Introduction IFCA Consolidation Report

9 The Significance of REDD for Indonesia

2.1 Introduction

On the th October , in Bogor, at an informal meeting of environment ministers from countries, the President of ndonesia expressed the willingness for ndonesia to reduce its GG emissions through strategies which included avoided deforestation. e declared, that the cost of doing this should come from the international community and preferably through international carbon exchange markets, as developing countries would require compensation for foregoing the opportunity costs of conventional forest resource uses. Subsequently, at a meeting of UN Member States in Bangkok, starting March, the President, in a joint statement with the Prime Ministers of Poland and Denmark, declared his intention that ndonesia become an international leader in mitigating climate change and pointed out that the best way forward would be through improved management of the carbon stored in its forests. ‘This implies a multifaceted approach engaging not only traditional environment and energy policies, but also a variety of other crucial policy areas. Indonesia acknowledged this fact at the Bali Conference by engaging environment ministers as well as ministers of finance and trade. The agenda is so broad and challenging that engagement at the highest political level is crucial for achieving progress and timely completion of negotiations on a new global agreement’. This Chapter explains why ndonesia can make such a commitment through improving forest management as a means of reducing its carbon emissions. The chapter begins by explaining the framework by which forest land is managed through the zoning of the land for specific forest functions. t then discusses the information base which the country has compiled on the extent of its forests; the extent of the carbon stored within them, and the methodology adopted to determine the extent of the losses of carbon from forests. This is then followed by an analysis of emissions between and which illustrates not just the contribution that LULUCF emissions from ndonesian forests have made to atmospheric Carbon Dioxide globally. Perhaps more importantly it also provides the basis for understanding the extent of the financial resources that could be available to ndonesia if it were to be engaged in a global climate change mitigation effort, based on reducing deforestation and forest degradation . 2 10

2.2 The Framework for Forest Land Management in Indonesia