Monday 01 October 2007
Jakarta - Cutting emissions from deforestation will be key to curbing climate change and should be agreed upon in December's climate talks in Bali, a leading Indonesian forestry researcher said on Monday.
The conference on the resort island is expected to initiate talks on clinching a new deal by 2009 to fight global warming.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, developed nations can pay poor countries to cut emissions from activities such as the manufacture of refrigerants and fertilizers as well as capturing greenhouse gases from farm waste and rubbish dumps.
But greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, nearly 20 percent of the world's total, are not yet eligible for trade because they were excluded from the Kyoto Protocol's first round, which runs out in 2012.
"It's huge because preserving and conserving the existing pool will then become very attractive," said Daniel Murdiyarso, senior scientist at the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
"Whether by means of a market mechanism or not, including deforestation in the new deal is something Indonesia and every developing country should push for."
Murdiyarso, who is often consulted by the government on forestry and climate change issues, said the next climate deal should increase emission cut targets to halt rising temperatures.
"The Kyoto Protocol only targets a 5 percent emission cut. To stabilize levels the cut has to be much more than 5 percent," Murdiyarso said by telephone from his office on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Participants from 189 countries are expected to gather in Bali for December's U.N.-led summit, which will hear a report on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation to decide the fate of a new scheme to make emission cuts from forest areas eligible for global carbon trading.
Murdiyarso said Indonesia's vast peatlands, which are a huge store of carbon, will play a key role in shaping post-Kyoto plans on reducing global warming.
With annual carbon dioxide emissions of over 1,500 million tones, preserving Indonesia's peatlands could bring in billions of dollars, Murdiyarso said.
Experts estimate Indonesia has 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of dense, black tropical peat swamps, formed when trees, roots and leaves rot, that are natural carbon stores.
However, when burnt or drained to plant crops such as palm oil, peat releases large amounts of carbon dioxide.
Indonesia is home to 60 percent of the world's threatened tropical peatlands and among the world's top three carbon emitters when peat emissions are added in, said a report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain's development arm.
"In Germany, the cost of reducing 50 million tones is 10 billion euro, that's 200 euro per ton. If we take the same number for peatlands, we can expect some 900 billion euro," said Murdiyarso, also a peatlands expert.
"I don't think anyone would buy it at such a high price, but it would still mean millions of dollars for Indonesia."
Faces of Forest Loss: Prize-Winning Activists Tour US, Link Illegal Logging and Global Warming
The Sierra Club
Saturday 29 September 2007
Rainforest defenders from Indonesia, Peru and Papua New Guinea kick off a tour of the U.S. Monday in San Francisco focusing on illegal logging and the United States' role in driving it. The internationally-acclaimed, prize-winning activists are speaking out about the impact of illegal logging and associated trade on their communities, forests and global warming.
Worldwide, illegal logging crimes drive human rights abuses, environmental harm and billions of dollars in annual economic losses to governments in developing countries. Illegal logging's effects have been blamed for deadly mudslides, loss of community water sources and destruction of critical endangered species habitat. It drives and accelerates deforestation, which already accounts for almost one-fifth of the world's global warming emissions.
The trade in illegally harvested timber, estimated to soon reach 10% of the global wood trade, is fueled by ever-growing demand from developed countries, few of which have any laws and regulations that can put a stop to this illegal trade.
"Timber companies and illegal loggers are increasingly threatening our territories, culture and lives," said Julio Cusurichi, a Goldman Environmental Prize winner from Peru. "It is ruinous for isolated indigenous people when illegal loggers enter their territories, bringing with them sickness, violence and death threats. Working with our national organization, AIDESEP, I will not rest in seeking justice for these people."
"Illegal logging is one of a series of major threats facing our people," said Robert Guimaraes, Vice President of AIDESEP, an umbrella organization of Amazon communities. "Oil, mining and logging companies from the United States are entering every corner of the Amazon."
Local residents suffer the consequences of a lucrative international trade. In the Peruvian mahogany industry alone, an estimated 33,000 people work under forced labor conditions to cut trees that will later sell for thousands of dollars apiece. The illegal timber trade also has proven ties to drug smuggling, money laundering and organized crime networks. Profits from this trade are used to finance criminal regimes and regional conflict around the world.
"The illegal timber industry is a corrupting force in politics," said Anne Kajir, an indigenous lawyer and Goldman Environmental Prize winner from Papua New Guinea. "Illegal logging hurts local communities, the economy and the environment. Yet government complacency allows it to continue."
"The massive scale of this problem makes it an issue of global concern, and one that will only be solved with action by both producing and consuming countries. Uncontrolled forest loss and the resulting increase in global warming emissions will affect us all," said Arbi Valentinus, Political Director of the Indonesian organization Telapak. Indonesia's own environment minister estimated recently that over 70% of logging in his country was still illegal.
"As the world's largest consumer of wood products, the United States must be a leader in stopping this illegal trade," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director. "It's time for Congress to step up and pass strong legislation, such as that currently introduced by Representative Earl Blumenauer and Senator Ron Wyden, prohibiting the import and sale of illegally-sourced timber and wood products."
The tour will be making stops in Portland, OR and New York City, NY before ending in Washington D.C. where the activists will urge Congress to pass the Combat Illegal Logging Act (S.1930) and the Legal Timber Protection Act (H.R. 1497), legislation amending the U.S. LACEY Act to curb the U.S.'s role in driving the illegal timber trade.
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