JP/ Melinda Chickering

In some ways, Rezal Kusumaatmadja is a matchmaker, marrying the environmental conservational interests of business, NGOs and government.

Working with NGOs while studying in Hawaii, Rezal realized that what is profitable for business can also be good for communities and for the environment.

He also recognized the necessity of involving the private sector in conservation. This led to him founding Starling Resources in 2006.

“Starling was set up to make NGOs think more like businesses and make businesses think more like NGOs,” he said.

One strategy involves the private sector by putting a price on carbon emissions, then selling carbon credits to investors so that companies have a monetary incentive to emit less carbon into the atmosphere. This is called “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation”, or REDD.

Protecting existing forests is a lot cheaper than cleaning up emissions, so REDD is a cost-effective way to cut carbon emissions, according to Rezal.

He is optimistic about the potential for REDD in Indonesia because there are still extant virgin forests. He believes there is no need to cut more trees for development. So many trees have already been cut so that land, which is actually “degraded” land, can be used for development.

Originally from Jakarta and now based in Bali, Rezal, 40, studied urban and regional planning at the University of Hawaii. While that might not sound like preparation for working in the jungle, he thinks of his training as “spatial planning”.

Starling’s largest current pilot project seeks to preserve tropical peat and forest in south- central Kalimantan, covering more than 200,000 hectares or an area three times the size of Singapore. His partner on the project is Dharsono Hartono, president of ecosystem restoration firm PT Rimba Makmur Utama, whom he knew from their undergraduate days at Cornell University.

“One of the first things he spent money on is community work and the science,” said Rezal. With a laugh, he called Dharsono the “perfect client” because he follows his consultant’s advice.

“I said to him, ‘You want to work on this, we’re going to have to implement best practice, and this is what we have to spend money on.’”

Curbing carbon emissions enough to make a real difference for climate change will take more than an effort to turn off the lights and leave the car in the garage from time to time. According to Rezal, global emissions must be reduced from the current 45 gigatons a year to less than 35 gigatons a year. If global emissions continue to rise at their current rates, by 2050 emissions will top 75 gigatons annually, and the projected rise in average temperature will be six degrees Celsius.

“Which means basically the end of humanity,” Rezal says of this bleak scenario.

Bringing emissions in line with the 35 gigaton annual target is predicted to raise global average temperature about 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.

Calculating carbon emissions from deforestation — about 15-18 percent of global emissions — is complex. REDD was left out of the Kyoto Protocol because it was considered too complex and difficult to implement, but times are changing.

REDD’s central strategies for reducing emissions revolve around preserving existing forest and peat land, which stores huge stocks of carbon, and cultivating sustainable forest management practices. Indonesia, with the world’s third largest tropical rainforests, is engaged in several efforts to implement REDD, including Starling’s project in Kalimantan.

The private sector can save money by doing right by the environment, according to Rezal, especially when considering resources devoted to public relations.

He criticizes many Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts because they focus on balancing out bad impacts with good. He thinks it’s better to do something holistic to begin with.

“REDD is the closest thing,” he said, to this holistic approach that allows for traditional livelihoods such as hunting, gathering, fishing, rubber tapping.

In addition to measurement, one set of complexities is forest-dwelling people who use them.

REDD doesn’t require local people to change their lives. They can still engage in traditional livelihoods, such as rubber-tapping and rattan cultivation, without disruption.

Cutting trees for personal use, e.g. to build houses, is also fine. “You simply discount that from your carbon calculation,” explained Rezal.

“So I talk to the bupati [regent], and say, ‘Pak, we have the same interest. You like rattan. I want to reduce emissions. And both of us need the trees to be standing.’”

Rezal believes illegal logging can also be curbed because it isn’t a good living for most illegal loggers. He described a typical conversation with one.

“Would you like to work for me? You do exactly the things that you do now. You walk around the forest, the difference is you don’t have to carry a chainsaw, you don’t have to carry the heavy logs, and all you have to do is carry a walkie-talkie, a radio so that you can report if something is going on.”

“Yes! I would love to work for you!”

Rezal added, “It’s not that hard to solve this problem because everybody that I talk to always says, ‘I don’t want to do this, but there is no alternative. I do this because I have to’.”

To work as forest monitors rather than illegal loggers, locals do not need special training.

“They’re the experts. They know the forests better than I do because they go there every day.”

Rattan is an example of a sustainable local livelihood. Rezal discovered that 100 kilograms sell for only Rp 200,000. “If we get the REDD influx, I’m happy to buy up all the rattan for Rp 500,000 to provide an incentive to people to go to the forest and plant rattan.”

People cannot practice agriculture on forest land because of its administrative designation.

“In Kalimantan there is a lot of forest land that has no trees because of its designation, but you can’t do agriculture because it’s still classified as a forest.”

Rezal also frequents the urban jungle of Jakarta, advising policy makers on how best to implement REDD.

Norway has pledged US$1 billion to help Indonesia save forests with REDD. The grant requires that Indonesia develop a database of degraded lands and conflict resolution mechanisms. Some have called REDD a “Trojan horse” of cleaning up because it requires accountable government and the reigning in of corruption.

Japan is also developing a bilateral off-set agreement with Indonesia. Rezal thinks that investors worldwide will show greater interest in REDD when the United States or United Nations develop protocol for its implementation.

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