Ministers from 64 nations attend meeting in Paris to address how to implement forest-preserving measures agreed on in principle at Copenhagen climate talks.

By Elaine Ganley, AP
Thu, Mar 11 2010
Source: mnn.com

Rich nations must contribute more to a climate change fund and help fight deforestation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at a conference Thursday on saving the world’s forests — a key defense against global warming.

Ministers from 64 nations attended the one-day meeting in Paris, including Indonesia and other heavily wooded countries in the Amazon and Congo river basins.

Efforts to halt deforestation, one of the culprits in climate change, have been bogged down along with the wider goal of reaching a legally binding global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions while helping poor nations adapt to and cope with climate change.

Thursday’s meeting, to be followed by a conference in May in Oslo, was focused on how to implement forest-preserving measures agreed on in principle at the last U.N. climate conference in December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Specifically, nations need to work out how to disburse the $30 billion pledged by rich countries over the next three years. In total, world leaders agreed to spend $100 billion by 2020 to help poor nations preserve forests, protect coasts, adjust drought-threatened crops, build water supplies and irrigation systems, and adopt low-carbon energy options such as solar and wind power. French officials said they expected 20 percent of that to go to fighting deforestation.

Sarkozy said he wanted the Paris conference to bring more funding pledges for forests while working out how to organize the aid and find mechanisms to guarantee transparency. He said he wanted the private sector to join in, too.

Deforestation — through the burning of woodlands or the rotting of felled trees — is thought to account for up to 20 percent of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere — as much as that emitted by all the world’s cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships combined.

Due to deforestation from logging, crop-growing and cattle grazing, Indonesia and Brazil have become the world’s third- and fourth-largest carbon emitters, after China and the United States.

Sarkozy said defending the world’s forests demanded more aggressive funding.

“Those who don’t want to do anything are those who don’t want to pay,” he said in an opening address.

He reiterated his appeal for a tax on financial market transactions worldwide that could be earmarked for a global climate fund.

African ministers request more funds, faster action

Several African ministers complained that not enough money has been committed to the enormous and long-term task of fighting deforestation, and they said funds already pledged should be quickly released.

Numerous funding programs are in the works and individual countries are moving ahead with their own programs to fight deforestation and educate local populations who live off forests — estimated at more than 1 billion worldwide — to do so in a sustainable way.

“Lots of things are happening everywhere, but there is no visibility, no transparency, there is no pilot,” said France’s environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo. “We need to know who is doing what and how.”

Managing and protecting forests must involve the people who live off them, Gabon Environment Minister Martin Mabala said.

“Forests are a planetary asset and no longer the concern of individual countries,” Mabala said.

Delegates to the Copenhagen conference did agree on a forest program known as REDD, for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, but a parallel program to protect tropical forests by having rich countries pay other nations concerned fell apart.

Thursday’s conference delegates were looking at an aspect of the REDD program, called REDD Plus, based on reducing emissions through good forest governance, protecting biological diversity and respect for the rights of indigenous people.

Six countries, including France and the other European leader on deforestation, Norway, have pledged $3.5 billion to the program through 2012.

Calling the Copenhagen conference “frustrating” in failing to reach a final deal, Sarkozy said the Paris delegates needed to advance what was agreed there to “give the world confidence” and “open the way to progress on other points” at the next global U.N. climate summit scheduled for December in Cancun, Mexico.

March 11, 2010
Desy Nurhayati
The Jakarta Post

Indonesia is intensifying efforts to map forest areas nationwide using remote-sensing satellite technology, to maximize on their role in absorbing greenhouse gas emissions, a seminar has heard.

The announcement was made Wednesday at the start of the three-day symposium of the 4th Asia-Pacific Global on Earth Observation System in Bali.

Attending the event are delegations from 26 member states of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

The forest observations, being conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan), is aimed at collecting data on forest coverage and monitoring changes in the areas, including pinpointing fire hot spots.

Lapan remote-sensing unit deputy head Nur Hidayat said Indonesia had teamed up with Australia for the project.

“We’re looking to reduce the number of forest and peatland fires by 20 percent a year, so we’re continuously observing forests using remote-sensing satellite technology,” he said.

“The number of hot spots can now be monitored in real time.

“We’re intensifying our annual monitoring of forests to collect reliable and accurate data that can be used to calculate the forest’s capacity to absorb carbon emissions.”

Data collected by the agency will be used to draft a recommendation for follow-up action from other agencies, Hidayat said.

Indonesia is targeting to cut carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, or 2.95 gigatons of CO2, 14 percent of it to come from the forestry sector.

The country’s total forest cover is 98.5 million hectares, according to Forestry Ministry estimates. Islands with the highest coverage include Papua, which is 33 percent forest, and Kalimantan with 27.8 percent.

Lapan liaison director Ratih Dewanti Dimyati said the partnership with Australia was aimed at providing data on land changes for Indonesia’s National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS).

INCAS is a joint forest carbon partnership program between the two countries to support Indonesia in providing significant and cost-effective reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by reducing deforestation, encouraging reforestation and promoting sustainable forest management.

“We’re currently in the process of updating the previous data on forest areas nationwide, and we expect to complete it by the end of this year,” she said.

“However, because this is still the early stage of the observation, we can’t say conclusively if there has been any increase in deforestation or the number of hot spots.”

The agency’s will crosscheck its findings with those from the Australian team, to ensure the accuracy.

Forest fires are common across the country, particularly in Kalimantan and Sumatra.

The number of hot spots in Central Kalimantan has fluctuated wildly over the past 13 years, says the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Indonesia.

In 2009, the figure was 4,860, up from 1,827 in the previous year and 2,793 in 2007.

Adianto P. Simamora
Source: The Jakarta Post
03/09/2010

The government has just issued two new regulations on forests, which could allow protected forests to be used for commercial purposes, including long-banned mining activities.

Under the regulations, conservation forests could also be converted to production forests, to be used for plantations of trees such as acacia.

“We are now waiting for a presidential decree to bring the regulations into force. A number of firms have applied for mining permits in protected forest areas,” a senior official at the Forestry Ministry, Bambang Mulyo, said Monday.

The government regulation No. 24 on the use of forest areas says mining firms can dig for natural resources deposited under protected and production forests.

Article 5 of the regulation stipulates that in protected areas, miners are only allowed to conduct underground mining that does not change the forest functions.

However, in production forests miners could use both open pit and underground mining techniques.
Indonesia currently has 31.6 million hectares of the protected forests, of which 10.6 million hectares is in Papua province.

The second-largest area of protected forests is in East Kalimantan (2.7 million hectares) and West Kalimantan (2.3 million hectares).

The government has allotted some 22.7 million hectares for production land that could be converted for business uses.

The 1999 Law on Forestry strongly prohibits mining activities in protected forest areas, be it open pit or underground mining. Under this law, mining is only allowed in production forest areas.

Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a decree to grant special licenses to 13 giant mining firms to operate open-pit mines in protected forest areas.

Among the 13 are PT Aneka Tambang in Southeast Sulawesi, PT Freeport Indonesia in Mimika, Papua, Karimun Granit in Riau, INCO in Sulawesi, Natarang Mining in Lampung, Nusa Halmahera Mineral in North Maluku, Pelsart Tambang Kencana in South Kalimantan, Interex Sacra Raya in East and South Kalimantan and Weda Bay Nickel in North Maluku.

Regulation No. 24 also stipulates that protected forests may now be used for non-forestry businesses serving strategic purposes.

“We will elaborate on these strategic goals with the Environment Ministry and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry,” Bambang said.

Greenomics Indonesia executive director Elfian Effendi warns that a blurred definition of strategic goals could mean more areas of protected forests are cleared in the name of development.

“The government needs to impose a moratorium on new permits for mining firms conducting open-pit mining in forest areas,” he said.

In addition to the mining sector, the ministry issued regulation No. 10 that allows for protected and conservation forests to be converted to production land, the first ever such policy in Indonesia.
Critics say the regulation may lead to open-pit mining in protected forest areas.

Bambang, however, said he would not allow this to happen. “While there are minerals deposited under the production land, license holders are not allowed to dig them up,” he said.

The government has long faced international pressure to improve its management of forests, with the current rate of deforestation at more than 1 million hectares a year.

Indonesia plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by 2020, of which 14 percent would be from stopping deforestation, combating illegal logging and controlling forest fires.

The government also pledged to plant 1 billion trees this year to re-green the country’s millions of hectares of degraded forest land.

Source: The Jakarta Post
March 2, 2010
By Adianto P. Simamora

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his United States counterpart President Barack Obama are slated to talk on climate change issues, and aiming to set up the first regional climate center in Indonesia. Under the plan, Indonesia will become a hub for scientific data and a training center on climate change issues for five countries in Southeast Asia — Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines and Indonesia — and 17 nations in the Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Timor Leste and Fiji.

“We hope the US will provide technical assistance, financing and technology transfer facilities to support the establishment of the regional center on climate change in Indonesia,” Yudhoyono’s special assistant on climate change Agus Purnomo said Monday. Obama, who spent a small part of his childhood in Jakarta, will visit the country this month.

Agus, who is also the National Council on Climate Change (DNPI) secretary, said the regional center would be a hub for climate information especially on issues related to oceans and forests as well as on mitigation and adaptation programs. He said Obama and Yudhoyono would also discuss a comprehensive partnership on capacity building and technology transfer to help more accurate forecasting of climate phenomenon in Indonesia. “We are in dire need of such technology to help us make more accurate forecasts on climate phenomenon. Many natural disasters — floods, landslides and harvest failures — in Indonesia reflected that without adequate technology it was harder to forecast events due to climate change,” he said.

Head of the climate change division at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Advin Aldrian said Indonesian officials, chaired by the Research and Technology Ministry, had visited Washington to discuss cooperation. “We have made a draft proposal to be submitted during Obama’s visit,” he said without elaborating. “However, the government plans to conduct more scientific research on oceans and forests and their role in climate change. The United States has increased their support to help us in this research,” he added. Indonesia led the way by formally tabling issues on oceans and climate change in Copenhagen last year.

During the global environment ministerial meeting in Bali last week, Yudhoyono was given an award by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for his leadership in promoting ocean and marine conservation and management. The US has provided financial assistance to implement the Coral Triangle Initiative agreed in the Manado summit last year. In terms of forestry, the US has provided funds to protect the forest including through the debt-for-nature scheme.

Both Indonesia and the US are currently negotiating a second deal in the debt-for-nature scheme by which funds would be used to help conserve forest areas in Indonesia. The two countries signed the first debt-for-nature deal last June, swapping US$30 million of Indonesia’s debt that could then be used to conserve around 7 million hectares of forest in Batang Gadis National Park in North Sumatra, Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Central Sumatra and Way Kambas National Park in Lampung.

March 07, 2010
Arti Ekawati
Source: The Jakarta Globe

Indonesia and Malaysian palm oil producers have agreed to jointly tackle challenging environmental and labor issues which threaten to hinder the development of the industry in both countries.

Producers have lately come under attack on a number of fronts. Environmentalists complain the growth of palm oil plantations contributes to deforestation, threatens wildlife and increases greenhouse gas emissions, while there has also been criticism of the industry’s use of underage labor.

Late on Friday, Indonesia and Malaysian signed a memorandum of understanding in which they agreed to collaborate and improve communication between producers in both countries to counter the impact of critics of the industry and also to improve sustainability.

“Through collaboration, hopefully we can face the negative campaign [against the industry] and the accusations of environmental damage,” said Indonesia’s Agriculture Minister Suswono, after the signing ceremony.

The world’s top palm oil producers, Indonesia and Malaysia together account for about 85 percent of global output.

Suswono cited Unilever’s suspension last year of palm oil purchases from PT Smart, after a report from Greenpeace which claimed the company did not use sustainable production processes, as an example of the type of situation where the industry would benefit from enhanced cooperation.

“It’s not fair,” he said. “In the future, if there are any accusations, we will immediately form an independent team to inspect the case. So that we, palm oil producers, will have a stronger bargaining position than the buyer.”

As part of the coordination efforts, six palm oil industry associations from Indonesia and Malaysia on Friday signed a memorandum of collaboration that will, among other things, establish a steering committee to advise the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an organization that issues certificates to palm oil producers that comply with certain environmental standards. A number of major palm oil buyers do not buy from companies that lack the certification.

Under the memorandum of collaboration, producers are also encouraged to develop sustainable plantation practices, including restoring land after it has been used for palm oil plantations.

Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok said environmental issues were being increasingly used to attack the palm oil industrys.

“There is no reason for palm oil producers in the two countries to not to cooperate and discuss issues of common interest,” he said.

Dato’ Mamat Salleh, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association’s chief executive, said the industry would face increased environmental challenges in the future.

One hurdle for the water-intensive industry was the development of so-called water footprints, a measure used to show how much water is used in the production of palm oil, he said.

“There will be new environmental issues, which could make palm oil plantations become more controversial in the future,” Dato said. “We need fair scientific research so that we can also improve our plantations,” he said.

Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) chairman Joefly J Bachroeny said the cooperation efforts were also aimed at helping Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil producers to improve sustainability.

March 6, 2010
Source: Antara News

Pontianak (ANTARA News) – Chief of Regional Police (Polda) West Kalimantan, Police Brigadier General Erwin TPL Tobing admitted there were practical illegal logging or illegal logging in Ketapang and Bengkayang.

“Logging the forest on a large scale as a few years ago, no longer exists. However, for small-scale logging and ‘` cat and mouse with police officers, still there, “Erwin said in Pontianak, Saturday.

He said it is difficult to eradicate the practice of illegal logging in the province, but because of the vast area that must be monitored, as well as lack of personnel Polda Kalbar.

“But the important this practice on a large scale could have suppressed, and our supervision gradually leads to a small practice,” he said.

According to him, the difficulty of pressing these illegal practices because most people are still dependent of the wood.

In addition, the wood raw material for development in West Kalimantan is still the main choice, compared to iron and cement.

Previously, the results of investigations Institute of Research and Regional Information Flow Studies (LPS-AIR) Kalbar for five days in December 2009 and early 2010 in District Bengkayang Ketapang and still find the rampant illegal logging activities.

Director of Water Demand LPS-agram, Monday (8 / 2) and said it lowered the five members to conduct investigations in the village of Sahan, Seluas District, and Village Semunying Jaya, District Jagoibabang, Bengkayang, and still found a widespread activity.

“The results of our investigation team on the field,` `illegal logging began to bloom since 1977 until now, but the amount of lumber has dropped dramatically, due to simultaneous logging without replanting,” he said.

He mentioned that the mode of public finance brokers around to harvest timber, and then sold to these brokers.

Meanwhile, in the village of Semunying Jaya, District JAGOI BABANG activity also occurred illegal logging indigenous villages in the forest area of 2380 hectares it, and now lives 930 hectares due to illegal logging.

“The results of illegal sale to Malaysia, because the distance tinggal 1 – 2 hours journey,” he said.

Fever said the results of investigations in the field, the opening of oil palm plantation mode only to harvest timber. After the wood out, they left the site.

In Ketapang District, an investigative team from LPS-AIR Tanjungpura down to the village, Muara Pawan, Princess River Village Matan Hilir district, and district Delta Pawan, 23 to 27 December 2009.

“In these three locations we also found that the practice of illegal logging logging cerucuk (child wood) and wood processing,” he said.

He hoped the police did not relax their surveillance of illegal logging in West Kalimantan Province. “Because, if allowed, did not rule Kalbar in the next five years will experience a crisis of wood,” he said.

Impact studies show for first time that European policymakers are worried about impact on tropical forests, wetlands and savannah.

By Pete Harrison, Reuters
Mar 04 2010
Source: MNN

BRUSSELS – Biodiesel and other “green” fuels that Europeans put in their cars can have unintended consequences for tropical forests and wetlands, European Union reports show — the first evidence of EU misgivings.

The EU aims for its 500 million citizens to get about a tenth of their road fuels from renewable sources such as biofuels by 2020, but some EU officials want the target reduced in a review in four years.

Modeling exercises are starting to show unwanted impacts spreading across the planet via commodity markets.

“The simulated effects of EU biofuels policies imply a considerable shock to agricultural commodity markets,” warns one draft report produced to advise policymakers.

“Current and future support of biofuels…is likely to accelerate the expansion of land under crops, particularly in Latin America and Asia,” warns another, one of 116 documents released to Reuters under freedom of information laws. More are still awaited.

“It carries the risk of significant and hardly reversible environmental damages,” adds the draft.

The warnings are not new. Environmentalists have been making them for years.

But the impact studies and e-mails show for the first time that European policymakers are also seriously worried about the impact on tropical forests, wetlands and savannah. However, they are struggling to quantify the likely damage.

“The large amount of documents and their detailed content show the Commission have been considering indirect land use change impacts very seriously,” said a spokeswoman for European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger.

“There is no definitive and official answer on the size or character of this issue at this stage,” she added.

Lobbyists from bioethanol industry group, ebio, have seized on the confusion, demanding policymakers “reject the concept.”

Meanwhile, in the European Commission, which instigates EU policy, officials are split over the wisdom of continuing with a target that was set in 2008 and already prompted billions of dollars of investment globally.

One internal letter from an agriculture official warns that taking account of the full carbon footprint of biofuels could “kill” an EU industry worth about 5 billion euros a year ($6.8 billion).

Land use change
At the center of the debate is an issue drily referred to as “indirect land use change,” which has put palm oil producers in Malaysia and Indonesia in the cross-hairs of environmentalists.

Critics say that regardless of where they are grown, biofuels compete for land with food crops, forcing farmers worldwide to expand into areas never farmed before — sometimes by hacking into tropical rain forest or draining peatlands.

Satisfying the EU’s thirst for biofuels would need 5.2 million hectares of land by 2020, reads one report — a bigger area than the Netherlands. But where to find that land?

Burning forests to clear the land can pump vast quantities of climate-warming emissions into the atmosphere, cancelling out any theoretical climate benefit from the fuel. Iconic species such as orangutans are also put under renewed pressure.

“Many decades may be needed before the initial induced carbon losses are compensated by the savings due to greater biofuel use,” reads one draft study by agriculture experts.

Draining peatlands can have a similar impact as soils rot and release methane gas into the atmosphere.

If just 2.4 percent of European biofuels came from palm oil grown on former peatlands, for example in Indonesia, the entire climate benefits of EU biodiesel would be wiped out, says a report by the Commission’s own research center.

“The problems are only going to get worse unless the EU rewrites its law to allow only biofuels that bring benefits to be sold in Europe,” said campaigner Nusa Urbancic at environment group T&E. “This information must be brought out into the open so there can be a proper debate.”

If the issue wasn’t complicated enough, policymakers will have to take account of numerous mitigating factors.

Increased demand for the cereals and oil seeds from which biofuels are made does not always result in farmers expanding agricultural land.

Sometimes they can increase yield by using fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation.

Pressure on the land can also be relieved by using the spent grains from biofuels to feed animals — substituting some of the maize or other feed grains that might have otherwise been grown.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)