Indonesia is in the hot seat. Not only is it a major emitter of greenhouse grasses that contribute to climate change. It is also highly vulnerable to the devastating impact of global warming that will cause economic havoc and undermine the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. Erratic rainfall, floods, droughts, and more frequent climatic disasters are already affecting millions of Indonesians, especially poor people in living in urban slums, and remote rural areas in Easter Indonesia.
The Bali Conference in December 2007 was not just a historic milestone for the global response to climate change, but also created major political momentum for action in Indonesia. As we approach the next milestone, the conference in Copenhagen at the end of this year, the implementation of the “Bali Road Map” will again be under great scrutiny by politicians and the public here in Indonesia and across the world.
For Indonesia, the top priority is to stop the destructive forces of deforestation and degradation of land that is caused by excessive logging, forest fires and the destruction of peat lands. Globally GHG emissions related to forestry are contributing around 20%, and as the biggest emitter of forest-related GHG Indonesia can make a huge difference in the global response to climate change
This is why the recently launch UN-REDD Programme, supported by the Government of Norway, is of such great importance for Indonesia. The “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)” is a global initiative that aims to provide compensation through the global carbon market for countries that reduce their national emissions by stopping and reversing deforestation and land degradation. By participating in this scheme Indonesia can do its part in the global fight climate change, while at the same time generate much needed financial resources to fight poverty and invest in sustainable human development across the country. It is thus of great importance to Indonesia that REDD becomes part of the post-2012 international agreements on climate change.
In September 2008, the UN-REDD Programme was launched aiming to assist tropical forest countries in establishing a fair, equitable and transparent REDD regime. Indonesia was selected as one of the nine pilot countries for the initial ‘Quick Start’ phase. The quick start will be funded by the Government of Norway as part of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative which was announced during the UNFCCC conference at Bali in 2007.
Here in Indonsia, this joint UNDP, UNEP, FAO programme will support the Government of Indonesian to quickly develop a REDD architecture that will allow a fair, equitable and transparent implementation of the initiative, significantly contributing to a sustainable reduction of forestry related greenhouse gas emissions.
More specifically, the programme will focus on three outcomes: First, it will strengthen multi-stakeholder participation and consensus-building at national level. This will include building consensus on key issues for national REDD policy development, collect and disseminate REDD lessons-learned from ongoing activities in Indonesia, and enhance communication on REDD to wide range of stakeholders. Second, the programme will strengthen carbon accounting systems and assist with developing fair payment mechanisms. This will include capacity building and methodology design and developing a Toolkit for priority setting towards maximizing potential Carbon-benefits and incorporating co-benefits, such as biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation under MDGs. Third, the programme will establish capacity to implement REDD at decentralized levels. This will include capacity building for spatial socio-economic planning incorporating REDD at the district level, enable local stakeholders to benefit from REDD, and the preparation of multi-stakeholder-endorsed District plans for REDD implementation.
Following the Quick Start programme, UN REDD aims for a second phase that would focus on significantly upscaling and expanding its activities throughout a number of provinces and districts based on the approach and methodologies developed.
The Quick Start proposal from Indonesia was approved by the UN-REDD Policy Board on 14 March. The Government of Indonesia --- in partnership with UNDP, FAO and UNEP and support from the Government of Norway --- is now in full swing to start implementation of this quick-start phase.
The clock is ticking, the pressure is on.