South Sulawesi Forest Carbon Surveyed

Firm begins assessing S. Sulawesi forests

Andi Hajramurni , The Jakarta Post , Makassar Tue, 06/09/2009 10:47 AM The Archipelago

United Nations-recommended consultancy Carbon Strategic Global Limited Pte. is now assessing and verifying the potential amount of carbon absorbed by 1.2 million hectares of protected forests in South Sulawesi's 23 regencies and municipalities, an official said Monday.

The study will become subject to global carbon trading next year, from which the money generated will be used by the South Sulawesi administration to finance forest protection and conservation as part of the global move to reduce carbon emissions, said South Sulawesi Forestry Agency head Idris Syukur.

"*The Australian-based consultancy* Carbon Strategic Global will be assessing and verifying our protected forests within the next six months," Idris told The Jakarta Post.

"After that, they will invite a UN team to certify *the assessment*, and they will look for buyers for *an equivalent amount of* carbon absorbed by our forests."

He added the administration could potentially earn up to Rp 5 billion (US$500,000) a month from its carbon trading, with carbon priced at between $10 and $15 a ton.
Such a trading scheme, however, is still under discussion in Bonn, Germany, and developed countries are not bound to it.

The discussion is expected to conclude by the end of this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The UN has only regulated a carbon-trading scheme for manufacturers willing to lower their coal consumption under the Kyoto Protocol, which took effect as of last year and will expire in 2012.
Carbon sells for $5 to $10 a ton under this scheme.

Idris said the administration would use the money it earned from carbon trading to reclaim destroyed forests and fund its regreening program.

He said the provincial forestry agency had designed a 447.94-hectare urban forest, while every municipality and regency had planted seedlings on 5-hectare areas as part of the administration's regreening program.

Agency data shows South Sulawesi has a total of 2.1 million hectares of forests, including 1.2 million hectares of protected forests, 488,000 hectares of limited production forests, 131,000 hectares of production forests, 23,600 hectares of converted production forests, and 242,000 hectares of preserved forests and national parks.

Idris said 300,000 hectares of forest in the province, or 15 percent of total forested areas, had been destroyed through illegal logging, clear-cutting for plantations and settlements and rotational planting.

The administration also plans to use the money to provide farmland for people living in and around forests, to encourage them to stop destroying forests to make ends meet, he said.