The Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park covers an area of 356,800 hectares in the south of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is home to tigers, elephants and Sumatran rhinos. But recent research found that more than 100,000 people are farming inside the National Park.
Guest Post: Central Kalimantan’s oil palm catastrophe in pictures
In May 2010, Indonesia’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, signed a Letter of Intent with Norway for a US$1 billion REDD deal. In December 2010, Yudhoyono announced that Central Kalimantan would be a pilot province under the deal. This means that Central Kalimantan’s remaining forests are protected, right? Wrong.
Al Jazeera reports on “carbon pirate”, David Nilsson, in Peru
Al Jazeera recently picked up the story about David Nilsson’s questionable REDD carbon trading activities in Peru. REDD-Monitor has been following this story since April 2011 when Indigenous organisations AIDESEP and COICA produced a statement condemning Nilsson and demanding that the public prosecutor’s office intervene by expelling Nilsson from Peru.
Response from Germany’s International Climate Initiative: The mediation and consultation process at Harapan “has been rejected by the groups claiming affiliation to SPI”
On its website, the German Environmental Ministry’s International Climate Initiative has an image of a smiling blonde girl holding a globe. It all looks so simple and clean. But the reality at Harapan Rainforest Project, one of the projects funded by the International Climate Initiative is neither simple nor clean.
On-going land conflicts at Harapan Rainforest Project: As a key funder of Harapan, what is the German Government’s response?
In November 2012, Indonesia’s Minister of Forestry, Zulkifli Hasan, visited the Harapan Rainforest Project in Jambi Province, Sumatra. “The squatters must be removed from the forest and moved to another place,” he said. “Do not allow the recovery programme of the last lowland forest in Sumatra to fail.”