The Managing Body for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (BP REDD+) is familiarising all stakeholders with the Forest Reference Emission Levels (FREL) as the final step before it is passed as a state document.
The government is set to subject the state document for discussion at the 20th United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCC), which will be held in Lima, Peru, on December 8.
“This is the result of all the hard work put in for nine years by the BP REDD+ and relevant ministries/institutions to formulate one exact figure to lower deforestation and forest degradation rates,” Chief of BP REDD+ Heru Prasetyo said here on Monday.
Among the ministries and government institutions involved in formulating the FREL are the BP REDD+, the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the National Space and Aviation Agency (LAPAN), the Geospatial Information Board (BIG), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Bogor-based Institute of Agriculture (IPB), the United Nations Office for REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia (UNORCID), and the Nature Conservation (TNC).
Through calculations, the government arrived at the 2000-2012 historical deforestation rate of 671,420 hectares per year, comprising 525,516 hectares of mineral land and 145,904 hectares of peatlands.
Furthermore, the forest degradation rate was recorded at 425,296 hectares per year, which included 409,073 hectares of mineral land and 16,223 hectares of peatlands.
With this simple projection, emissions from deforestation and forest degradation till 2020 were found to equal the average annual historical emission between 2000 and 2012 and emissions from peat decomposition, including derivative emissions. Therefore, FREL for deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia will reach 439 MtCO2e (equivalent to 439 million metric tons of carbon dioxide) per year in 2020.
The BP REDD+ chief noted that the UNFCCC will technically study the Indonesian FREL to serve as a national reference in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation under the framework of REDD+ in Indonesia.
