Norway says Indonesia risks setback in rainforest protection

Brazil has made good progress in safeguarding the Amazon rainforest but Indonesia’s plans for its forests could face setbacks under a new government, a report commissioned by top forest aid donor Norway said on August 18. indo_deforest

Norway, rich from offshore oil and gas, paid 10.3 billion crowns ($1.7 billion) to slow tropical deforestation from 2008-13, according to the report by the state-funded Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

“Brazil’s deforestation rate and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions have strongly decreased,” the report said of progress in protecting the Amazon, the biggest tropical forest. Projects funded by Norwegian cash in Brazil were “paving the way for future reductions”, it said.

Norway has paid Brazil 4.6 billion crowns ($720 million) to help back up domestic programmes, it said. Norway promised Brazil up to $1.0 billion in 2008 to slow deforestation, depending on its performance. Under a similar deal in 2010, Norway pledged up to $1 billion to Indonesia, which has the third-largest rainforest after the Amazon and Congo basins and has cleared large areas to to make way for palm oil plantations.

Indonesia had made “good progress” in planning to protect forests, Norad said. But it said that “upcoming governmental change and weaknesses in the legal basis” for forest protection “present a serious risk that achievements may be lost”.

Read more: DNA India

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