Special report - How Indonesia crippled its own climate change | World | Reuters
The dispute has turned a spotlight on Indonesia's forestry ministry, which earns $15 billion a year in land permit fees from investors. Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said last month it will investigate the granting of forest permits and plans to crack down on corruption in the resources sector.
"It's a source of unlimited corruption," said Chandra M. Hamzah, deputy chairman at the KPK.
Indonesia Corruption Watch, a private watchdog, says illegal logging and violations in issuing forest use permits are rampant. It estimates ill-gotten gains total about 20 trillion rupiah ($2.3 billion) each year.
A forest ministry official connected with the U.N.-backed forest carbon offset scheme was sentenced in April to three years in prison for accepting a $10,000 bribe to ensure an Indonesian company won a procurement tender.
Wandojo Siswanto was one of the negotiators for Indonesia's delegation at the 2009 U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, despite being a bribery suspect. His case has highlighted concerns about the capacity of the forestry ministry to manage forest-carbon projects.
The forestry sector has a long history of mismanagement and graft. Former trade and industry minister Bob Hasan, a timber czar during the Suharto years, was fined 50 billion rupiah ($7 million) for ordering the burning of forests in Sumatra and then imprisoned in a separate case of forestry fraud after Suharto was toppled from power in 1998.
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Daryanto also questioned whether REDD would ever work and whether there was any global appetite for carbon credits the program generates, a view at odds with other parts of the Indonesian government, which has been actively supporting REDD projects.
"Who will pay for the dream of Rimba Raya? Who will pay? Nobody, sir!" Daryanto told Reuters during an interview in the heavily forested ministry compound near central Jakarta.
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From what I have found, the main idea of REDD is for developed countries and big companies to pay developing countries with lots of forests to 'store' our carbon. In summary, it's just a way to transfer wealth from the North to the South and this Reuters article says this:
"Rimba Raya was designed to be part of the U.N's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program. The idea is simple: every tonne of carbon locked away in the peat and soaked up by the trees would earn a steady flow of carbon credits.
. . .
Rich countries and big companies can buy the credits to offset their emissions."
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