes to earn millions of dollars through carbon trading by getting credit for leaving the forests intact.

Delegatas at the UN climate talks on the resort island of Bali are aiming to launch talks to work out a new pact by 2009 to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which runs to 2012.

The United Nations hopes the two-week conference will agree to study schemes to curb emissions by slowing deforestation and bind it into an emissions trading scheme.

Suebu said his scheme could help boost development in the area, where more than 80 percent of about 500,000 households live in poverty. But he said the world needs to create ways to ensure money goes to the forest-dependent people of Papua.

"The Papuan people own the forests. The money should go to them," he said.


HEADSTART

With 42 millon hectares of tropical forests and some of the richest biodiversity in the world, Papua is considered the country's last rainforest frontier. But it is under threat from increased cutting and clearing for palm oil plantations as well as rampant illegal logging.

Suebu vowed to get tough on illegal logging, by stepping up law enforcement and introducing a ban on log exports by January. The governor also plans to restrict logging licenses.

Papua took a headstart by signing agreements with several carbon investment companies, including Carbon Pool of Australia to help finance ways to preserve forests. But the central government in Jakarta is wary.

Forestry Minister Malam Sambet Kaban recently dubbed Papua's decision to go ahead with carbon trading outside the national framework as a move to "sell our forests at a discount."

The minister warned of "vultures" who lure governors into making decisions that would have long-term effort on Indonesia's plan to push for a fair and equitable pay-and-preserve plan under the new climate deal.

But Suebu brushed aside the criticism. "The central government is busy counting money. As Papuans say: we're busy fighting over the fish before it's even caught."

(Editing by Alister Doyle)

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REDD funds developed countries total US$10 billion: minister

Antara 6 Dec 07;

Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Forestry Minister MS Ka`ban said the funds set aside by developed countries for the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) scheme totaled US$10 billion.

The total was intended for 11 developing countries, including Indonesia, which had tropical rainforests, the minister said on the sidelines of the on-going conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) here on Thursday.

Ka`ban said Indonesia had not yet proposed the amount of funds it would receive for its REDD program, however.

He said Indonesia would first run REDD pilot projects in a number of provinces, hoping that more people living in areas around the forests would enjoy the benefit of the REDD mechanism.

As host country, Indonesia had drafted a mechanism plan called Reductions of Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD).

The REDD is being fought for by developing countries at the conference to gain financial incentives from developed states.

Under the REDD scheme, developing countries would market tons of carbon stored in their forests to developed countries who have the obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emission.

The Kyoto Protocol, which entered into force in 2005, laid down the practical commitments assumed by states party to implement the Framework Convention`s goal of mitigating global warming.

Indonesia, host of 120.3 million hectares of forests, will set aside 37.5 million hectares of its forests for the REDD project. "If one hectare is paid US$10 a year, Indonesia will gain US$3.75 billion every year," Minister of the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said recently. (*)

Indonesia prepares pilot projects for REDD
Antara 6 Dec 07;

Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA News) - Forestry Minister MS Kaban said Indonesia has prepared pilot projects for the program of Reduction of Emission from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD).

Indonesia had conducted various studies and researches on REDD with financial support from Britain, Australia, Germany and the World Bank, Minister MS Kaban said here on Thursday.

Minister Kaban made the statement after officially launching the Indonesian forestry ministry`s program on the Readiness of the Reducing Emission from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD).

The studies and researches were conducted by a team called the Indonesian Forest Climate Alliance (IFCA).

The pilot projects would be conducted at national, provincial, and district levels, for a period of five years, from 2008 to 2012, to identify and address problems arising during the implementation of REDD.

The pilot projects were expected to get experiences on the REDD implementation before it would be applied officially by 2012.

A total of 189 member countries of the United Nations which are concerned about the environment are meeting in Bali on December 3-14, 2007.

The conference is being attended by about 10,000 delegates and to take a number of important decisions, among others, on the road map to the Copenhagen conference on climate change in 2009.

The results of the Copenhagen conference in Denmark in 2009 will be ratified by many countries to replace the Kyoto Protocol which will expire in 2012. (*)

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Bog barons: Indonesia's carbon catastrophe

Fred Pearce, Telegraph 6 Dec 07;

The continued destruction of peatland forests will greatly accelerate climate change, writes Fred Pearce. So what is the solution?

I am standing in the heart of the world's second largest tropical peat swamp, the Kampar bog in central Sumatra, watching the swamp's water drain away along a small canal.

Across the western side of the bog there are dozens more drains. The peat bog is bleeding to death before me.

Until five years ago, Kampar was a true bog with water at the surface, and it was covered by a rich rainforest in which Sumatran tigers roamed. A huge dome of peat, up to 15 metres deep, had built up over the past 6,000 years as woody debris fell into the swamp. It contains several billion tonnes of carbon.

Now this part of the Kampar bog has been clear-felled, and the canals have been installed to turn it into plantations. As water levels fall beneath the blackened and treeless wasteland, the peat is drying and decomposing, releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per square kilometre than do many cities.

I watched as workers planted acacia trees for paper and palm oil trees destined to make biofuels to help reduce Europe's CO2 emissions. Yet draining the peat will release 30 times more CO2 than will be saved by replacing fossil fuels with biofuels - an irony that is hard to stomach.

The fact that European countries can meet their Kyoto protocol obligations by sponsoring activities that have helped turn Indonesia, of which the giant island of Sumatra is a part, into the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases is a savage indictment of the perverse incentives created by the protocol.

The world's governments are assembling on the Indonesian island of Bali to discuss what should follow Kyoto. The fate of peatlands like Kampar will be an important topic.

The Indonesian government is expected to argue that the very companies destroying the bogs should be awarded carbon credits for stopping the haemorrhaging of even more carbon. But can the region's great despoilers really become its saviours?

The destruction of tropical peatland forests is a disaster for many reasons, not least its global impact. Peat holds many times more carbon than the forest above it.

Marcel Silvius, a tropical ecologist at Wetlands International, estimates that in south-east Asia, 130,000 square kilometres of peatland forests have already been cut down and partially drained.

As a result, an average of 2 gigatonnes of CO2 is being released each year through burning and decomposition. That's equal to 8 per cent of the total annual global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels - and 90 per cent of it comes from Indonesia alone.

Here, forests are being cut and the peat drained to make way for two crops: palm oil trees for food and biofuels, and acacia to make pulp for paper.

This is happening fastest on Sumatra, and most intensively of all in the central Sumatran province of Riau. Until the late 1980s, Riau was 80 per cent jungle. Today it's just 30 per cent.

Palm oil is used for cooking and as an ingredient in everything from shampoo to biscuits. Global production has been soaring and Indonesia now produces a third of the global crop. In Riau, palm oil plantations already cover more than 15,000 square kilometres - a fifth of the province - with another 5,000 square kilometres planned to meet the expected demand for biofuels. Local politicians see this as boosting both industrial and rural development.

That may be true, but in climate terms, razing rainforests to grow palm oil for biofuels is madness. Clearing a hectare of tropical forest releases between 500 and 900 tonnes of CO2. Since turning a hectare's worth of palm oil into biodiesel saves approximately 6 tonnes of fossil CO2 emissions a year, it will take 80 to 150 years of production to offset the one-off emissions from trashing the forest.

That is bad enough. If the forest is growing on a peat bog, however, the CO2 losses are far greater and continue far longer.

During a drought in 1997, when fires set by farmers in Sumatra burned out of control, the peat bogs produced most of the smoke that blanketed vast swathes of south-east Asia. Later studies suggest that the burning peat accounted for as much as 40 per cent of human CO2 emissions that year.

What is only now becoming clear is that burning is not the only threat. With or without fires, the draining of peatlands is causing massive emissions of CO2.

The critical process here is oxidation. As long as peat stays wet, the acidity and lack of oxygen preserve organic matter, allowing the peat to build up. But when water levels fall and the peat begins to dry, the organic matter starts to break down. The loss of forest accelerates the process by exposing bare peat to the tropical sun. Emissions continue until any peat above the water table is gone.

Where water is drained to a depth of a metre, typical for many palm oil plantations, about 10 centimetres of peat disappears every year. This emits between 130 and 180 tonnes of CO2 per hectare each year.

So, including the one-off releases from deforestation, each hectare of peatland drained for palm oil will emit between 3750 and 5400 tonnes over the next 25 years, according to Jack Rieley, a tropical peatlands specialist at the University of Nottingham.

Even if the palm oil is used as biofuel, a hectare's output will save only 150 tonnes in vehicle emissions over the period, meaning 25 to 36 times as much carbon will be emitted as is saved.

Yet when I went to see Ang Boon Beng, head of a research station run by palm oil company Asian Agri, he suggested that the peatland plantations absorb carbon. This ignorance extends to the authorities.

At the plantation department in the provincial capital of Pekanbaru, they told me that peat less than 3 metres thick does not emit CO2 when drained.

During my travels, however, it became clear that palm oil is not the biggest problem. The main driver of deforestation and peat-bog draining here is the voracious appetite for timber, and the big players are two giant pulp mill owners.

One company is Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), part of RGM International, an empire owned by Singapore-based magnate Sukanto Tanoto. APRIL's rival is the Sinar Mas Group dynasty founded by Eka Tjipta Widjaja, which owns Asia Paper and Pulp (APP).

APRIL and APP have built two of the world's largest pulp mills in the jungle near Pangkalan Kerinci - now a town of 50,000.

On the way to Kerinci, I passed 44-wheel "road trains" carrying acacia logs, which run on company roads because they are too heavy and dangerous for public roads. They supply APRIL's mill alone with 22,000 tonnes of timber a day, much of which is turned into the company's main paper brand, PaperOne.

Having logged thousands of square kilometres of easily accessible forests, the two companies have moved on to swamp forests. Some 60 per cent of APRIL's concessions are now on peat.

The companies are installing huge networks of canals to gain access, clear-felling the forests and replacing them with acacia trees. Acacia grows spectacularly well here - up to 25 metres in five years, at which point they are harvested. The companies can sell their products cheaply, outcompeting others around the world.

Acacia, however, can grow on peatland only if it is kept drained. Peatland scientist Jonathan Bathgate, who works for APRIL, is candid about the carnage his company has wreaked in recent years. He explained the loss of peat to me as we cruised canals in a newly exploited patch of western Kampar, passing barges carrying timber out of the bog.

This 100-square-kilometre patch is likely to be the first of many to be drained across the 4000-square-kilometre Kampar peatland in the next few years. Its surface has collapsed by more than a metre in the past five years, resulting in carbon losses of about 1800 tonnes per hectare.

And if development continues as expected, the peat surface could go down by over 5 metres within 25 years, according to an unpublished report for APRIL by the UK-based consultancy ProForest.

Some say that the loss of forest and haemorrhaging of CO2 from peat bogs is a reasonable price to pay for the development of the world's fourth most populous country.

After all, western countries long ago razed their own forests and drained many of their swamps. Why shouldn't tropical countries do the same?

Moreover, even taking into account deforestation and peat loss, Indonesia's CO2 emissions per head remain below Europe's and are half those of the US.

From the number of mud-spattered Land Cruisers travelling the logging roads of Riau, it is clear that much wealth is being generated. But this is a "wild east" where there are many losers as well as winners.

I saw that on the banks of the Indragiri river on the edge of the Kerumutan peatlands. Here, Kuala Cenaku, a community of 7,000 people, has for centuries harvested rattan and honey, cut a few trees and planted rubber trees on what they regard as their lands.

Then last year loggers arrived, claimed the land had been given to them by the government, and cut down the forest for 5 kilometres south of the river.

Kuala Cenaku's forest is now a wasteland of charred wood on drying peat. In places the Duta Palma group has planted palm oil trees. Yet community head Mursyid Muhammad Ali said his people had scared off the planters and are determined to take the land back. At the jetty, I saw a boatful of new rubber seedlings for restoring the forest.

Days later Greenpeace sent in volunteers to block up the drainage canal dug by Duta Palma, but it was likely to be a token effort - the intact forest beyond the charred lands is set to become an APRIL concession.

Something remarkable is happening at the pulp giant, however. Wary of the future of its timber supplies and its worsening reputation, the company - unlike rival APP - has begun talking to environment groups.

For several years, APRIL and the environment group WWF have been engaged in an experiment to combine exploitation of forests round the Tesso Nilo national park in central Riau with conservation of the park itself.

According to WWF's Michael Stuewe, Tesso Nilo has greater biodiversity than almost any other lowland rainforest worldwide.

But it is besieged by migrants looking for land to grow palm oil. The idea is to create a "ring" of acacia plantations round the park that could be policed to protect it.

Besieged

As I travelled along this ring, though, it was clear that things were not going well. A new road built by APRIL seemed to be attracting migrants.

I met three young men squatting at the roadside. They said they had come 18 months before from northern Sumatra. The head of a village along the road, Kusuma, had sold them 6 hectares for about $2,600. Now they were planting palm oil.

A bit further on, three more men were living in a small hut, with a similar tale. Such unofficial, often illegal development extends deep into the national park, where an entire village has been built.

As we drove around, my WWF guides were reluctant to stop and talk to locals. Five months before, one of them had been beaten up by a gang.

Earlier, two of APRIL's staff were murdered during protests against new rules banning trucks carrying illegal logs from boarding a ferry owned by the company.

With the Tesso Nilo park now almost divided in two by the illegals, some regard it as a lost cause. The new front line in Sumatra is the coastal peatland. Here, too, APRIL has concessions and wants to surround the Kampar bog with a ring of plantations.

Some accuse APRIL of putting up a green smokescreen while it trashes another rainforest. The company insists it is sincere. Only it can save Kampar, with its carbon, its tigers and the few dozen indigenous Akit hunter-gatherers that live there, APRIL claims.

"If nothing is done, the parks will all be gone in 10 years," says Jouko Virta of APRIL, who is credited with the "greening" of the company. "The government should use us to protect conservation areas in return for being allowed to make productive use of the rest."

It's not just about keeping migrant farmers and illegal loggers out. The company also claims its engineering expertise can reduce emissions.

It wants to close as many of the canals draining the bog as possible, and then maintain water levels as high as is possible while still allowing acacia to grow. "We believe that we can cut CO2 emissions by 80 to 90 per cent by minimising the dry zone," says Virta.

At WWF they remain unconvinced. "I don't believe them," says Stuewe. "They have failed in Tesso Nilo and they would fail again in Kampar. Both APRIL and APP have built roads into the Kampar dome, into the heart of the biggest carbon store in southeast Asia. They are stakes into the heart of the bog."

Some think the only solution is to conserve all of Kampar by shutting the roads and closing the canals. What about the government? Indonesia is a democracy, but one mired in corruption and with confused and contradictory laws.

Arguably, neither APRIL nor APP should be allowed to work on most of the peatlands at all. According to Indonesian law, nobody is allowed to exploit land where the peat is more than 3 metres deep.

Yet the government has awarded logging and plantation concessions on such land. Bathgate admits that many APRIL concessions are on peat 6 to 8 metres deep. Are those concessions invalid? Or does a concession trump the law? Nobody knows.

The next steps to resolving Kampar's future could come during the negotiations in Bali. At the conference, Indonesia is planning to make the case that any successor to the Kyoto protocol should reward countries in the developing world with carbon credits for avoiding carbon losses from deforestation and drained peatlands.

Just as rich countries and companies can get tradeable credits for cutting emissions, the idea is that developing countries should get credits for avoiding future increases. It has strong support from many countries.

"The world has to provide incentives for Indonesia to preserve its peatlands," says the country's head of forestry research, Wahjudi Wardojo.

For him, the nearly 2 billion tonnes of CO2 a year being released from the country's peatlands are a massive bargaining chip.

And companies like APRIL argue that the prospect of revenues from carbon credits would justify reducing their own emissions and managing land already leaking carbon into the air.

In all, an estimated 155 gigatonnes of CO2 remains locked away in the waterlogged peatlands of south-east Asia. That's as much as the entire world's fossil fuel emissions for the past five years.

There's no doubt that the continued destruction of peatland forests will greatly accelerate climate change. The question is: does the world trust the barons of the bogs to protect them in future as well as they have wrecked them in the past? And if not, what's the alternative?

# This article from the New Scientist Magazine © Reed Business Information.

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Dam on Red Sea Would Harm Environment

Andrea Thompson, LiveScience.com 6 Dec 07;

Damming the Red Sea could alleviate growing energy demands in the Middle East, engineers say, but such a massive project could also have untold ecological impacts, like those brought about by other major dams worldwide.

Scientists and policy makers have recently been exploring more ways to provide people with energy and electricity without using fossil fuels, which are driving Earth's rising temperature.

One fossil-free way to make electricity is to dam a river. But an entire sea?

In a new study, Roelof Dirk Schuiling of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and his colleagues examined the possibility of damming the Red Sea to feed the growing energy demands of surrounding Middle Eastern countries through hydroelectric power. While such a huge project could significantly reduce fossil fuel use, and therefore cut greenhouse gas emissions, it could also cause irrevocable damage to local wildlife and displace people from their homes, the researcher conclude.

A March 2007 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature noted the impact of dams on the ecologies of the Nile, Danube, Rio Grande, South America's La Plata, Australia's Murray-Darling and Asia's Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, and Ganges rivers, including damage to fish habitats and loss of wetlands.

Red Sea dam

Schuiling's study looked at the possibility of damming the southern entrance of the Red Sea at the Bab-al-Mandab Strait, separating it from the Indian Ocean. (Such a seawater barrier has already been planned for the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.)

The proposed Bab-al-Mandab dam would stop the inflow of seawater from the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea, and as the sea gradually evaporated (because of its high evaporation rate), water levels on each side of the dam would reach a point where the flow of water could be used to generate electricity. The dam would have the potential to generate 50 gigawatts of power, Schuiling estimates—by comparison, the largest nuclear power plant in the United States has an output of 3.2 gigawatts.

But, as Schuiling and his colleagues point out in their paper, the ecological impacts of such a project would be "irreversible and far-reaching, both in terms of regional as well as environmental impacts."

Dam impacts

One of the biggest impacts of a Red Sea dam would come from the increase in salinity in the already very salty Red Sea as its water evaporated and left salt behind. An increase in the salt content of the water could harm the coral reefs, crabs, fish and other organisms that are not adapted to the higher salinity.

The dam would also lower the Red Sea by about 2.1 meters per year (6.8 feet per year), and "consequently, coastal wetlands, mangroves and coral reefs would begin to dry out and die almost as soon as the [dam] closes," the authors wrote in the latest issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues.

This reduction in water level and damage to ecosystems would also endanger the crabs, fish and sea birds that depend on these Red Sea habitats.

The authors also note that because ocean water will no longer flow into the Red Sea, world sea levels would rise by about 12 cm (4.7 inches) over 50 years, reaching a maximum of 30 cm (11.8 inches) after 310 years. But if serious measures were taken to curtail greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, the dam would actually help to slow sea level rise by also reducing emissions, the authors said.

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Ngee Ann Polytechnic plugs gap with new diploma course in business and social enterprise

Lin Yanqin, Today Online 6 Dec 07

They have the passion to run a sustainable business, but not the skills. They also lack support. These were some of the problems confronting social enterprises that a committee recently identified — and now, Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) will take a step towards addressing these issues.

Its School of Humanities is offering a new diploma in business and social enterprise. For its first intake next year, the school plans to take in 40 students for the three-year programme, which will cover a mix of business and social enterprise modules from the principles of accounting to non-profit organisation management. Just as importantly, students will also be mentored by local and foreign social entrepreneurs and gain hands-on experience by working on social projects.

In their final year, students will be attached to private and public-sector organisations to work on a social enterprise project, either locally or overseas.

Said industry practitioner Alfie Othman, a member of the Social Enterprise Committee: "It's good that a specialised course is being offered and not something that's just part of a bigger course."

Mr Othman, the managing director of Ikhlas Holdings, a catering company that hires ex-offenders and single mothers, added: "This course and the infrastructure recommended by the committee will encourage people to commit to and take a shot at the industry."

On the other hand, while teaching the basics of running a business "would be helpful", the passion and creativity that social entrepreneurship needs is not something to be taught in the classroom, said Lien Foundation Centre for Social Innovation centre director Carolyn Seah.

Its report last week on social enterprise recommended that more courses be launched at the tertiary level to teach the application of business skills in a non-profit sector. "We can create all the infrastructure and support, but that's just half the component. You still need the heart component, which can't be taught," said Ms Seah.

NP's School of Humanities director Choo Cheh Hoon, underlining the "growth potential" of the sector, said the course could help make the sector more "robust" and equip students with a social heart with the right business skills.

A possible partner in the mentorship scheme is the Schwab Foundation for Social Enterprise, which also helps to find internships worldwide. The school will hold its annual open house next month.

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Singapore youths deployed to Orchard Rd to encourage more to volunteer

Channel NewsAsia 6 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE : People at Orchard Road may soon find themselves being approached by youths who will talk to them about volunteering their time for charity.

It is part of an effort to mark International Volunteers Day, which falls on Wednesday.

Starting Wednesday, and for the whole of December, some 500 youths will be deployed to solicit donations. But they are not asking for money, they are looking for manpower hours.

The aim is to secure online pledges of at least 50,000 hours from members of the public, to volunteer at more than 50 charities.

The effort is part of the month-long "Giving from the Heart at The Atrium" festival, which celebrates volunteerism.

Organisers hope to make volunteering a lifestyle choice and not just an occasional act.

The festival will also feature 50 retail and novelty stalls, performances and a 300-square-metre skating rink.

The venue is at the open space between Plaza Singapore and Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station.

Those who would like to volunteer can go to www.bank4u.org , or call the hotline at 1800 968 2265.

The event is hosted by youth charity Heartware Network, and supported by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports; the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre and the Singapore Community Development Council.

The community partners are Maybank, the Singapore Police Force, The Atrium @ Orchard, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Serangoon Junior College. - CNA/ms

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"Green jobs" to outweigh losses from climate change

Alister Doyle, Reuters 6 Dec 07;

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Climate change is creating millions of "green jobs" in sectors from solar power to biofuels that will slightly exceed layoffs elsewhere in the economy, a U.N. report said on Thursday.

Union experts at U.N. climate talks in Bali, Indonesia, said the findings might ease worries among many workers that tougher environmental standards could mean an overall loss of jobs for many countries.

"Millions of new jobs are among the many silver, if not indeed gold-plated, linings on the cloud of climate change," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) said in a statement.

"New research reveals that these jobs are not for just the middle classes -- the so-called 'green collar' jobs -- but also for workers in construction, sustainable forestry and agriculture, engineering and transportation," he said.

The study of "Green Jobs" around the world said that measures to promote ethanol in Brazil, for instance, had created 500,000 jobs. In China, 150,000 people were employed in solar heating, a sector with sales revenues in 2005 of $2.5 billion.

And it said that renewable energy programs in Spain and Germany, such as in promoting wind power, had "already created several hundred thousand jobs".

The environmental industry employed more than 5.3 million people in the United States in 2005, according to a UNEP statement that did not give a breakdown by sector.

"There's every indication that there will be a net gain (in jobs) but probably not a very large net gain," Janos Pasztor, a senior UNEP official, told a news conference in Bali.

NUCLEAR POWER

"The labor intensity of renewables is higher than those of fossil fuels or nuclear power," he said. Jobs could be lost in coal mining, for instance, if the world sought to shift away from fossil fuels.

The study did not try to estimate the total number of jobs that could be created or lost by measures to combat climate change, which U.N. reports project will bring more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas.

"The fears that this will turn into a job killer...are unfounded," said Peter Poschen, a development specialist at the U.N.'s International Labor Organization. "There is a huge opportunity for 'green jobs'."

"Fear of job or livelihood losses...continues to pose a barrier to greater worker involvement," said Lucien Royer of the International Trade Union Confederation, grouping workers in more than 100 nations.

He welcomed the study as confirming past economic theories about net gains in jobs linked to combating global warming.

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