A Critical Note on Indonesia\u27s Response to REDD+ Initiatives

Forestry was a rather ignored aspect in early climate talks. For many years, discussions on climate change usually put emphasis on the issue of stationary sources, energy sector, and fossil fuel. Even after afforestation / reforestation activities were allowed under the banner of CDM, it was still largely ignored, and this added to the gloom surrounding forestry discussions. Such a bleak picture of forestry position in climate change negotiations has gradually changed, in particular due to the availability of more scientific evidence demonstrating the importance of forestry sector in mitigating GHG emissions. Today forestry has increasingly gained considerable emphasis in climate talks, especially since emissions reduction from deforestation and forest degradation (hereinafter referred to as “REDD” - Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) has inevitably been considered an integral part of mitigation efforts. Despite having gained overwhelming attention and support, REDD has nevertheless suffered from controversies on various important issues, one of which is the issue of benefit sharing and the protection of indigenous people’s rights. Since most of indigenous people in Indonesia are also forest dependent people, concerns have been raised on the possibility that REDD activities will eventually disadvantage indigenous people and disregard their rights to forest resources. This paper attempts to discuss how Indonesia’s policies on REDD have dealt with the issue of benefit sharing and the protection of indigenous people’s rights. To answer these questions, this paper will also analyze some proposals on the implementation of REDD, which are relevant to the issue of benefit sharing. In addition, the position of indigenous people in Indonesian agrarian law and their customary forest rights are of paramount importance to the discussions on benefit sharing. This paper will also discuss some comparison to past lessons learnt from implementation of the CDM, and how it can improve policies crucial to REDD implementation, such as with regard to bureaucratic barriers and public consultation practices. The paper is structured as follows. After the introductory section, we will provide discussions on some proposals to implement REDD. These proposals are concerned with financial mechanisms, the scale of REDD activities, the determination of a baseline to account for REDD credits, the prevention of corrupt behavior likely to undermine the effectiveness of REDD activities, the lessons learnt from CDM practices, and the issue of benefit sharing. Section 2 will provide discussions on REDD pilot projects in Indonesia, and how Indonesian Government has responded to REDD initiatives. Section 3 will discuss the importance of incorporating indigenous people’s rights in REDD policies, and ensuring effective First Prior Informed Consent implementation. Section 4 deals specifically with the protection of indigenous people’s rights according to Indonesian law, in particular the Basic Agrarian Law and the Forestry Law. Conflicts and violation of indigenous people’s rights will also be discussed in this section. Section 5 will provide discussions on carbon credits, and how these credits could benefit indigenous people. Some concluding remarks will be given in Section 6