REDD Regulation in Indonesia

Mohamad Rayan. Clipping.

RI ready for REDD application to cut carbon

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Fri, 05/22/2009 1:22 PM Headlines

Indonesia is set to benefit from forest carbon trade as the reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) scheme will likely be included in the post-Kyoto Protocol regime.
After becoming the first country to issue regulation on REDD, Indonesia, the world's third-largest forest country, with about 120 million hectares of rainforest, is ready to invite the international community to take part in the country's forest carbon trading.

A ministerial decree signed by Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban states indigenous people, local authorities, private organizations and businesspeople both local and foreign are allowed to run REDD projects in the country's forests.

"We are the first country with regulation on the REDD mechanism," Nur Masripatin, a senior Forestry Ministry official dealing with the REDD, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
The decree says permits for REDD projects will be given to people or groups that have ownership certificates in managing forests.

Project developers are required to submit proposals to the Forestry Ministry for approval.
Nur said the ministry would set up a REDD commission to assess all project proposals within 14 days before the minister could approve or reject the projects.

"Project developers who secure licenses should start the REDD project within 90 days at the latest after the approval," she said.

Delegates from all over the world will gather in Copenhagen this December to decide whether the REDD should be included in a new climate pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Once agreed upon, forest nations, including Indonesia, could raise billions of dollars by trading the carbon sink in forests to developed nations to help them meeting emissions cut targets.
Estimates vary but annual revenue from REDD credits could reach between US$5 billion and $20 billion, the UN says.

Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, said the REDD would very likely be included in the Copenhagen climate pact.
"It's very likely we'll see REDD included in the Copenhagen agreement," he said as quoted by Reuters.

Debate still rages over whether a REDD scheme, once all the measuring, monitoring and verification systems have been agreed upon, should be funded entirely by the market, only by public funds or a mixture of both.

"If REDD is to be brought under a market-based approach, then questions of volume and what that volume would do to price are also an issue," de Boer said.
WWF-Indonesia hailed the new REDD regulation as positive action in dealing with climate change.

"It's a good starting point, but the decree has yet to answer crucial issues like the total greenhouse gas emissions that could be slashed through REDD projects," WWF-Indonesia climate change program director Fitrian Ardiansyah told the Post.

Senior Finance Ministry research officer Noeroso L. Wahyudi said the government had not yet decided whether the carbon credit revenue would be taxed as income or as a commodity.