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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. International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) was by far the biggest “NGO” at last year’s climate conference in Bali. In Poznan, IETA has hired a building inside the International Trade Fair where the climate conference is taking place. With sponsorship to be in Poznan from BP, Shell, Enel, AES, Chevron, TÜV SÜD, SGS and the Industrial Technology Research Institute, IETA is no ordinary NGO. It is, in its own words, dedicated to “the establishment of effective market-based trading systems for greenhouse gas emissions by businesses”. On day three in Poznan, REDD-Monitor visited IETA’s side event on “REDD in the voluntary markets: Lessons Learned”. Needless to say, IETA is in favour of trading carbon from forests. Reuters has reported that the state of California has signed an agreement with the Indonesian Province of Aceh to purchase carbon credits from the Ulu Masen forest ‘offset’ scheme. The scheme attracted wide attention when it was announced in April of this year – being described as a ”new front in global efforts to stem climate change”, in which Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch was to invest $9 million over four years to protect 750,000 hectares of forest. But there are many doubts about the scheme. |
 
 
 
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