Fast tracking forest conservation

The provincial government of Central Kalimantan, in Indonesia, expects to complete a provincial strategy on Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation, known as REDD+, by the start of October. The plans are expected to include village level smallholder projects.

Owners of land as small as 2 hectares may be able to propose their area as a REDD+ project by bundling together smallholders in one village or several villages into one project. In December last year, the Indonesian government selected Central Kalimantan as a pilot province for REDD+ under an agreement with the Government of Norway, which has committed to paying Southeast Asia's biggest economy as much as US$1 billion if it succeeds to cut emissions in the forestry sector.

Central Kalimantan also aims to develop a local REDD+ implementation agency as well as a measuring, verifying and reporting unit, more commonly known as MRV, said Dohong at the workshop attended by 20 journalists, mostly from Borneo island. The provincial strategy is also looking into the possibility of including REDD+ activities in lands classified as other-purposes areas, not only in those categorized as forests. Since community activities are concentrated on other-purposes areas, in order to involve them, REDD+ must be eligible in non-forest areas. The resulting provincial REDD+ strategy will be available as a model for other provinces.

Over 60 percent of Indonesia's emissions come from deforestation and land-use changes. Central Kalimantan, Indonesia's third biggest area of forest and carbon-rich peat land, is the second largest producer of emissions in the country. The implementation of REDD+ is key for Indonesia to meet its self-imposed commitment to cut greenhouse gases emissions by 41 percent with the help of outside funding.

Source: Leony Aurora www.blog.cifor.org

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