Indonesia is striving to be a leading player on the climate stage but its highly touted REDD+ initiative is still in its formative stages. The central government has already issued the National Strategy on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation to curb global warming.

The plan goes beyond reducing carbon emissions from land-use change particularly through tree cutting and peat clearing. The strategy also acts on sustainable forest and peatland governance to preserve carbon stocks and biodiversity, planting new trees to enhance carbon stocks and eradicating poverty-plagued forest communities. These additional goals transformed REDD into REDD+.

The national strategy was released in June by the REDD+ task force that reports directly to the President. Full REDD+ implementation is set to start in 2014 after three core bodies are in place: a REDD+ agency, a REDD+ funding instrument and a REDD+ measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) institution.