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Post Info TOPIC: Asia governors endorse U.N. forest carbon scheme
Anonymous

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Asia governors endorse U.N. forest carbon scheme
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Asia governors endorse U.N. forest carbon scheme

Reuters, Nov 12, 2009

SINGAPORE, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Six provincial governors from Indonesia,
Laos and the Philippines on Thursday backed an expanded U.N. scheme
aimed at protecting and conserving forests in return for carbon
credits.

In a joint statement after a meeting on the sidelines of an annual
gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders, the governors said the scheme,
called REDD+, held the promise of boosting livelihoods for local
communities, a key step in curbing deforestation.

But fair distribution of wealth was key.

"People in the cities have better education, they are richer but
actually they produce carbon poison," said Abang Tambul Hussin, regent
of Kapuas Hulu in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province.

"The communities in the forest area have to be more prosperous," he
told the meeting, convened by the Asian Development Bank and
ecosystems service firm Carbon Conservation.

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) aims to
reward developing countries for saving their forests in return for
carbon offsets that they can sell to rich nations.

The United Nations hopes REDD will be part of a broader global climate
pact from 2013, ushering in a potentially multi-billion dollar boost
to the global carbon market.

REDD+ expands the idea to protection, restoration and sustainable
management of forests.

The governors said that the REDD+ "approach offers tremendous promise
in creating a new set of incentives for the preservation and
sustainable management of forests", and urged world leaders to push
the concept at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month.

FIRES, ILLEGAL LOGGING

Four of the governors were from Indonesia, including Central and West
Kalimantan on Borneo island, South Sumatra and West Papua. Attapeu
province in Laos and Albay province in the Philippines also endorsed
the scheme, with some of the provinces already starting pilot REDD+
projects.

Indonesia is on the front line of effort to save the world's remaining
tropical forests, with deforestation responsible for more than 10
percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions.

But the meeting also underscored the challenges facing the scheme that
many rich nations support in the hope of offsetting some of their
planet-warming emissions at home.

Ensuring the money from forest carbon credits flowed to local
communities, awareness of the scheme on the ground, poverty, fighting
illegal deforestation and curbing the expansion of palm oil estates
were among the key issues facing REDD+, they said.

"It's very important for us that people know exactly that if they take
care of the forest they can have also the money," Central Kalimantan
Governor Agustin Teras Narang told Reuters.

"The challenge for us is to maintain our forests, especially dealing
with fires, illegal logging," but added the threat from illegal
logging had eased and that the province would cap palm oil plantation
coverage.

"Maybe at the end of this month, about 900,000 hectares. Enough," he
said. Central Kalimantan has lost about a third of its forest area and
has Borneo's largest peat carbon store.

The governor of West Papua, Abraham Octavianus Atururi, said his
province still had 85 percent forest cover but pointed to the region's
poverty, population of under one million, limited infrastructure and
problems in monitoring illegal land clearing.

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Anonymous

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So what about all those trucks with trees so big that only four or five logs fit on a big truck that I see in Attapue?

When those trucks stop carrying logs, I'll believe. Until then I don't believe anything any "governor" says. All that talk of money to the locals and stuff is bunkum. Coruption cures all.

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