9/28/2011 - New UNEP
Report Spells Out Green Economy Benefits
for Indonesia's People and Biodiversity
Jakarta / Nairobi, 28 September 2011 - Conserving
key rainforests in Indonesia could generate
revenues three times greater than felling
them for palm oil
plantations.
In doing so, such actions
can also deliver multiple Green Economy
benefits from combating climate change,
securing water supplies and improved livelihoods
while throwing a life line to the world's
remaining populations of critically endangered
Sumatran orangutans.
The findings come in
a new report, requested by the Republic
of Indonesia, from the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP), under its Great Apes Survival Partnership
(GRASP).
Under the UN climate
convention, governments are negotiating
a mechanism to provide payments for Reduced
Emissions from Deforestation and forest
Degradation plus additional forest "activities"
(REDD+), with the aim of halving deforestation
by 2020.
It is estimated that
currently close to 18% of greenhouse gas
emissions-equivalent to around six Gigatonnes
(Gt) of C02- are linked with land use change,
mainly through forest loss. In 2004, this
amounted to more greenhouse gas emissions
than those of the global transport sector.
The new report estimates
that many of the coastal, peat-rich forests
of Sumatra-where dense populations of the
last 6,600 orangutans survive-may be worth
up to a present value of $22,000 a hectare
at current carbon prices (range $7,420-22,090).
Cleared for the same
land may generate revenues from palm oil
plantations at less than $7,400 a hectare.
The carbon value of
avoided deforestation even in ordinary forests
ranges from $3,711 - 11,185 per ha - and
is much higher than other land-use practices
such as agroforestry, sustainable logging
and coffee.
The report, involving
conservation organizations PanEco and YEL
and World Agroforestry Centre, calls for
more international support for REDD+ projects
in key orangutan forests.
Between 2005 -2010,
Indonesia had accelerating forest loss compared
to 2000-2005 and is within the highest five
countries for percentage of primary forest
loss globally.
Between 1985 and 2007,
nearly half of the forest on Sumatra disappeared.
The two Indonesian provinces where Sumatran
orangutans occur, Aceh and North Sumatra,
have witnessed a total forest loss of over
22% and over 43%, respectively from 1985-
2008/9.
Currently the Government
of Norway is supporting the Government of
Indonesia in its efforts to reduce deforestation
and illegal logging under a $1 billion agreement
that includes a two-year suspension of new
concessions that convert peatlands and primary
forests.
The new report, whose
findings come in the run up to the UN climate
convention meeting in Durban, South Africa,
indicates significant opportunities for
other international donors to extend REDD+
initiatives in Indonesia's Sumatra region
as well as other tropically-forested countries.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director, said:
"Prioritizing investments in sustainable
forestry including REDD+ projects can, as
this report demonstrates, deliver multiple
Green Economy benefits and not just in respect
to climate, orangutan conservation and employment
in natural resource management".
"The report indicates
that in Aceh and in North Sumatra there
has been a reported 50 per cent decline
in water discharges in as many as 80 per
cent of rivers as a result of deforestation-losses
that have serious implications for agriculture
and food security including rice production
and human health," he added.
Deforestation is also
cited in the report-The Orangutan and Economics
of Forest Conservation in Sumatra-as a key
cause for increased flooding that has impacted
over 500,000 people over the last decade.
Unsustainable logging
may also be linked to the over 500 fires
that have impacted the Tripa swamp forests
in Aceh province in the past ten years with
economic losses estimated at over $10 billion
between 2000 and 2010.
"The UN climate
convention meeting in Durban needs to make
progress on several fronts including REDD+
as one way of keeping a global temperature
to under 2 degree C. In doing so it can
send a strong and supportive signal to Rio+20
in June 2012 in terms of accelerating and
scaling up the full range of opportunities
for a sustainable 21st century," added
Mr. Steiner.
Erik Solheim, Norwegian
Minister of the Environment and International
Development, said his government was now
providing additional support to INTERPOL
towards building an enhanced collaboration
among United Nations agencies and others
to combat illegal logging.
"We recognize that
in order to make REDD+ a success, tackling
illegal logging and assisting governments
such as Indonesia with the capacity to combat
such crime, will be important," he
said.
"This study underlines
that investing and re-investing in forests
and the services they provide can be far
more profitable and with social and environmental
outcomes than trading away our common future
for short-term gains," said Mr. Solheim.
Some Key Findings from
the Report
The forested peatlands
of Sumatra are among the most efficient
carbon stores of any terrestrial ecosystem.
With nearly 100 million
hectares of state forest, Indonesia has
the world's third largest area of tropical
forest after Brazil and the Democratic Republic
of Congo, and the fourth largest carbon
stock globally.
Nearly half of Sumatra's
forests disappeared between 1985 and 2007.
In the last decade, close to 80 per cent
of deforestation in the Sumatra peatlands
was driven by the expansion of oil palm
plantations, while over 20 per cent was
due to other land uses, such as candlenut
or coffee production.
In the last two decades,
380,000 hectares of forest in Sumatra were
lost to illegal logging each year, with
an annual loss in carbon value estimated
at more than US $1 billion.
Less than 6,600 Sumatran
orangutans exist in the wild today, down
from an estimated 85,000 in 1900 (equivalent
to a 92% drop).
If this rate of decline
were to continue, the Sumatran orangutan
may become the first of the great apes living
today to go extinct in the wild. The report
warns that local populations in parts of
Sumatra could disappear as early as 2015.
Today only around 8,
640 km2 of orangutan habitat (0.5 per cent
of Indonesia's total area) remains on Sumatra.
Of this, 78 per cent is within the Leuser
Ecosystem, often located in coastal peat
swamp forests.
In Sumatra, the carbon
value of forests on non-peatlands is estimated
at $ 3,711 - 11,185 per hectare for a 25-year
period. This value is higher than that for
all other land uses assessed in the UNEP
report (such as agroforestry, sustainable
logging and coffee) except for oil palm,
which has a value in the range of that of
carbon (net present value of $ 7,832 per
ha).
For forests on peatlands,
which are densely populated by orangutans,
net present values for carbon credits from
avoided deforestation ($7,420 - 22,090 per
hectare for a 25-year period) are sufficient
to offset the opportunity costs for the
conversion of primary forest to oil palm
plantation.
The Indonesian government
is working with partners to formulate the
country's first REDD+ strategy, which is
founded on three basic principles: economic
development, maintenance of ecological balance
and intergenerational justice.
In 2009, the government
committed to reduce Indonesia's greenhouse
gas emissions by 26 per cent and by up to
41 per cent though the support of the international
community by the year 2020, primarily in
the forestry sector
Key Recommendations
To chart a way forward
for conserving orangutan populations in
Sumatra, while enhancing opportunities for
economic development, the UNEP report makes
several recommendations, including:
Designating new forested
areas in Sumatra for REDD+. These areas
should be selected by taking into account
the multiple benefits for carbon storage,
conserving orangutan habitat and for the
protection of ecosystem services
Maintain a master spatial
planning database on regional, provincial
and national levels to map defined boundaries
of protected forests to improve sustainable
land use planning
Further resource development,
including the expansion of palm oil plantations,
should be concentrated on land with low
current use value. Agricultural and timber
concessions on land with high conservation
value should be avoided
Improve the valuation
of the ecosystem services provided by Sumatra's
forests and establish income-generating
alternatives for areas that are important
for biodiversity such as sustainable tourism
The Orangutan and Economics
of Forest Conservation in Sumatra report
and E-books can be accessed for free at
www.grida.no and www.unep.org along with
free graphics for unrestricted use by the
media.
Download Orangutan video clips (copyrights
free): http://vimeo.com/album/1700820
The Great Apes Survival Partnership www.un-grasp.org.
UN REDD www.un-redd.org
