Norway pledged USD one billion to Indonesia from its public money to facilitate reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and Indonesian President Susilo Yudhoyono responded by promising to suspend deforestation activity in his country. No more peatland will be used for palm oil cultivation, he added, in what is being seen as a major initiative towards preserving and increasing the world's carbon sinks, particularly rainforests.
Degraded forests or their disappearance account for nearly 20 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions globally, and regenerating or preserving trees would be the most cost-effective way of reducing emissions worldwide. However, currently, global funding is being earmarked towards this initiative only so far as rainforests are concerned. That effectively leaves out countries like India and China. India's forest cover is almost 25 per cent of the country's total geographical area and its record in forest management has been good, with national and local initiatives with no funding from outside.
The proposal to preserve rainforests was first mooted by the coaltion for rainforest nations in Marrakesh 2005. Following discussions in the Bali 2007 summit of the UN Framework Convention on Climte Change, the REDD and REDD Plus proposal was taken up at the Copenhagen Cop-15 summit, 2009. Points of controversy include the rights of indigenous people who depend on forests for their livelihood and who have had a symbiotic relationship with forests since long. The effort is to include their concerns and create a holistic approach to forest management. Read the full article here.
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Source: Narayani Ganesh, TNN
