The future of a
much-vaunted $30 million Australian project to protect Indonesian forests for
their carbon is in doubt after an independent review found it is not the best
use of the money.
The project on the island of Sumatra was announced by Labor in
early 2010 to international fanfare, but so far there has been little detail
about the project's design.
It is understood
there has been no actual on-ground work in Sumatra and officials to date have
done research only.
It is the second
Australian-Indonesian carbon project to face setbacks. The Herald reported in
March that a $47 million project to restore peatland in Kalimantan, launched in
2007, had quietly been scaled back and was suffering major delays.
Indonesia is
recognised as the world's fifth-largest producer of greenhouse gases, with 60
per cent of its emissions coming from rapid deforestation and associated
activities.
The review of
Australia's Indonesian carbon programs, costing $100 million overall, found the
Sumatran project ''may not be the most effective utilisation of available
funding and that the changing policy context provides an opportunity for
reconsideration of the proposal''.
A spokesman for
the Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, said Australia was discussing with
the Indonesian government alternative approaches to work in Sumatra.
''Work has not
started on the ground because we have not yet agreed on the revised scope of
work,'' the spokesman said.
The Sumatra
project is a pilot for a proposed global system, known as Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation, in which developing nations could earn
money from carbon credits created from forest preservation projects by selling
them to rich countries for use in meeting their emission reduction targets.
The independent review was handed to the government early last
year, but was only made public by the Australian overseas aid agency AusAID in
recent weeks.
It calls for the
''reconsideration'' of the Sumatra pilot in light of the challenges and delays
in the Kalimantan project and the emergence of other Indonesian forest schemes,
including a $1 billion investment by Norway.
Sumber :
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/30m-sumatra-forest-deal-in-doubt-after-concerns-over-funding-20120514-1yn48.html
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