Indonesia Trades Debt for Rainforest Protection

by Emily Gertz

categories: Activism, Drowning Nations, Environmental Justice, Forests, Greenhouse Gas, Imagining the Future, International Action, Jobs & Economy, Wilderness, Wildlife & Biodiversity

Published July 02, 2009 @ 08:52AM PT

The Obama administration has forgiven Indonesia $30 million in debt payments. In return, the government of the Southeast Asian archipelago nation has agreed to spend the money on protecting the rainforests of Sumatra, the sixth largest island in the world.

The deal was done with the financial and negotiating assistance of the non-governmental organization Conservation International, which announced it yesterday. CI said in a statement that, "The swap means that the Government of Indonesia will pay the nearly $30 million to a trust over eight years which will issue grants for critical forest conservation and restoration work in Sumatra."

Preservation of the world's remaining forests is crucial to blunting the worst impacts of human-propelled climate change. Forests sequester massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, and help preserve soils and other plants that also store carbon. Keeping this climate-disrupting carbon out of the atmosphere may help to keep temperature increases lower over the coming decades.

Deforestation usually results in burning of biomass that releases all that carbon back into the atmosphere, and needless to say destroys any future potential for sequestration.

Much as with the vicious cycle of human-propelled heating in the Arctic (as temperatures warm, more ice cover vanishes, leaving open expanses of water to soak up more solar heat, which in turn warms both ocean and surface temperatures and melts more sea ice...), climate change poses a circular risk to forests. "New findings, announced at last month’s Copenhagen “Congress” to discuss climate issues, estimate that a 3C temperature rise will result in a 75% loss of forests," wrote Sustainablog recently. "The report’s sponsoring organization, the UK Meteorological Office’s climate change research division, has said that a 4C temperature rise - consistent with current human activities - will cause 85% of trees to disappear."

The debt-for-nature swap between the US and Indonesia, the first in Indonesia as well as largest ever under the U.S. Tropical Forest Conservation Act, will hit eco-justice and biodiversity preservation notes:

The debt reduction will help to provide livelihoods for the people of the island and ensure the survival of some of the world’s most endangered species – including the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinos sumatrensis), Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), orangutan (Pongo abelii) and four endemic primates from the Mentawai Islands.

...It will lead to increased protection of 13 important areas of Sumatran rainforest which are home to hundreds of species of important and threatened plants and animals.

CI lists the areas to be preserved and protected as:

1. The Northern Sumatra Region:
   Seulawah Heritage Forest
   Leuser Ecosystem and Leuser National Park
   Western Toba Watershed
   Batang Toru Forest Range
   Angkola Lowland Wilderness Tropical Forest Area
   Batang Gadis National Park
2. Central Sumatra Region

   Siak Kampar Peninsula
   Tesso Nilo Ecosystem
   Bukit Tigapuluh National Park
   Kerinci Seblat Ecosystem
   Siberut National Park and the rest of Mentawai Archipelago

3. Southern Sumatra Region

Way Kambas National Park
Bukit Barisan Selatan Forest Range

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Image: "The Sumatran Tiger, (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is threatened with extinction through poaching and loss of its forest habitat. These tigers are set to receive a boost after the US Government agreed to write off $30 million in debt from the government of Indonesia in return for increased protection of the forests of Sumatra."
Copyright: © CI/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn