T

he Meru Betiri National Park in Jember, East Java, has been chosen to host a pilot project for a tropical forest conservation plan as part of an initiative Reducing Emissions from Deforestation Degradation (REDD).

The park’s administrative affairs division head, Mustada Imran Lubis, said that the plan is in the preparation stage.

“We’re currently working to familiarize [the project among] the community, local administrations, academics and NGOs,” Mustada told The Jakarta Post.

The preparations, he said, included reforesting and replanting 58,000 hectares of barren fields inside protected forest areas.

“By the end of 2012, will hopefully be able to know how much carbon we can trade from the forest,”
he said.

The destruction of tropical rainforests is responsible for an estimated 17 percent of global CO2 emissions — six times the amount of emissions attributed to aircraft.

Under REDD, forest nations that halt deforestation would be compensated by developed nations through a carbon credit scheme .

Indonesia, which has run a number of REDD pilot projects, was the first country to issue regulations REDD allowing indigenous groups, local authorities, private organizations as well as local and
foreign businesspeople to run REDD projects.

The government, however, has not announced how it would use revenue raised by REDD.

The park’s management said it is optimistic the pilot project would have a positive impact on efforts to preserve the country’s forests.

“We want to prove that forests have economic value without damaging them,” said Seno Pramudita, head of the park’s management section in the Ambulu region.

He said that, currently, local administrations and the community see standing forests as having little economic value, resulting in rapid deforestation.

“Deforestation takes the form of both so-called legal conversion of the forests and illegal logging,” he said.

The park, he said, was once a victim of massive illegal logging on the back of lawlessness following the fall of Suharto in 1998.

The national park’s management has been trying to restore the forest through rehabilitation and reforestation programs.

Yet, instances of illegal logging and poaching are still evident today.

In 2009 alone, at least 36,800 nits of hardwood, bamboo and rattan had been cleared in 58 illegal logging cases and 30 other related cases committed the same year.

“Carbon trading will give us the double benefit of ecological and financial gains,” Seno said.

“With the carbon trade we will have the bargaining power to deal with forest conversion demands”.