‘Opec for rainforests’ plants seeds of hope on emissions
Indonesia, Brazil and Congo reveal protection plan and push for carbon funding mechanism
Environmentalists in Indonesia are welcoming the new alliance formed between the nation, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – the world’s three biggest rainforest countries.
But they warn the partnership needs transparent new payment mechanisms and far stronger rule enforcement to fully protect the planet’s tropical jungles and reduce carbon emissions.
The three nations are home to 52 per cent of the world’s rainforests, with Brazil holding the largest share and Indonesia the least. The alliance, nicknamed “Opec for rainforests” (Opec being the multinational organisation coordinating fossil fuel production and exports), aims to seek a new and sustainable funding mechanism.
The idea is that rich countries in the Global North pay compensation to the three countries for their rainforest conservation efforts, which would help to reduce threats from agriculture, like growing specific trees for palm oil production, and from illegal logging.
“We do need cooperation with others to achieve common goals. Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much,” said Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, shortly before the G20 Summit in Bali began last month.
He said Brazil, Indonesia and Congo “have a common interest in collaborating to increase the value of their tropical forests, and to ensure that these tropical forests continue to benefit the climate and people”.
Under the deal, the countries will together try to determine the price of a tonne of carbon, which firms in many countries can buy to offset emissions.
Last year Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, said it would implement a carbon tax of US$2.10 per tonne of carbon on coal plants. This is cheaper than what is being offered by Western countries – in France, it is US$49.30 per tonne – but comparable to Asian countries, including Japan’s US$2.40 or Singapore’s US$3.70.
The tax was supposed to be imposed in April this year, but Jakarta delayed the plan indefinitely, in part because of problems in the global energy market due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kiki Taufik, head of Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s Indonesian forests campaign, welcomed the alliance but said any deal based on carbon markets was a “fake solution”.
“Carbon markets is a good initiative as big companies and countries in the Global North can provide money to Indonesia and other countries by buying their carbon credits, but this can’t be a permanent solution,” Kiki said.
“At the same time, they [firms, countries in Global North] still produce large emissions, rich people are still using their private jets, they use fossil energy as they please. They can do all this and then claim they have already paid money to developing countries. That doesn’t solve the climate crisis problem.”
Unlike Brazil and Congo, Indonesia has been able to curb its deforestation rate in the last five years. The 202,905 hectares of primary forest it lost last year was a lot but was nevertheless a 25 per cent drop on the amount that disappeared in 2020.
Environmental organisation the World Resources Institute said this showed the Indonesian government’s efforts to tackle deforestation were working.
These include increased fire monitoring and prevention efforts following vast forest and peat fires in 2015 and a moratorium on primary forest and peatland conversion. The moratorium, permanent since 2019, dictates that more than 60 million hectares of primary forest and peatland cannot be cleared for palm oil plantations and logging operations.
The alliance is not the only source of money from which Jakarta can be rewarded for its success fighting deforestation. In October, Norway agreed to pay US$56 million to Indonesia for preventing 11.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released from its rainforests in 2016-2017.
However, Indonesia’s gain in curbing deforestation could be threatened by President Joko Widodo’s infrastructure drive, which may sacrifice the forests to boost the nation’s economy, conservationists warned.
“Behind the ambitious plan to reduce emissions, especially in the FOLU sector, there is a development plan that may sacrifice natural forests in Indonesia. The threat of deforestation in Indonesia comes more from within, not from outside [because] the government still has a view that development requires deforestation,” said Mufti Barri, executive director at environmental organisation Forest Watch Indonesia.
Last month, Greenpeace Indonesia released a report that showed that the government’s planned food programme threatens indigenous territory in Borneo – a huge island, most of it under Indonesia’s jurisdiction – as well as crucial biodiversity as it may involve grabbing 3.2 million hectares of land in Papua, the western half of New Guinea island, also controlled by Jakarta.
Jakarta initiated the large-scale agricultural scheme to respond to food supply concerns at the start of the pandemic and reduce food imports.
“External funding is not the main [indicator] in our success or failure in reducing the rate of deforestation. The success must be demonstrated by maintaining sources of livelihood and guaranteeing the safety of lives, so that people won’t become anxious that disasters may occur from losing their forests,” Mufti said.
In the new alliance, Brasilia could learn from Jakarta how to implement forest-friendly policies, such as the primary forest moratorium, Kiki said.
“On the other hand, Indonesia can learn how to introduce effective measurement, reporting, and verification processes from Brazil. They used to have a good mechanism in place to monitor their forests, and this tool is accessible to the public,” Kiki said.
“In Indonesia, we don’t have that kind of transparency. The public cannot access databases of companies that possess cultivation or rights or concessions, even though … they are public data.”