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Late last year Indonesia made global headlines with a bold pledge to reduce deforestation, which claimed nearly 28 million hectares (108,000 square miles) of forest between 1990 and 2005 and is the source of about 80 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia would voluntarily cut emissions 26 percent — and up to 41 percent with sufficient international support — from a projected baseline by 2020.

mongabay.com: The moratorium seems to have caught some by surprise–is that why were are hearing mixed messages out of some of the ministries?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: There are no mixed messages. The moratorium is for new (repeat new) concessions on primary natural forests and peat lands, for two years. The highlight of the news that the government is ‘trigger happy’ in canceling existing concession is misleading. Those who are reacting to such news are misled or perhaps have interests in mind to utilize certain remaining peat lands or getting the timber out from primary natural forests on the pretext of developing palm oil or timber plantation.

The serious forestry and plantation companies are supportive to this moratorium policy, which has been in practice for the past eight months. There are of course, the rouge minority members of palm oil or timber plantation associations, just like any interest groups in society. We are hoping that the healthy open debate, through the media, will enable those elements to adjust to the grand strategy of sustainable forest management and sustainable plantations that the government is seriously implementing for the years to come.

mongabay.com: Do you have any clarification on the status of existing forestry concessions under the moratorium? Is there a possibility that permit holders would be offered the option of swapping holdings on natural forest lands?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: The moratorium on new concessions will be effective in 2011. During this phase, Indonesia will place a two-year moratorium on issuing new concessions for the conversion of peat lands and primary natural forests. Any business activities including plantations, mining or agriculture that secured permits before the year 2011 will be excluded from the moratorium. They can continue with their plans but still have to comply to the rules that have been issued prior to the moratorium such as the restriction of conversion for peat lands with more than 3 meters depth.

Forestry industries, forest management and agriculture activities can continue under their existing licenses. For their planned expansions, the government will provide information on available degraded forests as well as non-forest land where such development can take place.

International cooperation, such as the Indonesia-Norway partnership, can help improve the sustainability of our palm oil production by redirecting the expansion of the industry to fertile areas on already-deforested mineral soils.

There are detail implementation policies that the government will develop in consultation with the industries and civil society, to utilize degraded forest lands for the expansion of the forest and agriculture concessions, including the possibility of land swap on existing concessions.

mongabay.com: What about in cases where a developer does not hold a valid permit to develop peatlands or natural forest? Can these lands be seized?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: All players will have to follow the rules of the land. If they do not have a valid permit to develop peat lands or primary natural forests, then they won’t be allowed to continue with their plans. According to the Ministry of Forestry, there have been no new permits issued to convert primary natural forests or peat lands since last year.

The government will take careful steps in solving conflicts of land use and land holdings. Upholding due process of laws will be of paramount importance in our efforts to reduce illegal conversions and occupations of forests and peat lands.

mongabay.com: Will Norwegian funds be used to promote development of abandoned agricultural lands and alang alang grasslands for plantations?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: Bilateral negotiation on details of what can be funded will start soon. From the government of Indonesia point of view, degraded lands, such as abandoned agricultural lands and alang-alang grasslands, are valuable economic resources that will be developed for the welfare of its people.

mongabay.com: Norway has indicated its funds will not support Indonesia’s previously announced plan to reforest more than 20 million hectares of land. How much of this reforestation was to be plantations? Would any of the area be reforested using a diverse mix of native tree species?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: Norway money will fund a variety of projects at different levels, the many different kinds of projects needed to move our economy onto a low-carbon growth pathway. Some might be grassroots efforts for sustainable development, say through microfinance for local communities. Some money will go into traditional provincial-level development projects to help create a low-carbon infrastructure. Other funds could help smallholders improve productivity, or give incentives to palm oil companies to swap their forest concessions for a concession on degraded land.

Some of the money will be used in early stages to establish the necessary infrastructure of climate friendly development, improving our spatial planning systems, so that all parties have access to accurate data, developing our capacity and raising public awareness. It will also use to help create a system to verify and account for carbon emissions reductions.

In the first two phases of the Partnership, the focus will be on developing REDD+ at the level of one or two provinces. Local community organizations in the selected province/s will have access to the funds through the new REDD+ Agency. When we have full scale or nation-wide REDD+ implementation, local community organizations that are dependent to forest resources and peat lands can propose programs that will be funded through the Agency, from the Norwegian and other international sources of funding.

mongabay.com: Does the moratorium include a ban on new logging concessions?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: The moratorium will apply to new application of logging concession on primary natural forests or natural peat lands. The suspension of issuance of new concessions is a blanket one and it will be applied to all relevant parties. We are being transparent in announcing it ahead of time.

mongabay.com: Agus, given your work with Transparency International you are well aware of the pervasiveness of corruption in the forestry sector. Will any of the Norwegian money go towards improving transparency in land use policy?

Agus Purnomo: The Norwegian fund, at the later stage, will be a payment upon delivery of verified emission reductions. Some of the reductions will come from settlements of land use conflicts, including the development of database for degraded lands. Such implementation actions will be eligible for international funding, including the Norwegian fund.

Corruption is rampant in the last decades of Indonesian development, though the latest independent surveys on corruption in Indonesia have came with encouraging pictures of steady and significant improvements on good governance practices. The Human Rights Watch 2009 report acknowledged

improvements in forestry management under the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and significant successes in anti-corruption efforts have resulted in gains in Indonesia’s score on World Bank measures of control of corruption (Indonesia’s score nearly doubled from 2003 to 2007). The passing of a Freedom of Information Act and the establishment of an independent financial intelligence unit, the Center for Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis (Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisa Transaksi Keuangan, or PPATK), along with recent anti-money laundering legislation and bank regulations for identifying high-risk customers and suspicious-transaction reporting are also positive development.

We welcomed the recommendations from the above report on strengthening anti-corruption efforts in the forestry and plantation sectors and have started a stronger coordination among law enforcement agencies to prevent the worsening of deforestation and forest degradation, as well reducing revenue losses from mismanagement and corrupted practices of the sectors.

mongabay.com: Apart from what has already been discussed, what are the biggest obstacles to reducing deforestation in Indonesia?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: The complexity in managing forest resources in Indonesia is high. We have a different set of challenges in managing our forests, in comparison to Brazil. Brazil’s biggest challenge on forestry issue is cattle ranching, while Indonesia’s challenges are illegal logging, oil palm expansion, forest fires, forest and peat lands conversion for economic development activities.

The oil palm and paper-pulp plantation industries are globally important industries, and extremely important for Indonesian livelihoods. Oil palm is important to world food supplies, as it is the most efficient of the edible oilseeds. It has the potential to be a useful biofuel. Palm oil growers are ahead of all the other edible oilseed growers in North America and Europe in setting standards for sustainability. But it is also true that the industry is contributing to today’s deforestation, an important source of carbon emissions, and which has many additional environmental costs to Indonesia.

In fact we believe we have enough land for the growth of this industry, suitable and fertile land that has already been cleared or has been degraded in other ways. The question is how to shift new plantations onto this degraded land, in an economically rational way. The two-year suspension comes in the second phase of our agreement, and it will allow us to work with the industry and focus our efforts on moving this industry onto a sustainable footing. Changes in regulatory regime may also be required to rationalize our spatial planning. Such efforts will increase the certainty for investors and help us secure long-term markets for our exports.

We can create improved livelihoods in Indonesia through sustainable agricultural expansion while reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

Decentralization is another key issue, requiring coherence in planning at all levels. The Indonesia-Norway partnership will add more momentum to this alignment process. 

Local community participation in managing low-carbon development and the new REDD-Plus agency is enshrined in the cooperative framework. Empowerment and involvement of local communities is at the heart of economic development and we recognized the role that local communities can play in preventing deforestation and stewarding the environment.

mongabay.com: Last week Obama canceled his June trip to Indonesia. Despite this set back, what role can the U.S. play in helping Indonesia protect its forests?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: There are a number of ways that the US can help Indonesia in furthering the forest and climate initiative, such as: creating a regional facility on climate change that can provide scientific, technical and management system supports for various climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. The on-going discussion between the US and Indonesia on establishing a Regional Climate Change Center would be a concrete support to strengthen the Indonesian plan to implement REDD+ and to deliver emission reductions of 26% from the projected emissions in 2020.

The US can also provide data and technical support through their remote sensing and mapping agencies, such as NASA and USGS, to the – about to be created – independent MRV Agency. Such provision of data can increase the accuracy and credibility of the Indonesian MRV Agency, which in turn will improve in the implementation of REDD+ and other mitigation actions.

The dissemination of information from the REDD+ Agency (also to be created) and feedback from the MRV Agency to the communities and local governments with forests and peat lands is another possible support from the US. Through real and effective actions on the ground we can prevent deforestation, forest degradation, fires, illegal logging and conversions.

mongabay.com: Do consumers in Europe and the U.S. have a role to play in ensuring raw materials are sourced sustainably in countries like Indonesia?

Agus Purnomo and Yani Saloh: A lot of deforestation and forest degradation are market-driven, and the consumers in Europe and the US are part of the problem. Especially European and US consumers are encouraging deforestation with their reluctance to pay a small additional price for sustainably sourced forest products. Certified timber products have minimum incentive to improve sustainable forest management because of the lack of premium price.

A boycott of all Indonesian forest products will further increase pressures on the remaining forests because loggers and local communities in the forests will have to cut more trees, and thus increase deforestation, to supply the cheap East Asia market for their subsistence.

The project has been created by the WWF and Sky to encourage British people to take a greater interest in the conservation of the worlds largest and most bio diverse rainforest, and support Sky Rainforest Rescue.

It is hoped that as a result of the project one billion trees will be saved from deforestation in the Brazilian state of Acre.

Visitors will be given the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Amazon rainforest as they are guided through a 3D tour, all for free.

The Pod commences its tour at the Hay Festival in Wales before travelling across the UK, visit the Sky Rainforest Rescue website to find out when it is coming to a location near you.

Groundwork

Before any real action can be taken, the partnership will first lay the groundwork of strategies and infrastructure that will ensure that future actions will be effective.

Funds will therefore initially be devoted to finalizing Indonesia’s climate and forest strategy, building and institutionalizing capacity to monitor, report and verify reduced emissions, and putting in place enabling policies and institutional reforms.

A two-year suspension on new concessions on conversion of natural forests and peat lands into plantations also will be implemented as part of the agreement.

Expansion

By 2014, the plan is to move to expand the project out, with an Indonesian-wide instrument of funding contributions. This funding will only remain in place if verified emission reductions can be produced.

Funds will be managed by an internationally reputable financial institution according to international fiduciary, governance, environmental and social standards.

Key Meeting

The announcement of this partnership came as more than 30 governments today meet to discuss a first-time partnership at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference to advance REDD+ activities this year.

“This partnership is a key step in developing a workable framework for reducing emissions from deforestation in Indonesia,” said Fitrian Ardiansyah, Climate and Energy Program Director of WWF-Indonesia.”

Rasmus Hansson, CEO of WWF-Norway, concurred with the sentiments coming from his Indonesian counterpart:

“Indonesia’s agreement with Norway to big reductions in deforestation is a groundbreaking achievement in the work to combat climate change. This commitment to halting destructive forest and land use by one of the world’s key forest countries promises to directly limit global CO2 emissions.”

Safeguarding

“This agreement sets an inspiring example of responsible climate cooperation between developing and industrialised nations,” said Hansson, “To WWF, it is of particular importance that the partners recognise that forest conservation is about much more than CO2 emissions. Safeguarding ecosystems, biodiversity and indigenous peoples’ livelihoods is an absolute prerequisite for making this work – and obviously a crucial benefit in itself.”

Atlantic Rainforest

Located in the Great Pavilion at Chelsea, the WLT exhibit recreates a tiny corner of the Atlantic Rainforest, displaying sustainably-sourced species native to the Atlantic Rainforest, and orchids on loan from the National Collection of Bonnet Orchids held by Chester Zoo.

Window to the Outside World

The main focal point of the exhibit is the Ranger’s Hut which has a ‘window to the outside world’ in Brazil, showing live streaming via webcam from the Atlantic Rainforest at the WLT supported Guapi Assu Reserve. Interpretative information featuring WLT’s partners and the Atlantic Rainforest projects were also well received.

Goodie News for the Rainforest

Bill Oddie represented the WLT on the opening Press Day of the show, after having travelled to Brazil with WLT’s John Burton to see first hand both the wonders of the Atlantic Rainforest and how it is being saved by the Trust’s project partners in Brazil and Argentina.

The Atlantic rainforest, which once stretched through the very south of Brazil and into Argentina and Paraguay, has all but disappeared – with 93 per cent cleared by humans. You can help the World Land Trust to protect our remaining rainforests by saving an acre with them today.

Questioned

Despite finding oil palm to be the most profitable crop for small scale producers, when applied to biodiesel production the efficacy of the crop was questioned due to its traditional use in food products and the possible negative impact on food security and prices of derived foods.

Positive

A life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted for biofuel production within the environmental impact portion of the study. Taking energy efficiency and Green House Gas reduction into consideration, as well as other environmental aspects including soil use and degradation, and use of fertilisers and pesticides;  it was found that oil palm and jatropha crops had the most positive environmental impact in agriculture upon already deforested land with scarce vegetation.

WWF help to fund and undertake studies into the possible environmental impact of development around the world. Help them to carry on doing so by joining today.

The World Land Trust protect the world’s most important ecosystems by offering protection for rainforest around the globe. Invest in the future of the world by buying an acre of rainforest with the WLT today.

Lots of Rainforest

Over 35% of the country is covered by Amazonian rainforest, totalling around 480,000 square kilometres.

Raid Acceleration

The study involved analysis of detailed satellite images to measure the rate of deforestation that found gradual deforestation throughout most of the 20^th century that accelerated rapidly through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

Some Protection

Even though a figure such as 40,000 square kilometres being lost is concerning, Columbia’s record for deforestation is better than many in South America.

One of the chief causes of deforestation in Columbia is livestock farming, which is not as damaging as some other reasons for clearing rainforest. There are also many parts of the Columbian rainforest designated as indigenous reserves that are protected by law and because of this logging activity has not been allowed to spread as unilaterally as seen in other regions.

In Brazil for instance, a cut in logging by 7,000 square kilometres per year, has failed to prevent the country from having one of the highest rates of deforestation in South American.

Later this Year

The same team that collected the data for this report hopes to provide similar information for the years 2007 to 2009 by the end of this year.

Blockades

The people of Penan have seen their once vast swathes of land greatly reduced over the last few years and so, determined to fight for the conservation of their last virgin jungle they set up blockades of two strategic locations.

Withdrawn

According to Penan sources, the blockades have forced the Samling logging corporation to withdraw its bulldozers from the disputed community lands of Long Sabai and Ba Kerameu.

Reservations

This is a key victory as the two communities are part of the Penan Peace Park, a self-administered 163,000 hectare nature reserve launched in November 2009 that has been the subject of increased encroachment from logging companies.

A Battle on Many Fronts

But the joy of victory can only be short-lived, as the battle to save their lands continues on many other fronts. The Penan are reporting that Samling continues to trespass on their lands in other regions. Two written warnings have been issued against Samling subsidiary Jerinai to stop logging in the Ba Jawi watershed, a high conservation value rainforest near the Indonesian border.

Furthermore, the company has recently taken up helicopter logging within within the communal boundaries of Long Ajeng in the Upper Baram region.

Environmentally Destructive

Samling is a Hong Kong-listed timber giant. The corporation has a track record of environmentally destructive and illegal logging in a number of countries, including Cambodia, Guyana, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

We Just Don’t Have the Power…

Unfortunately, good news stories such as this are rare, and local communities are not usually able to hold out for long against the large logging companies unless they receive support from outside sources.

There has been a 23 percent increase in Amazon deforestation in the six months upto the end of February 2010 compared with the same period last year.

Not a Typo

Environmentalists are currently as confused as you will be reading these figures, with the conflicting reports on the state of deforestation coming from two different organisations who both monitor the South American rainforest.

The Sources

The more optimistic figure is courtesy of the Brazil’s National Space Agency INPE, who estimate that nearly 1360 sq km of forest was cleared from August 2009 to February 2010, down from 2,800 sq km a year earlier.

The other figure comes from Imazon, an independent organization that aims to improve forest transparency through advanced analysis of satellite imagery and other tools.

Difficult

Intra-year estimates for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon are notoriously difficult to assess due to cloud cover, distinctions between degradation and deforestation, seasonal variations, and other variables. Imazon believe that their figures are more accurate, and claim that a previous miscalculation on the part of the Space Agency has skewed their latest figure.

Degradation or Deforestation?

Carlos Souza, a researcher with Imazon who was last week honoured with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship together with his colleague Beto Verissimo, attributes the discrepancy to “differences in estimates of deforestation in August and September last year when INPE’s results were much higher than ours.”

Souza told mongabay.com that INPE’s tracking system captured a lot of forest degradation as deforestation during the period, inflating its overall tally for forest loss. The agency’s estimates that nearly 1360 square kilometers of forest were cleared from August 2009 to February 2010, down from early 2,800 sq km a year earlier. By comparison, Imazon puts the total around 924 sq km, up from 749 sq km a year earlier.

Good News

Nevertheless deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continues to trend downward since peaking in 2004. The decline is attributed to new interest among business leaders in reducing deforestation, new forestry policies and increased vigilance against illegal logging and agriculture, expansion of the country’s protected area network, and a stronger real.

Confident of Brazil’s progress in controlling deforestation, in 2008 President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva announced a plan to reduce annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon 70 percent from a 1996-2005 baseline by 2018 as part of the country’s climate change commitment.

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

The proposal includes the building of what would be the third largest dam in the world. This would divert the flow of Xingu River—a tributary of the Amazon River— which in turn would flood 500 square kilometres of pristine rainforest. As well as the hugely damaging implications for wildlife in the rainforest, it is estimated that 12,000 indigenous people living in the area would be forced to relocate, while wider effects of changing the ecosystem could negatively impact 45,000 indigenous people who depend on the river.

No Stopping It

Courts had previously forced a suspension of the project, the most recent of which came last Friday. Judge Antonio Carlos de Almeida Campelo suspended the dam’s preliminary license, writing in his decision that “it remains proven, unequivocally, that Belo Monte’s plant will exploit the hydroelectric potential of areas occupied by Indigenous people who would be directly affected by the construction and development of the project.” But as happened with the previous suspension, developers quickly managed to overturn the decision.

Not Giving Up The Fight

Yesterday, Sheyla Yakarepi Juruna urged the President of the Appellate Court for Region 1, Jirair Meguerian, to uphold the second injunction on the dam, and insisted that they would continue to oppose the plans.

“The Lula government is clearly pressuring the courts to approve Belo Monte against the rights and interests of indigenous people and the local populations of the Xingú, and it’s our lives at stake. Even so, the people affected by this dam are united and determined to stop the project, we will not give up this fight,”

Real Life Avatar?

Director James Cameron recently brought international attention to the issue after travelling to Brazil and visiting some of the indigenous groups the dam will impact. Cameron’s most recent film, Avatar, is the science-fiction story of an alien group living in harmony with their jungle planet who are forced to fight off a human-run corporation bent on mining the fragile ecosystem.

“Avatar was based on real but abstract stories. It came out of articles in National Geographic and documentaries on TV,” Cameron told the AFP. “But after meeting the indigenous people of the Amazon with whom we communicated very clearly and emotionally, it’s real for me. And it’s personal.” Cameron said he would like to film some of the indigenous tribes he met with in Brazil “and let the world see how they live in harmony with the forest.”

Protests

According to the environmental organization, International Rivers, protests against the dam in nine Brazilian cities were going forward today. Indigenous people were also arriving to the proposed dam site on Pimental Island on the Xingu River to establish a permanent village in an effort to block any dam construction.

Seismic Lines

Repsol YPF, a Spanish-Argentine oil company, plans to cut 454 kilometres (282 miles) of seismic lines and construct 152 heliports in a territory of the Peruvian rainforest known to be home to uncontacted indigenous peoples.

Troubled History

Anglo-French company Perencho has already discovered oil deposits in this area – which is known as Lot 39 – and has submitted plans to build a pipeline in the area, while Peruvian indigenous rights group, AIDESEP, has previously sued companies working in this area.

A Common Problem

Indigenous tribes that have had little or no contact with the outside world are especially vulnerable to disease, since they have not developed immunity to a variety of even common illnesses.

“What would the uncontacted Indians in this region make of seismic lines and heliports? They’re likely to respond in one of two ways—either by fleeing, or by attacking people they will view as hostile invaders. Either way, the consequences will be profoundly damaging. Repsol and the Peruvian authorities should know by now that you simply can’t look for oil in rainforest belonging to uncontacted Indians in a safe manner,” says Stephen Corry, director of Survival International

Unspoilt

As well as uncontacted tribes, Lot 39 was shown in a recent study as being one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Unspoilt areas of rainforest such as this are becoming rarer, and small even small concessions to development often have a much larger impact with one ruling by a regional government often triggering others to follow suit. This decision could therefore prove crucial for the protection of our remaining pristine areas of biodiversity.

The Frontline

Hutan, in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, are one of WLT’s key partners in Borneo, an area that is on the frontline in the battle to protect key rainforest ecosystems from development. In association with the Sabah Wildlife Department, Hutan installed a number of rope bridges across tributaries of the Kinabatangan in order to reconnect fragments of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary (LKWS) for Orang-utans.

Isolation

These bridges have become necessary because the large trees that provided natural bridges over wetland and river tributaries have been lost in deforestation, and also because drains built by palm oil producers, leading to the mighty Kinabatangan River, have further fragmented the forest.

The effect of this fragmentation is that Orangutan populations that previously could travel and mix freely with each other, were becoming increasingly isolated, which is believed to be one of the reasons behind the dramatic fall in numbers the species has experienced.

Last, but not least

The rope bridges were a simple solution but until this year there had been no recordings of Orang-utans using them, even though other endangered primate species, such as macaques, Proboscis Monkeys and gibbons have been benefitting from them.

First Evidence

But a young male was photographed by Ajiran Osman – a member of the local community with an interest in wildlife – as it ventured into the unknown in search of new habitat.

Mr Osman said that the red ape appeared to be weighing up whether to cross the bridge or not, lingering for about twenty minutes before deciding to take the plunge, “It seemed like once he decided to cross, he did so very fast, going over in about three minutes.”

Orang-utans have occasionally been reputed to have crossed man-made bridges, but this is the first official evidence.

A Bleak Future Without Our Help

A recent “Population Viability Analysis” concluded that most of the 20 sub-populations of Orang-utans throughout the fragments of the LKWS will go extinct in the foreseeable future unless their forest habitats are reconnected.

WLT continues to raise funds for the purchase of critically important wildlife corridors in the area that will permanently connect standing forests and protect them in perpetuity.

The work of GESG is a great conservation success story, with local communities at the heart of its success. It is believed to be one of the largest community-run natural protected areas on Earth.

Working with 100,000 inhabitants across 638 communities, GESG are involved with a variety of activities from land purchase to education to recycling.

These efforts are going towards protecting what is a hotspot for biodiversity. The reserve spans around a million acres and its secrets are still being uncovered. It is known to hold 10 different vegetation types, six species of cat, as many as 327 species of bird and just recently 22 species new to science have been discovered.

To date WLT has funded the purchase of 1,780 acres of habitat within the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, as well as providing support for the reserve’s carbon programme. This year WLT hopes to raise funds to offer further support to GESG’s land purchase programme.