President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono has issued a decree providing additional time for a presidential task force to establish a long-awaited agency to implement a two-year forest moratorium. The project has been funded by the Norwegian government to reduce forest loss in Indonesia.

The so-called REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) Plus task force was assigned with setting up the REDD agency in December 2012 at the latest. “There are many improvements in the new decree, including the involvement of officials from the Agriculture and Energy and Mineral Resources Ministries in the task force,” Presidential special staffer on climate change Agus Purnomo told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Agus, who is also the REDD task force secretary, said that the involvement of the two sectors was crucial to speed the establishment of the REDD agency.

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