RI could harvest $15 billion financial incentives annually from REDD : expert

RI could harvest $15 billion financial incentives annually from REDD : expert

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Fri, 05/29/2009

Indonesia could harvest about US$15 billion (Rp 150 trillion) of
financial incentives per year from carbon trading through avoiding
forest emissions, a climate expert said.

Climate researcher from the Center for International Forestry Research
(Cifor) Daniel Murdiyarso said that the implementation of reducing
emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) scheme would
give double benefits to Indonesia of financial incentives and curbing
long standing illegal logging.

"If Indonesia can manage only a fifth of its forest's emissions, the
country could get benefit of $3 billion per year with the carbon price
of $5 per ton," he told international forest conference in Bali on
Friday.

Currently, a ton of carbon was priced between $5 and $10.

Daniel, who is also an expert member of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), said that Indonesia forest had emitted about
three billion tons per year, mostly from peat land area.

Indonesia is the world's third largest forest country with 120 million
hectares.The REDD was adopted in Bali climate change conference in
2007 as an alternative scheme in reducing greenhouse gas emission in
dealing with the climate change. Forest contributes about 20 percent
of global greenhouse gas emissions.