RI needs US$4 billion investment to address deforestation

The government has challenged the international community to provide at least US$4 billion (Rp 40.8 trillion) to address deforestation in Indonesia until 2012.

The Ministry of Forestry said that the money would be used to fund the main driver of deforestation to help combat climate change;it would be used to ensure the livelihoods of local people and to deal with the expansion of oil palm plantations.

"This is global problem so the money must come from the international community," Nur Masripatin, a senior official from the ministry dealing with the negotiation of the reducing emission from deforestation and degradation (REDD) agreement, told The Jakarta Post.

The REDD agreement was adopted at the Bali climate change conference in 2007 as an alternative scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in dealing with  climate change, and was expected to take effect in 2012 to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that emissions from forests contribute to about 20 percent of global emissions.

Indonesia is the world's third largest forest country with 120 million hectares of forest, but the deforestation rate remains high at more that one million hectares per year.

Indonesia is projected to reap about US$15 billion per year in financial incentives from carbon trading in the forestry sector, a climate expert said.