While some countries, including the United States, are pushing for a market-driven REDD, concerns over its effectiveness mean nations will likely opt for a scheme that only gradually introduces it into the market when they meet in Copenhagen in December to decide Kyoto’s successor, he said. But there are catches. CIFOR (Centre for International Forestry Research) estimates it would cost 20 billion to 30 billion dollars a year to cut global deforestation by half.

However, Teras called over the weekend for a more detailed explanation of how funds acquired from the trading scheme would be distributed. “The one thing that is very important here is to consider simple regulations, including funding issues,” Teras said, speaking at the 8th Meeting of the Asia Forest Partnership and AFP Dialogue: Redd and Combatting Illegal Logging held in Bali. “[The regulation] also needs to elaborate on the rights and obligations of the communities living in or near the forests.”

Talks on the role of forests in climate change should not be limited to the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation, a program also known as REDD, an environmental expert said on Friday. ‘We have a new term, REDD Plus, which is not just about reducing emissions but also relates to the roles of conservation, sustainable forest management and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries,’ Daniel Murdiyarso, a climate change scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor), said at the 8th Asia Forest Partnerships conference. The AFP dialogue, ‘REDD and Combating Illegal Logging’ ended in Bali on Friday.

Originally REDD schemes offered incentives to companies in an attempt to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of forest areas. ‘It is very likely the REDD-plus will be agreed upon at the Copenhagen meeting,’ Daniel Murdiyarso, a climate expert from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), told a conference in Bali on Friday. ‘There is a general consensus that REDD activities are to be broadened.’

Law enforcers have been unable to catch the big fish in illegal logging despite a decline in the number of cases, raising fears among officials of an international backlash that may threaten ongoing talks on carbon trading in the forestry sector. Of 597 people convicted of illegal logging in the past two years, 326 were sentenced to less than a year in jail and 128 to less than two years. Forest experts gathered in Bali on Friday to discuss the link between tackling illegal logging and implementing carbon reduction programs from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). The annual forest conference organized by the Asia Forest Partnership (AFP) has focused on illegal logging issues since 2002.

Indonesia plays an important role in holding billions of tons peat carbon sinks which, if released, could aggravate global warming and endanger life on earth.

Indonesia is host to 34 billion tons of peat carbon sinks, most of which are to be found in Riau province and Kalimantan. In Kalimantan, which is the world`s third largest island, there are 5,769,246 hectares of peat forests with 10.183 billion tons of carbon sinks, Daniel Murdiyarso of the Center for International Forest Research (CIFOR), said in Denpasar, Bali, on Friday.

Organized crime syndicates are eyeing the nascent forest carbon credit industry as a potentially lucrative new opportunity for fraud, an Interpol environmental crime official said on Friday. “If you are going to trade any commodity on the open market, you are creating a profit and loss situation. There will be fraudulent trading of carbon credits,” he told Reuters in an interview at a forestry conference in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Indonesia memiliki cadangan karbon gambut nasional sebanyak 34 gigaton dan terbanyak di Provinsi Riau dan Pulau Kalimantan. Demikian dikatakan Peneliti Senior Pusat Penelitian Kehutanan Internasional (CIFOR), Daniel Murdiyarso. “Sebut saja cadangan, bagian dari cadangan yang terlepas menjadi emisi gas rumah kaca dengan laju sekitar 2,4 gigaton per tahun. Bisa dibayangkan peran besar hutan gambut tropis Indonesia,” katanya di Nusa Dua, Bali, Jumat (29/5). Murdiyarso berada di Bali sebagai salah satu pembicara dalam Kemitraan Kehutanan Asia (AFP) Kedelapan, di Bali.