Indonesia: REDD project
– many threats, no solution
Last month, a
new Australian-Indonesian Forest Carbon Partnership was announced
under the scheme of the International Forest Carbon Initiative
(IFCI) - a government initiative, with implementation jointly
managed by AusAID and the Department of Climate Change. The A$30
million funded REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Degradation) trial project will be implemented in the Indonesian
Jambi province located on the east coast of central Sumatra.
Forests in Jambi
are experiencing high deforestation rates as a result of rampant
expansion of oil palm and pulpwood plantations by multinational
companies as well as mining and logging operations. The ecological
disturbance has brought about drought and forest and land fires
in the dry season, and floods and landslides in the rainy season.
Allegedly aimed
at paying for not cutting forest and thus reducing greenhouse
gas emissions, the REDD project has been denounced by NGOs from
Indonesia and Australia as a mere “source of cheap credit
for the increase in emissions in Australia”, as Arif Munandar,
Jambi’s Regional Executive Director of WALHI (Friends of
the Earth Indonesia), put it.
“Treasury
modelling shows that the [Australian] government plans to achieve
its 5% (30.75 MtCO2) emission reduction target by purchasing 46MtCO2
of offsets for overseas, that is purchasing more tonnes of carbon
offsets that we reduce emissions by! Without offsets the modelling
shows that our emissions would actually increase by over 5%”,
explained James Goodman from Friends of the Earth Australia, who
added that such “offsets” do not reduce global carbon
emissions, but provide a dangerous smokescreen behind which the
Australia government can hide its lack of action on climate change
and continued fossil fuel use.
Many social organisations
share this concern. A statement of the Durban Group for Climate
Justice against Schemes for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
and Forest Degradation expresses that: “The new pollution
licenses to be generated by REDD are designed in a way that obstructs
the only workable solution to climate change: keeping oil, coal
and gas in the ground.” “Like CDM credits, they exacerbate
climate change by giving industrialized countries and companies
incentives to delay undertaking the sweeping structural change
away from fossil fuel-dependent systems of production, consumption,
transportation that the climate problem demands. They waste years
of time that the world doesn’t have.” (2)
It is difficult
to believe in good intentions to avoid deforestation when, as
Chris Lang reminded (see WRM Bulletin Nº 145) “Indonesia
was the first country in the world to establish legislation on
REDD investments. Yet earlier this year, the same Indonesian government
decided to allow the expansion of oil palm plantations on peatlands.
To grow palm oil or pulpwood tree plantations on peatland the
land has to be cleared and drained, which releases millions of
tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. The authorities also allow pulp
companies to log native forests and turn a blind eye when they
use illegal timber.”
WALHI Jambi and
Friends of the Earth Australia fear also “that REDD projects
will undermine the rights of Indigenous and forest-dependant peoples
in the area. In September 2009 the United Nations Committee on
Racial Discrimination wrote [to the government of] Indonesia to
express concerns that Indonesia REDD regulations do not respect
the rights of Indigenous peoples. Documents from the Australian-Indonesian
Kalimantan REDD project fail to guarantee the rights of Indigenous
people in the area.”
As many have
warned, covered under REDD schemes land grabbing grows and financial
transactions are promoted for the benefit of big corporations.
Meanwhile our common future is warming up.
(1) http://www.foe.org.au/news/2010/sumatran-forest-carbon-deal-slammed-by-australian-and-indonesian-environment-groups
(2) http://www.wrm.org.uy/COP15/durban.pdf
