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Despite the government’s pledge to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by 2020, the Ministry of Forestry’s proposed forestry program over the next 10 years will instead likely increase emissions by up to 850 million tons, Greenomics Indonesia has reported.

In a statement on Monday, the nongovernmental organization said that about 3.4 million hectares of the country’s forests were at risk of being converted into mining and development areas.

From 2004 to 2009, private companies were awarded 1.2 million hectares of forest concessions set for development starting this year. According to Greenomics, the conversion of those forests would result in the release of the equivalent of 300 million tons of carbon dioxide.

An additional 2.2 million hectares of forests, it continued, could be set aside as concessions to be awarded over the next 10 years based on the ministry’s proposed Forestry Program for Climate Change. If these forests are developed, Greenomics says an additional 550 million tons of emissions would be released before the end of the decade.

“These [forest allocations] were included in the Ministry of Forestry’s plan for dealing with climate change, which is absolutely contrary to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s speech,” said Elfian Effendi, executive director of Greenomics, referring to the president’s talk at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh in September committing the country to 26 percent emissions cuts by 2020.

The ministry’s plan outlines its proposed program for the forestry sector over the next 10 years, including how the sector can help contribute to achieving the 26 percent emissions reduction target.

The country, according to the ministry, emitted 1,416 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2005, 820 million tons of which was from deforestation.

The ministry has said nearly half of the 26 percent reduction would come from the forestry sector through peatland management and reforestation.

But Elfian said the planned 2.2 million-hectare forest concession expansion plan, for non-gas and oil mining, such as gold, coal, tin and iron, would have a negative impact on achieving the target. Adding that to the 1.2 million hectares of previous mining concessions, he said the resulting 850 million tons of emissions would undermine reforestation efforts.

Elfian said Yudhoyono’s emissions pledge should be adhered to by all ministers and governors because the international community would be monitoring it.

“It was also strongly stated by President Yudhoyono in his speech [at the Copenhagen climate talks in December] that there was no reason not to be transparent with the emissions targets,” he said. “This also means that the government should be transparent in making public its expansion plans for mining and non-mining activities and how much carbon that could release.”

Wandojo Siswanto, head of the ministry’s climate change working group, acknowledged the Greenomics study, saying that the Forestry Program for Climate Change plan was still a proposal and had not yet been approved.

“We are still verifying the possible emissions with the Agency for Forestry Planning,” he told the Jakarta Globe.