In 2007, packaging on Woolworth’s Select brand of toilet paper and tissues said the products were sourced from an environmentally managed company.

However, a report by Indonesia’s Centre for International Forestry Research last year found that APP relies on the clearing of natural forests in Sumatra for 60 to 70 per cent of its wood supply.

Woolworths removed the products from its shelves only to return them weeks later without the claims.

Similar article appeared in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

Environmentalists didn’t always like REDD. Many criticized the concept as an easy way out for polluters. And the principle behind it – getting credit for what existing forests already are doing – was rejected as a ploy that developed nations could use to say that they were meeting emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. But REDD is now seen as a leading solution to deforestation, which accounts for 20 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse-gas emissions – more than the transportation sector, according to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

“Desa kami mengalami banyak kemajuan setelah CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research, lembaga penelitian hutan tropis dunia yang berpusat di Bogor, red.) datang. Dulu tak pernah terbayang, desa kami akan terkenal dan dikunjungi banyak orang asing. Ada peneliti, peserta studi banding, dan turis,” tuturnya.

One of the world centers of expertise in the study of rainforest economics and the drivers of deforestation is the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), based at Bogor in Indonesia. Many researchers at CIFOR are concerned that negotiators are forgetting about these drivers in their naïve pursuit of REDD. They believe that, unless the incentives to destroy forests are tackled, then any program to stop deforestation will either be impossibly expensive or will fail altogether. In fact, they fear REDD could create its own perverse incentives for deforestation. CIFOR’s director, Frances Seymour—a development economist who has previously worked for the World Wildlife Fund and World Resources Institute—worries that during the period when REDD is being set up, countries would have a direct financial incentive to accelerate their national rates of deforestation, in order to raise their baseline and qualify for greater compensation later.

The government acknowledges that if current warming trends continue 2,000 of Indonesia’s 17,500 islands will disappear by 2050. There will also be a need for massive population migration because up to 50 per cent of Indonesia’s 230m inhabitants live along the coast. Daniel Murdiyarso, a climate change expert at the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in West Java, says the threat of rising sea levels cannot be underestimated. "We have the second longest coast line in the world after Canada, at 90,000km," he says. "So, it’s not just urban areas but also agricultural-based activities and other livelihoods in coastal areas."

Pusat Penelitian Kehutanan Internasional (CIFOR) yang berbasis di Bogor, Jawa Barat, akan menerima alokasi dana senilai tiga juta dolar dari Pemerintah Australia untuk mendukung upaya penanganan kerusakan hutan dunia. Dana itu berasal dari Inisiatif Karbon Hutan Internasional (IFCI) pemerintah Australia, demikian penjelasan pers bersama Menteri Perubahan Iklim dan Air, Penny Wong, dan Menteri Luar Negeri Stephen Smith, yang diterima ANTARA di Brisbane, Selasa.

Similar article appeared on Sinar Harapan and Overseas Service of Radio Republik Indonesia.

Australia will commit $4.5 million towards helping neighbouring countries reduce deforestation. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Monday that up to $3 million would go to the Indonesia-based Centre for International Forestry Research. The other $1.5 million would help non-government organisations work with developing countries on large-scale pilot projects designed to reduce deforestation.

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After Libération and Le Monde, RFI continues coverage about logging in the Congo Basin. In Le Grand Reportage de 19 May, Paolo explains the history of forest exploitation in Cameroon, the forest law of 1994 and FLEGT