Nature Alert: Kaban calls for workable mechanism of REDD

Saturday, 6 June 2009

Kaban calls for workable mechanism of REDD

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Nusa Dua, Bali | Thu, 05/28/2009

Indonesian Forestry Minister MS Kaban warned that the now debated carbon mechanism should be workable for forest countries avoiding complicated system as made in Kyoto Protocol.

He said that all parties debating on the Reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) should learn from the failure of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for forestry sector.

"I hope that REDD would in the end come differently as a successful mechanism, and help show that forest offers solution to the climate change, rather than being source of problem," he told international forest meeting on illegal logging and REDD in Bali on Thursday.

"We need a workable mechanism that can help developing countries and help livelihood of billions of people living on margin of forest."

Currently, the Kyoto Protocol requires only the aforestation and reforestation projects that would be eligible for financial incentives from the carbon market from forestry sector.

Indonesia, the world's third forest largest country with 120 million hectares of rainforest, has no the CDM projects on forestry sector.

The government has repeatedly criticized complicated systems of CDM on forestry sector.

World countries are to meet in Copenhagen climate change conference in December to agree the REDD mechanism.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/05/28/kaban-calls-workable-mechanism-redd.html

Personal note: Here they go again, telling people what they want to hear. Minister Kaban is a BIG part of the problem.

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.