Indonesia Delays Forest-Carbon Rules Pending Further Discussion

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Indonesia has delayed releasing complete regulations on using carbon credits to protect rainforests, preferring to fine-tune rules that could earn the country billions of dollars and curb the pace of climate change. A report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain's Department for International Development says up to 84 percent of Indonesia's carbon emissions come from deforestation, forest fires and peatland degradation.

The rules, believed to be the first of their type, have been through numerous drafts over the past year to govern a surge of investment in projects that aim to save millions of hectares of forest in return for tradable carbon credits.

The World Bank says there are now nearly two dozen Indonesian forest-carbon projects under various stages of development under the U.N.-backed scheme called REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation. But the Ministry of Forestry has not finalized all the rules on how to share revenue from forest-carbon projects or how to link the various layers of government and has ordered a review.

Investors had hoped the minister would sign all the rules in December. Instead, the ministry issued a set of preliminary regulations covering demonstration activities, and also created a working group on climate change. "We are still discussing how to differentiate between private investment and public investment," said Wandojo Siswanto, a senior adviser to the forestry minister.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50I1WJ20090119?sp=true

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1. the carbon-offset scam goes on and on .n/t