A report by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) revealed that only less than 5 percent of forests in five provinces nominated to implement a climate partnership with Norway have legal border status.
The five provinces, Riau, Jambi, Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and Papua, are the options for REDD pilot project hosts. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to choose one among the five as host to the pilot project this month.
Central Kalimantan is recorded to have 15 million hectares of forest, East Kalimantan 14 million hectares, Papua 40 million hectares, Riau 9 million hectares and Jambi 2.17 million hectares.
The report said border status that had been legally defined in Central Kalimantan province was only less than 1 percent, East Kalimantan 4 percent, Papua with 5 percent, Riau 6 percent and Jambi 1 percent.
Executive director of Greenomics Indonesia, Elfian Effendi warned that such poor boundary status would make it difficult for Indonesia to claim its emission cut with Norway.
“It would be hard for Indonesia to run the MRV system,” he said.
The MRV is an international scheme where all emission reductions made from the forest should be measured, reported and verified in the field.
Indonesia and Norway has signed a US$1 billion climate deal with some $800 million of the money to be provided based on the tons of emission cuts through reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).
In 2011, the pilot project will be held in one selected province and the host province is required to stop issuing licenses for natural forests and peatland conversion.
Elfian urged the government to settle border status of the forest in order to avoid rampant conflicts with local people and the overlapping permits in the use of forests. “The government seems to focus only on the establishment of institutions of the MRV and REDD without paying attention to the border problem,” he said.
Millions of Indonesians currently live in or near forest areas, often in conflict, as no formal rights have been granted to the local people.
Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto denied that the lack of legal border status would have a negative effect on the implementation of the MRV scheme.
“The two countries have agreed the MRV would be made based on satellite images to monitor land cover changes,” he said.
Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan earlier unveiled plans to hire a third party to accelerate the project to determine forest borders, including those between state forests and community forests.
As of July, the Forestry Ministry has completed drawing up 219,606 kilometers of border lines for 282,873 square kilometers of forests.
The ministry planned to define another 25,000 kilometers of forest boundaries over the next four years.
