C Kalimantan Hosts REDD+ Pilot Project

"Together, we saw seedlings of native species being grown for re-planting and traveled in local canoes to look at the peat which, when deforested, is a major contributor of Indonesia?s carbon emissions."

According to the Australian embassy, this year the KFCP program will support the local community to grow and plant 1.2 million seedlings. So far Rp1.4 billion has been provided to villages for the establishment of these nurseries.

Moriarty said he hoped that by getting the local community involved in stopping further degradation of the peat, his government could both improve the livelihoods of the local community and also contribute to the global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

"I look forward to continuing the strong cooperation with the Ministry of Forestry, the Provincial and District Government and of course the strong involvement of the local community in tackling this global challenge," the ambassador further said.

The involvement of local villagers is a fundamental factor in the implementation of REDD+ projects, according to Dr Terry Sunderland, a senior scientist of Bogor (West Java)-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

"The involvement of local community or people living surrounding the forest area will boost the effectiveness in achieving the target," Terry said in a press statement recently.

Excluding local community in REDD+ projects could cause dear social and economic consequences, he said. The Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi)’s Central Kalimantan chapter, however, has warned that implementation of REDD+ schemes in Central Kalimantan Province was prone to conflict.

"This is so because many things in the program are not monitored and registered as the project’s executors are not transparent," Ari Rompas, the director of Walhi’s Central Kalimantan chapter, said in Palangkaraya, on September 18, 2011.

There had been social conflicts regarding natural resources and land ownerships involving local people, oil palm plantation companies and forest concession holders in the province, he said.

"Due to plantations and mining activities, there have been many social conflicts, which have even tended to become human rights violations," he said.