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Germany Pledges $39m for REDD Pilot Project
January 06, 2010

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Germany has committed 27 million euros ($39 million) for a pilot project that would demonstrate how the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation program would work ahead of its implementation in 2012.

The pilot project is scheduled to begin this month in three districts in Kalimantan — Kapuas Hulu in West Kalimantan and Malinau and Berau in East Kalimantan — and will continue until 2016.

The project will help prepare the districts for international carbon credit trading under the REDD scheme, including teaching them how to monitor carbon emissions and increase local residents’ income through environmental conservation efforts.

REDD aims to encourage developing nations to preserve their forests by measuring and giving an economic value to the carbon saved by stopping deforestation. Under the scheme, the saved carbon would be sold as “credits” to investors and industrialized nations with higher emissions.

Agus Widiarto, head of the planning section at the Ministry of Forestry, said the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) would provide technical assistance for the pilot project.

“The budget for technical assistance from the GTZ will be 7 million euros, and the other 20 million euros will come from the German [state-owned] bank KfW. So, in total, it will be 27 million euros,” Agus said on Wednesday.

Two other countries have committed funds to similar REDD pilot projects in Indonesia. Norway has provided 2 million euros for a three-year project that started last year, while Australia has committed 40 million Australian dollars ($36 million) for a project in Kalimantan and another 30 million Australian dollars for a project in Jambi.

The International Tropical Timber Organization has also committed $900,000 to a project that is expected to run for four years beginning this year in the Meru Betiri conservation forest in East Java.

Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan has said that while the government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, with the help of other countries, Indonesia could achieve a 41 percent reduction by 2020.

“If those programs were seriously implemented, we could reduce emissions by 41 percent by 2020, including from our own efforts in reducing [them] 26 percent,” Zulkifli said on Wednesday in Jakarta. Arti Ekawati