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Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI) and Friends of the Earth Australia put out a press release today strongly criticising an A$30 million Australia-Indonesia REDD project in Sumatra, which was announced last week. WALHI and PPJ (United Farmers of Jambi) have also produced a position paper on the project and REDD in Jambi.
Three straws in the wind: Two pieces of policy news and a new piece of research. Two weeks ago, a leaked document from the EU revealed that the European Commission and some member states hope to include oil palm plantations in the definition of forests. Yesterday, the Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry is drafting a decree to reclassify oil palm plantations as “forests”.
The Ulu Masen project covers an area of 770,000 hectares in Aceh province in the north of Sumatra. The project aims to generate 3.3 million carbon credits a year to finance conservation and development projects for local communities. To find out more, REDD-Monitor interviewed Joe Heffernan of Flora & Fauna International and David Gaveau of the University of Kent in England.
Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono likes to make promises. Particularly at international meetings. At last year’s G-8 summit in Japan, Yudhoyono committed to reducing carbon emissions from deforestation by 50 per cent by the end of this year, 74 per cent by 2012 and 95 per cent by 2025. This year, at the G-20 summit in the USA, he said, “I do believe that it is much better for all of us to have our own targets, timeline and action plan which we can constantly update and improve.” Yudhoyono updated his targets on reducing deforestation, but he certainly did not improve them.
“We cannot decide whether we would accept or not because we have had no information at all,” Jajang Kurniawan a farmer in West Java told film makers LifeMosaic. “The name of the programme is very foreign to us. What is this REDD? What kind of animal is it, we just don’t know.” LifeMosaic is a film-making organisation that aims “to support indigenous peoples in exercising their right to obtain information before large-scale developments occur on their territories, and to decide freely – without coercion – whether they want to accept or refuse these developments.” LifeMosaic has produced four short films bringing indigenous peoples’ voices to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) in December 2009.
A few weeks ago, the Jakarta Post reported the dangers of “fake carbon brokers” in Indonesia. “They offer pledges that say the regencies or cities will get a lot of money from REDD projects but they provide no programs,” Wandojo Siswanto from the Forestry Ministry told the Jakarta Post. “Regents and mayors in Kalimantan and Sumatra have been offered such promises. But … not a single cent goes to local administrations.” A new report by Human Rights Watch highlights another risk associated with carbon trading in Indonesia: corruption. HRW estimates that every year, the Indonesian government loses US$2 billion as a result of corruption, illegal logging and mismanagement. Indonesia stands to gain billions of REDD dollars, but as HRW research consultant Emily Harwell points out, “The solution to corruption and poor governance is not more money.”
The Australian government is one of the most enthusiastic promoters of using market mechanisms to finance REDD. The reason? Australia wants REDD to create a loophole in any climate deal large enough to allow emissions to continue in Australia. A new report by Friends of the Earth Australia and Aid/Watch exposes the flaws in the Australian government’s REDD plans. The report, “What a Scam! Australia’s REDD offsets for Copenhagen,” which is endorsed by WALHI and Serikat Petani Indonesia, concludes that “The Australian REDD offset model breaches Australia’s international obligations, and is a scam: it is not aimed at reducing deforestation, but at creating a source of cheap credits for increased emissions in Australia.”
A Declaration produced during a recent meeting in Papua demands that “All forms of activities and initiatives for carbon trade and carbon compensation which do not recognize the rights of adat community in land of Papua should be stopped.” From 19-21 November 2009, more than 200 participants attended the Congress, “Save The People and Forests of Papua”, organised by the Papua NGO Cooperation Forum (Foker LSM Papua). People from seven indigenous territories in Papua, Mamberamo Tami, Saireri, Bomberay, Domberay, La Pago, Mee Pago and Anim Ha, took part, including Indigenous Peoples, Religious Leaders and CSO activists.
Two days ago, Greenpeace set up a Climate Defenders Camp on the Kampar Peninsula in Riau province, Sumatra. The camp will remain there for several weeks to highlight the importance of protecting forests on peat soils. The soils on the Kampar Peninsular store about 2 billion tonnes of carbon. Much of the forest around the peninsular has been destroyed to make way for oil palm plantations and industrial tree plantations for the pulp and paper industry, in part by pulp and paper company APRIL. Now APRIL claims it want to protect the Kampar Peninsular with a REDD project. This week Forest Peoples Programme and Scale Up released a report titled “Indonesia: indigenous peoples and the Kampar Peninsular“. The report finds that APRIL has ignored the views of local people on the Kampar Peninsular.
The Harapan Rainforest Project covers an area of 100,000 hectares of extremely biodiverse lowland rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia. Without the project, the forest would be destroyed. Two former logging concessions operated in the area. It is bordered by oil palm plantations and active logging concessions. Yet it is still relatively intact. Harapan is home to 20 Sumatran tigers, almost 300 bird species, gibbons, elephants, clouded leopard, tapirs and sun bears. But the project has run into criticism. Local people accuse the project developers of kicking them out of the project area. They also accuse them of intimidating them. |
 
 
 
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