Leon Budi Prasetyo, ilmuwan anggrek Cifor (Center for International Forestry Research) yang meneliti kawasan ini berani bertaruh, daya tarik anggrek alam di Selimbau melampaui petualangan anggrek pada dataran tinggi Peru. “Nenek-nenek pun bisa bertualang ke Sentarum. Jalur jalan kakinya sedikit dan setiap langkah perjalanan dapat ditempuh dengan menumpang perahu motor motor,” kata Leon yang oleh masyarakat Selimbau diberi gelar Ki Bagus Adji Langlang Buana atas usahanya mengenalkan konservasi anggrek kepada masyarakat.

Tulisan yang difasilitasi Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) ini mencoba mengingatkan kembali pentingnya merawat zona-zona kaya keragaman hayati, salah satunya yang terletak di jantung Kalimantan.

As for 1,000,000,000 U.S. dollars support result circumstance Prime minister and Yudoyono, president of Norway which serves joint chairman of the climatic forest meeting which is held in Oslo announced on the 26th. The international forestry research center (CIFOR) which has the headquarters in Indonesia worldwide biggest support has explained as a destruction of environment measure in bilateral.

The Norwegian commitment to provide Indonesia US$1 billion for forest conservation will help accelerate the Indonesian government achieve its goals on climate change and cut its gas emissions by 26 percent by 2020. The significant amount of the fund provided by Norway through Reducing Emissions under the Deforestation and Degradation Plus (REDD-Plus) scheme will change the way how forests in Indonesia are managed, Frances Seymour, director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said on Friday.

REDD allows developing nations to earn money by not chopping down their trees and preserving carbon-rich peatlands, seen as key to slowing climate change because forests soak up huge amounts of greenhouse gases. The Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry Research welcomed the deal, which they said could be “a game-changer in the drive to make REDD a reality”. Indonesia has vowed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent from business-as-usual levels by 2020, or by 41 percent with sufficient international support.

The story also appeared in Times of India.

But such pledges have often been met with skepticism, given Indonesia’s high levels of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency. The government has also been accused of sending out mixed signals. For example, it recently announced plans for a 4-million-acre agricultural development in the heavily forested eastern province of Papua. “It will not be easy to enforce this,” said Krystof Obidzinski, an expert at the Center for International Forestry Research, a nonprofit group in Indonesia. The deal is a model for action pending a more comprehensive global climate agreement, Mr. Obidzinski said, but it could be hobbled by such basic challenges as confusion over what land can be considered virgin forest. The deal, starting with pilot projects, would provide capital for projects that would help deter deforestation by increasing yields on existing cropland or by steering development to “degraded” land. But Mr. Obidzinski cautioned that much of the degraded land was still covered in forest.

That’s an improvement on a few years ago, but nowhere near enough to make a difference, Center for International Forestry Research scientist Herry Purnomo said. “Certification is one of the most effective instruments to help stop forest degradation and destruction, but it’s still far from enough to help save Indonesia’s forests,” he said

The story also appeared in Jakarta Globe, Yahoo! News, France24, Straits Times, Inforegion.pe, LKBN Antara, Peninsula Newspaper and Oman Daily Observer.

Australia is a big supporter of the initiative. It has already signed deals to protect forests in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. But most of the money for those deals was going to come from industry buying forest credits through the emissions trading scheme. With that scheme now on hold, the viability of the forest credits is now uncertain.