ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE IN INDONESIA

ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE IN INDONESIA
The State Department and the U.S. Trade Representative have negotiated with the Indonesian Ministries of Trade and Forestry the U.S. Government’s first Memorandumof Understanding on Combating Illegal Logging and Associated Trade. Presidents George W. Bush and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the MOU during the U.S. President’s November, 2006 visit to Indonesia. Implementation of the MOU includes collaboration on sustainable forest management, improved law enforcement, and improved markets for legally harvested timber products. This effort will strengthen the enabling conditions for avoiding deforestation, specifically addressing the trade issues that are involved. The State Department contributed to a Heart of Borneo conservation initiative spearheaded by World Wildlife Fund (WWF). This program works to conserve a high biodiversity, trans-boundary area that includes parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. In conjunction with the Heart of Borneo initiative, the 2008 International Visitor’s Leadership Program has provided special funding for a group of professionals from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei to discuss key environmental management issues with U.S. counterparts. The Governments of Indonesia and the U.S. are currently discussing the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) program. Under the program, a portion of the Government of Indonesia’s debt to the U.S. government may be reduced and redirected toward tropical forest conservation in Indonesia. REDUCING ENERGY EMISSIONS The USAID-supported AMARTA program is developing a pilot project for small-scale production of bio-fuel from Jatropha curcas (castor oil trees) in Flores, Nusa Tenggara Timur. AMARTA is providing a local producers cooperative with equipment to press Jatropha seed, producing a kerosene substitute and other valuable compounds. AMARTA is also providing approximately 140,000 Jatropha seedlings; assistance inestablishing a nursery; and secondary equipment with which to produce bio-diesel fuelsuitable for small engines. This is a promising demonstration project for two reasons. First, Jatropha thrives in dry, marginal soils and might serve as an alternative to palm oil, which often leads to the clearing of high-carbon, high biodiversity value forests for the creation of new plantations. Second, bio-fuel produced with Jatropha oil emits 78% less greenhouse gases than conventional diesel fuel. ASSISTING INTERDICTION IN ILLEGAL LOGGING The Indonesia Criminal Investigative Division and Marine Police will soon have a newtool in its war against Indonesia’s illegal logging industry. The USG, led by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) Indonesia, will be providing forensic kits and backpacks to be used by investigators in collecting forensic evidence for illegal logging cases. ICITAP willalso train and provide technical assistance to the Indonesian National Police in illegal logging interdiction and investigative strategies. ICITAP Indonesia, with funding under the illegal logging MoU, will train sections of the Criminal Investigative Division, the Marine Police and other law enforcement units responsible for protecting critical habitat areas and forests – such as Batam-Riau, Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. Under the illegal logging MoU, the U.S Forest Service and Customs and Border Protection are training Indonesian customs agents and police, whie the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is providing Indonesia with U.S. import data to help identify illegal exports of timber products form Indonesia. ICITAP will also work withUS DOJ’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training to train and educate prosecutors from the regional Indonesia Attorney General’s Office on building effective prosecution strategies for illegal logging cases.

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