The Prime Minister called for a global centre to coordinate research on clean-energy technology, saying innovations should be viewed as “public goods” that poorer countries could afford. “Climate friendly and environmentally sound technologies should be viewed as global public goods,” Manmohan Singh told a conference on clean technology in New Delhi. Singh said the world should look at creating a platform to bring together global resources to deliver technologies that can transform entire industries.”We have good examples to guide us, including the ITER or fusion energy project and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CIFOR),” he said. The story also appeared in Reuters US, The Hindu Business Line and Business World.

New State Minister for the Environment Gusti Muhammad Hatta has pledged to take tough action to save the country’s natural environment by focusing on climate change, forest fires and critical river basins in his first 100-day program. Gusti, who was still surprised by his appointment to the environmental post, replaced Rachmat Witoelar, who was formerly the president of the Conference of Parties (COP) on climate change in Bali in 2007. In terms of forest fires, Gusti, who was formerly a consultant to the Center of International Forest Research (CIFOR), said that he would seek a workable solution to prevent forest fires in the coming years.

The Orang Rimba, who live in the Jambi forest, make their living by collecting forest products. The forest is of great importance to them, both for sustenance and for spiritual purposes. However, illegal logging and agricultural expansion have led to widespread forest loss. Conversion of forest land to oil palm plantation is also widespread. Most experts now agree that there can be no solution to climate change without forests. The question now is how new REDD schemes can be engineered in order to maximize the benefit to local people, who are in the best position to protect the forests they depend on. But they will want assurances that basic needs, such as the need to combat illiteracy among the “Anak Rimba”, can be delivered if they are to support REDD projects. “Lack of clear rights on forest usage is the main reason why indigenous peoples like the Anak Rimba are questioning their future like this,” says Stibniati Atmadja of the Center for International Forestry Research.

Para ahli dari Asia Tenggara (ASEAN) dan Korea, berkumpul di Bogor selama dua hari, 14-15 Oktober, untuk mengikuti lokakarya yang membahas skema pengurangan emisi dari deforestasi dan degradasi hutan (REDD), yang akan diperjuangkan bersama. Para peserta itu diantaranya adalah Hour Lim Chhun dari Kamboja, Dr Ladawan Puangchit Thailand, Niyom Chanhthalangsy dari Laos, Dr Christine Fletcher dari Malaysia, Ohn Lwin dari Myanmar. Selain itu, Dr Antonio P Carandang dari Filipina, Prof Bambang Hero dari Indonesia dan Dr Phan Minh Sang dari Vietnam, dan dari ASEAN-Korea Environmental Cooperation (AKECOP), serta beberapa elemenseperti dari Pusat Penelitian Kehutanan Antarbangsa (CIFOR), WWF Indonesia dan beberapa pakar kehutanan lainnya.

A new study has determined that keeping tropical rain forests intact is a better way to combat climate change than replacing them with biofuel plantations. planting biofuels on degraded Imperata grasslands instead of tropical rain forests would lead to a net removal of carbon in 10 years, the researchers found. Conserving the existing forests is not only good for the climate as the emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced, but also generates additional benefits, such as biodiversity protection, said Dr. Daniel Murdiyarso of the Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry (CIFOR). Biofuels have been touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, one of the major contributors to global warming.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the lofty targets during the G-20 meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh in late September, pledging to cut carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020, and up to 41 percent if international assistance was offered. Daniel Murdiyarso, a climate change scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor) in Bogor, said the government targets could play a significant role in pushing for land use reform and the protection of forests to be included in climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen in December.

Berkaitan dengan lalu lintas paling sibuk Selat Malaka, pembajakan mencapai level yang meresahkan di awal tahun reformasi dan menjadi dorongan yang kuat bagi Singapura, Malaysia, dan Thailand untuk melakukan kerja sama. Menurut laporan terakhir dari Pusat Penelitian Kehutanan Internasional (CIFOR), pemotongan kayu secara ilegal menimbulkan kerugian hingga 40 juta meter kubik setiap tahunnya. Jumlah kayu dan produk kayu yang diekspor secara ilegal telah menurun dari 10 juta meter kubik/tahun menjadi 3 juta meter kubik.

REDD had two implications for indigenous people here: the scheme could exacerbate land conflicts or it could ease the burden in protecting forests. The REDD scheme could threaten indigenous people if it follows the same land concession system used now, because that system is the source of ongoing conflicts with both forest concessionaires and industrial forest estates. It could be a good opportunity because it puts the indigenous people and the scheme on the same page – to prevent deforestation and forest degradation. The director general of the Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research, Frances Seymour, said the scheme should give indigenous people more say at the national and international levels.