POLICY
JAKARTA (FORESTHINTS.NEWS) - The UK government recently announced (Mar 12) that it will provide new funding of £150 million to protect tropical rainforests, including those in Indonesia. This funding, according to the UK government, "will help protect 2.1 million hectares of tropical rainforests".
The UK's Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said that “the impact of deforestation is devastating - on those vulnerable rainforest communities, and on global efforts to combat climate change. And the health of the earth's tropical forests is critical to the health of our planet - we need to do all we can to protect and preserve this vital ecosystem."
Meanwhile, the country’s International Environment Minister Lord Goldsmith pointed out that “deforestation is not only a major contributor to climate change, it is responsible for catastrophic biodiversity loss and it undermines the livelihoods of many hundreds of millions of people who depend on forests. So the UK is absolutely committed to tackling global deforestation."
Indonesia’s experiences
In response to the announcement of this new climate funding initiative, Indonesia's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahendra Siregar shared a written statement (Mar 18) outlining Indonesia's experiences regarding the level of international climate finance support as part of efforts to achieve a climate agreement.
“It (most international climate finance pledges) is far from a reality. As far as our experience teaches us, it’s self-generated resources, especially financial, that really pay dividends for sustainable and green program success,” he stated.
The vice minister pointed out that “International support, particularly climate finance, was expected to play a big part in achieving a climate agreement, (but) it is a big disappointment.”
Lowest level in Indonesia’s history
Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, as reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Mar 3), announced earlier this month that the country's deforestation rate had dropped drastically, by 75.03%, in 2019/2020 compared to 2018/2019, as shown in the first chart below.
The second chart depicts Indonesia's deforestation trend from 2011/2012 to 2019/2020, indicating an extremely sharp drop in the most recent reporting period to the lowest level in Indonesia's history.
Minister Nurbaya has repeatedly emphasized that Indonesia’s commitment to reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is boosted by annual budget power of over USD300 million derived from the annual state budget, as reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS in September last year.
How big is 2.1 million hectares?
The extent of the tropical rainforests targeted for protection purposes by the UK's new government funding is equivalent to 2.3% of Indonesia's total natural tropical forest cover, which currently spans 90.1 million hectares, or about 3.7 times the size of the UK.
The targeted 2.1 million hectares is also equivalent to 3.18% of the total area covered by Indonesia's permanent moratorium on development in primary forests and peatlands, amounting to more than 66 million hectares of significantly forested areas.
The area protected by the permanent moratorium, equal to 2.7 times the size of the UK, constitutes the majority of the 90.1 million hectares of the country’s total existing natural tropical forest cover.
This huge expanse of natural tropical forest cover makes Indonesia a global superpower in addressing the climate crisis, especially in terms of carbon sequestration and storage, as previously reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Mar 5).
Minister Nurbaya also recently revealed that from 2018/2019 to 2019/2020, there had been a steep decline of 81.76% in the deforestation rate of the Leuser Ecosystem, a landscape of over 2.6 million hectares and the only place on earth serving as a co-habitat for multiple flagship species such as Sumatran orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos, as also reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Mar 11).
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POLICY
JAKARTA (FORESTHINTS.NEWS) - The UK government recently announced (Mar 12) that it will provide new funding of £150 million to protect tropical rainforests, including those in Indonesia. This funding, according to the UK government, "will help protect 2.1 million hectares of tropical rainforests".
The UK's Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said that “the impact of deforestation is devastating - on those vulnerable rainforest communities, and on global efforts to combat climate change. And the health of the earth's tropical forests is critical to the health of our planet - we need to do all we can to protect and preserve this vital ecosystem."
Meanwhile, the country’s International Environment Minister Lord Goldsmith pointed out that “deforestation is not only a major contributor to climate change, it is responsible for catastrophic biodiversity loss and it undermines the livelihoods of many hundreds of millions of people who depend on forests. So the UK is absolutely committed to tackling global deforestation."
Indonesia’s experiences
In response to the announcement of this new climate funding initiative, Indonesia's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Mahendra Siregar shared a written statement (Mar 18) outlining Indonesia's experiences regarding the level of international climate finance support as part of efforts to achieve a climate agreement.
“It (most international climate finance pledges) is far from a reality. As far as our experience teaches us, it’s self-generated resources, especially financial, that really pay dividends for sustainable and green program success,” he stated.
The vice minister pointed out that “International support, particularly climate finance, was expected to play a big part in achieving a climate agreement, (but) it is a big disappointment.”
Lowest level in Indonesia’s history
Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, as reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Mar 3), announced earlier this month that the country's deforestation rate had dropped drastically, by 75.03%, in 2019/2020 compared to 2018/2019, as shown in the first chart below.
The second chart depicts Indonesia's deforestation trend from 2011/2012 to 2019/2020, indicating an extremely sharp drop in the most recent reporting period to the lowest level in Indonesia's history.
Minister Nurbaya has repeatedly emphasized that Indonesia’s commitment to reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is boosted by annual budget power of over USD300 million derived from the annual state budget, as reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS in September last year.
How big is 2.1 million hectares?
The extent of the tropical rainforests targeted for protection purposes by the UK's new government funding is equivalent to 2.3% of Indonesia's total natural tropical forest cover, which currently spans 90.1 million hectares, or about 3.7 times the size of the UK.
The targeted 2.1 million hectares is also equivalent to 3.18% of the total area covered by Indonesia's permanent moratorium on development in primary forests and peatlands, amounting to more than 66 million hectares of significantly forested areas.
The area protected by the permanent moratorium, equal to 2.7 times the size of the UK, constitutes the majority of the 90.1 million hectares of the country’s total existing natural tropical forest cover.
This huge expanse of natural tropical forest cover makes Indonesia a global superpower in addressing the climate crisis, especially in terms of carbon sequestration and storage, as previously reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Mar 5).
Minister Nurbaya also recently revealed that from 2018/2019 to 2019/2020, there had been a steep decline of 81.76% in the deforestation rate of the Leuser Ecosystem, a landscape of over 2.6 million hectares and the only place on earth serving as a co-habitat for multiple flagship species such as Sumatran orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos, as also reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Mar 11).
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