Norway has signed a climate deal worth USD 1 billion with Indonesia which will see Jakarta agree to a two-year ban on new permits to fell the country’s natural forests. USD 30 million has already been released by Norway with the rest due to reach Indonesia once the country can prove its greenhouse gases have been reduced.
According to Norway’s environment minister, Erik Solheim, more aid is still needed from rich countries if the forests are to be saved.
“One billion dollars is a huge amount of money but Indonesia needs quite substantially more to be able to conserve and sustainably manage its forests,” Solheim told Reuters at a meeting in Jakarta with Indonesian officials. “The United States should come in, Japan, other European nations could come into this scheme to make it robust enough,” he added.
At last year’s climate summit in Copenhagen, Britain, Japan, Australia, France and Norway agreed to provide USD 3.5 billion over the next two years to help save the world’s forests. Total pledges rose to USD 4 billion in May after a meeting in Oslo, but Norway remains the biggest contributor.
Tropical forests in Indonesia soak up vast amounts of carbon dioxide, but are under threat from bio-fuel and agriculture cultivation. “The logic in the past was that you can make money from destroying the forest, you cannot make money from protecting the forest. That logic must be changed,” said Solheim.