W

hile the international community has praised the Indonesian government's role in promoting REDD, many local administrations are still unaware of the scheme, with most still questioning how much money they can get.

An official from the West Papua provincial office, Toto Mei Untardo, and a forestry expert from North Sumatra University (USU), Onrizal, warned the government needed to launch a massive campaign promoting reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) issues to local authorities.

"The follow-up *dissemination of REDD education* has been too slow. Most of the regencies and cities in Papua know nothing about REDD issues," Toto told a discussion organized by Conservation International (CI) in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Papua and Aceh were the first provinces to declare readiness to host REDD projects during the Bali climate change conference in 2007.

Onrizal said poor understanding of REDD could endanger the projects, which could in turn become losses for the local administration.

"Their line of thought was that they would get a lot of money," he said. Onrizal said the capability of forests in Sumatra to absorb carbon was higher than those in Kalimantan and Papua.

"Until now, there has been no institution dealing with the REDD at provincial and regency levels, making it difficult to disseminate the issue," he said.

Indonesia was the first country to issue a regulation on REDD, allowing indigenous people, local authorities, private organizations and businesspeople, both local and foreign, to run REDD projects.

Under the regulation, permits for REDD projects may only be granted by local administrations to people or groups who have ownership certificates of forests.

The Forestry Ministry earlier said many local authorities had moved too quickly in offering their forests to carbon brokers and international organizations despite lacking knowledge of REDD.

A source told The Jakarta Post that Aceh province canceled awarding a permit to a international broker just minutes before signing the deal thanks to intervention by local activists.

He said the contract used "foreign law" that would have only benefited the foreign broker rather than local people.

The Forestry Ministry said that as of this year, more than 20 NGOs and brokers proposed REDD-related projects in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua provinces.

A representative from the environment ministry said at the CI meeting the office had proposed the profit-sharing scheme by giving between 50 percent and 75 percent to local people.