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Bali. Talks on the role of forests in climate change should not be limited to the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation, a program also known as REDD, an environmental expert said on Frida y.

“We have a new term, REDD Plus, which is not just about reducing emissions but also relates to the roles of conservation, sustainable forest management and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries,” Daniel Murdiyarso, a climate change scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor), said at the 8th Asia Forest Partnerships conference.

The AFP dialogue, “REDD and Combating Illegal Logging” ended in Bali on Friday.

However, Murdiyarso said that REDD Plus was just part of an initiative formed during the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in April and that it had not yet been endorsed by representatives at the conference.

“REDD Plus covers everything, including conservation, which would lead to forest management,” he said. “So, it would give countries more opportunities [to preserve forests] rather than just reducing emissions.”

Meanwhile, Togu Manurung, a senior advisor to the Ministry of Forestry on forest technology development, said the ultimate goal of protecting forests was sustainable forest management.

“Sustainable forest management is the main objective,” he said, adding that “the implementation [of forest management] in Indonesia is still far from ideal.”

Togu said there were only two out of about 200 industrial forest companies — mostly related to the pulp and paper industry — in Indonesia that had been certified as sustainable forest managers.

“Those two companies only manage around 300,000 hectares of a total of 4.3 million hectares of industrial forests,” he said. “This fact alone reveals the poor condition of forest management in this country.”

Also, Togu said, only six out of 324 forest concessionaires have been certified as sustainable since the late 1960s.

“The six concessionaires only cover around 60 million hectares from 120.35 million hectares of forest concessions in the country,” he said.

Togu said that with REDD Plus, discussions on forests would not be limited to reducing carbon emissions.

“We are not just talking about compensation on [preventing] degradation but also talking about the possibilities for conservation areas to also keep their carbon stocks,” he said, adding that efforts to get carbon credits through REDD Plus would not be limited to reducing emissions.

The REDD program aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by establishing a system of carbon-trading that would provide financial incentives to preserve forests.

The program was recognized by delegates to the UN’s climate change conference in Bali in 2007.