RI FOCUSES ON SEEKING REFORESTATION FUNDS FROM DONOR COUNTRIES 

Indonesia is trying to capitalize on the global carbon trade system and its crucially-important tropical forests by offering developed countries cooperation and a mechanism in financing and managing reforestation programs throughout the country.

Deputy to the State Minister for the Environment, Masnellyarti Hilman, said Indonesia has received offers from Australia, South Korea, Norway, Britain and the U.S. to help finance the country's reforestation programs.

"We are currently discussing the details of cooperation with South Korea, Australia and Norway after all three countries conveyed their commitment to help and signed a general agreement on climate change with Indonesia. We are now talking with Britain," she told The Jakarta Post on Sunday (13/08).

Australia recently pledged Rp 77 billion to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and promote sustainable forest management in Indonesia. During Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's visit to Indonesia in March 2007, he and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a joint declaration on climate change.

The U.S. has agreed to include Indonesia in a debt-for-nature swap that will use US$19.6 million of the country's debt to the U.S. to finance tropical forest conservation programs.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has given South Korea a permit to manage half a million hectares of forest in Kalimantan.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Indonesia would try to capitalize on the importance of the country's forests in global climate change efforts to gain financial support from developed countries. "Financial support for our reforestation programs is the most concrete benefit we can get from the climate change issue, so we will concentrate on that," he said.

Indonesia will host the UN Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in December, in Bali. The conference is crucial as it will discuss a more acceptable global mechanism in handling climate change and emissions of greenhouse gasses

Indonesian Foreign Minister said during his discussion with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila earlier this month, Australia had expressed interest in the method South Korea applied; in which a country was given a plot of forest to manage. "Australia is waiting for our proposed plan on how they can disburse their pledged aid to Indonesia," he said.

Hassan said he had offered the same mechanism to the European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) Javier Solana during their bilateral meeting in Manila.

Under the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism and the Chicago Climate Exchange, developed countries could trade carbon emissions by financing developing countries' efforts to curb carbon emissions, such as through reforestation programs, to enhance their own carbon emissions status.

Experts say Indonesia has approximately 60 percent of the world's peatland swamps, or 20 million hectares, which could be utilized within the carbon markets. They say Indonesia could earn up to $10 billion per year through selling forward voluntary emissions reduction credits on the global market and add $1 billion tax revenue to its treasury.(The Jakarta Post, 13/08/07)