REDD and Good Governance

Good governance ‘key to effective REDD’

Mohamad Rayan, clipper

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta Mon, 06/08/2009 9:49 AM National
Paying people to protect forests will effectively help reduce deforestation and ease climate change only if recipient countries practice good governance in natural resources management, according to a recent study.

The study’s researchers stressed that where governance was weak, there were risks that elites would divert the flow of funds to themselves while poor local communities with weak land tenure would lose out.

“Effective and equitable governance will be the key to successful payment schemes,” Ivan Bond, lead author and also a senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), said in the report made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday.
“Unfortunately, governance tends to be weakest in the very places where deforestation is greatest. Communities need clear land rights if they are to gain from payments that flow to their countries in return for forest protection.”

The study, jointly conducted by researchers at IIED, Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Resource Institute (WRI), took place in forest nations including Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil and Mexico. Funded by the Norwegian government, the study was published as delegates from about 190 countries meet in Bonn for an international conference that will last until June 12, 2009, to hammer out a new regime of emission reduction to address the climate change.

The conference will also discuss the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) mechanism.
The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) admitted the implementation of good governance in the forest resources management remained weak due to Indonesia’s disputes over forest ownership.

“It is urgent to settle which sides should take account for forests and their management so that we can practice good governance,” Bappenas director of forestry and water resources conservation Basah Hernowo told the Post.

The Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) said earlier the lack of clear status for indigenous peoples and local communities managing the country’s forests would become the main obstacle in implementing the REDD mechanism in Indonesia.

The 1999 forestry law stipulates all forested lands are state-owned and allows local communities and indigenous people to take wood from the forests for their daily needs.
Basah said the government would discuss a policy of financial sharing under the REDD after the Bonn conference, which was expected to outline the funding mechanism and the monitoring system, the main issues that would be decided during the Copenhagen conference in December.
Meanwhile, another study said selling carbon in Kalimantan tropical rainforests could also protect orangutans, pygmy elephants and other wildlife facing extinction.

“Our study clearly demonstrates that payments made to reduce carbon emissions from forests, could also be an efficient and effective way to protect biodiversity,” said Oscar Venter, the study’s lead author and also a biologist at the University of Queensland in Australia.
CIFOR director general, Frances Seymour, who also took part in the study, said the new data should help make the case that forests have to be part of the solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.