REDD news update Indonesia May – July 2011

BOGOR, Indonesia (28 July, 2011)_As part of inter-related research on the media’s role in translating scientific knowledge for public consumption, and how science may inform policymaking, CIFOR is analysing print media coverage of REDD+ in Indonesia. Over the last two months, the media coverage was mostly related to the much anticipated logging moratorium and the implications of the presidential decree signed in May 2011.
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Forest landscape of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Yayan Indriatmoko/CIFOR

BOGOR, Indonesia (28 July, 2011)_Run by CIFOR and several partner organisations around the world, the 4-year Global Comparative Study (GCS) is one of the world’s first major comparative studies on how REDD+ schemes are being designed, implemented, monitored, reported and verified.

As part of inter-related research on the media’s role in translating scientific knowledge for public consumption, and how science may inform policymaking, CIFOR is analysing print media coverage of REDD+ in Indonesia.

News digests are compiled by Efrian Muharrom, Forest and Governance Research Officer at CIFOR and Leony Aurora, Communications Specialist at CIFOR.

 

 

    • The moratorium map also removed 17 million hectares of peatland, or 79 percent of the 21.5 million hectares mapped in 2004 by Wetlands International in cooperation with the Ministry of Forestry, said Kiki Taufik, a geographic information system specialist at Greenpeace . These include peatlands around industrial concessions, such as in Kampar peninsula in Riau and near Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE). The Ministry of Forestry, which issued the map, responded by saying that the map would be improved by inputs from stakeholders every six months. The ministry’s Secretary General Hadi Daryanto said that it’s preparing higher-scale maps at 1:190,000 compared with the 1:250,000 currently used as reference.

 

 

 

 

    • The preparation for the implementation of REDD+, including a separate agency and the MRV unit, hit stagnation as the taskforce’s tenure expired on 30 June. Bernardus Steni, climate change coordinator at HuMa, said that the taskforce had failed its deliverables, including issuing a REDD+ implementation strategy and REDD+ monitoring and evaluation framework. Still, he urged that the term of the taskforce, headed by Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, also chairman of the presidential unit that oversees development, get extended to manage the transition before the REDD+ agency is formed.

 

    • Another document that was still lacking was a formal appointment for Central Kalimantan to be the pilot province of REDD+. Although the government announced this in December last year, Central Kalimantan cannot receive funds to implement REDD+ pilot projects without a legal document. Demonstration activities in the province, however, have already attracted attention. Indigenous groups from 11 regencies held a meeting and demanded the government halt REDD+ pilot projects in the province until it could provide adequate information to local communities.

 

 

  • The flow of funds coming to Indonesia through climate change or environmental projects might be due President’s Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s growing popularity in the international sphere, from his leadership in Bali in 2007 to his groundbreaking emission cut commitment in 2009. Indonesia was the first developing country to commit to a reduction target at a time when the world was looking at rich nations to announce new emissions slashing targets.
    The popularity is not for nothing. Teguh Surya from Walhi said that it was widely known that the President aims the UN Secretary-General seat, which was confirmed by an unnamed official from the Bappenas. Teuku Faizasyah, presidential spokesman for international affairs, denied the rumor.  While communications expert Effendi Ghazali said that many international communities had dubbed Yudhoyono the global champion of climate change, local activists have different views, based on concerns that Indonesia so far has implemented its pledge to cut emissions poorly.
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