Papua to assess forest carbon potentials

Nethy Dharma Somba ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jayapura   |  Wed, 05/14/2008 10:32 AM  |  The Archipelago

Papua on Tuesday signed an MOU with PT Emerald Planet Ltd, and its partner New Forests Asset Management (NFAM), to assess provincial forest carbon trade potential.

The agreement was signed by Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu, Emerald Planet CEO Tobias C. Garritt and New Forests managing director David Brand in the presence of activists and tribal leaders in Jayapura.

With the MOU, the two foreign companies and a Papuan team representing local authorities, NGOs and informal leaders will conduct research and studies to assess forest carbon reserves.

David said that initially, New Forests would invest US$10 million to finance research in Mimika, Memberamo and Merauke.

Initial studies will take up to six months so the carbon reserves in the first three regencies will be publicly announced by the end of this year.

He said the provincial government should make a regulation this year to regulate the carbon trade, including profit sharing so that the people, the government and the two companies would know the expected annual profit shares.

The volume of the world carbon trade has increased annually and this year is expected to reach $60 billion.

Governor Suebu called on the Papuan people to stand behind the government's policy on the logging moratorium to conserve the environment and save the planet from environmental chaos.

"Papua now has 31.5 million hectares of forests, 50 percent of which are conservation forests, 20 percent are production forests and the remaining 30 percent are to be converted for multi-purpose use, including plantations, agriculture and housing," he said.

He added the carbon trade would benefit both the people and the government which would gain foreign exchange.

According to local NGOs the province has lost 17 percent of its forests since the 1950s and illegal logging has been extensive in the past decade.

"There will be compensation for the logging moratorium, otherwise there will be environmental devastation with disastrous human impacts if we continue slashing trees in the forests," he said, citing the case of Costa Rica which gained millions of dollars annually from the carbon trade after stopping the cutting down of forests.

Tempo daily recently reported that despite the Lestari forestry program, forest looting has continued in the province.

According to the report, loggers and timber companies have hoarded logs inside forest areas despite the banning on transportation of logs out of the province.

The people in Keerom recently filed a complaint to the regency legislative council on the disappearance of thousands of cubic meters of logs in Arso which were believed to be stolen from the forests in the regency.

Head of the local forestry office Marthen Kayoi said his team was in the field to check on the report.

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