New Hope for Threatened Sumatran Rainforest
Auditors
Green-Light Innovative Carbon Finance Proposal
Embargoed Until February 7th at 9:00 am
EST
The Ulu Masen Forest Ecosystem in the Indonesian
province of Aceh is a poster-child
for a threatened rainforest. It is the last
large unprotected fragment of rainforest
on
Sumatra, an island ravaged by decades of
rampant deforestation. For years, loggers
could not cut the forests of Ulu Masen due
to an armed-civil conflict in Aceh, which
kept
industry at bay. That conflict ended a few
years ago, following the massive Tsunami
that
killed hundreds of thousands and left almost
half a million people homeless. The peace
accord and the tsunami have increased pressures
on the Ulu Masen forests. Peace
brings the possibility of loggers; the tsunami
created urgent needs for timber and wood.
But
deforestation may not be the future for this
forest with populations of Sumatran
elephant (Elephas maximus), Clouded Leopard
(Neofelis nebulusa), Sumatran Tiger
(Panthera tigris sumatrae), and Sumatran
Orangutan (Pongo abelii). An innovative
collaboration between the Government of Aceh,
Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and
Carbon Conservation to use carbon credits
to conserve Ulu Masen passed a major
milestone. The Rainforest Alliance, an international
nonprofit conservation organization,
validated that the collaboration’s
Ulu Masen conservation plans meet the widelyrespected
Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB)
Standards. The CCB Standards are
meant to ensure that land use projects are
designed to mitigate climate change and
deliver compelling community and biodiversity
benefits. The Ulu Masen project is the
first project for reducing emissions from
deforestation in developing countries (REDD)
to
be independently-approved as conforming to
the CCB Standards.
The global carbon market has grown rapidly
and forest conservation carbon credits are
almost certain to play a central role in
the carbon market’s 2nd phase (after
2012).
Negotiations for how forest carbon credits
will be included continue at the diplomatic
and
technical level. As the first of its kind,
the Ulu Masen project is likely to have a
significant
impact on the methods used and the valuation
of so-called REDD carbon credits.
Governor
Irwandi Yusuf said, “As Aceh’s
Governor, I am very pleased that my office,
Fauna and Flora International and Carbon
Conservation passed the CCB audit. Aceh is
serious about leading the world into a sustainable
future, by implementing an integrated
green approach to land and forest management
and by curtailing illegal logging. This is
only the first step. The hard work will be
in financing and implementing our proposed
project to help preserve the largest remaining
bloc of unprotected Sumatran forests.”
Dr. Joanna Durbin, Director of the CCBA
said: “The
Climate. Community & Biodiversity
Alliance congratulates the developers of
the Ulu Masen Ecosystem project for becoming
the first project for reducing emissions
from deforestation in developing countries
(REDD) to be validated under the CCB Standards.
The project shows how solid
partnerships with local communities are likely
to deliver real reductions of greenhouse
gas emissions by conserving a globally-significant
tract of rainforest. We hope world
leaders will adopt a policy framework that
supports developing countries, forests, local
and indigenous people and biodiversity to
benefit from global climate change efforts.’
Mark
Rose, Chief Executive Officer of FFI, the
world’s oldest conservation group
and
lead conservation partner, said, “We
are very pleased our Aceh team has received
such
a strong endorsement for their conservation
field programme. The team works in difficult
conditions, responding to many post-tsunami
humanitarian and ecological challenges.
FFI will continue to work closely with Aceh’s
Governor Irwandi Yusuf and our national
Indonesian partners to develop this mechanism
for large scale forest conservation.”
Dorjee Sun, Carbon Conservation’s CEO
said, “We are ecstatic to be the first
REDD
project independently validated as meeting
high global standards. The fate of tropical
forests hinges on the ability of global carbon
markets to rapidly mobilize adequate
resources to communities with clear, defendable
plans for reducing CO2 emissions. This
conservation strategy is part of Aceh Green,
a bold strategy in Aceh to develop greencertified
soft commodities, to relieve pressure on
forests and provide sustainable
livelihoods. We will be working with Merrill
Lynch on the credit monetization strategy.”
Tensie
Whelan, Rainforest Alliance President said, “We
congratulate the government of
Aceh, FFI, and Carbon Conservation on the
significant steps they’ve made to develop
an
ambitious project to conserve a vital forest
landscape in Indonesia. The urgency in
linking deforestation to the fight against
global warming was the take-home message
from Bali. While conditions in Aceh are challenging,
by working with communities living
in the Ulu Masen ecosystem this project is
poised at a critical opening in time for
progressive change that could catalyze similar
conservation elsewhere in Indonesia.”
Press Contacts:
John O Niles (Carbon Conservation): Technical
questions & carbon sales +1-805-252-6777
Jeffrey Hayward (Rainforest Alliance): Validation & audit
questions +1-202-294-7008
Joanna Durbin (Climate, Community & Biodiversity
Alliance): CCB Standards questions + 1 703
341 2461
Governor Irwandi Yusuf (Governor of Aceh)
+62-812-699-1515
Joe Heffernan (FFI): Conservation/biodiversity
questions +61398 662840 or +61 420 713137 |
