Corruption in Indonesia Threatens Forest Conservation Plans

Corruption in the Indonesian government and forestry sector threatens to undermine plans to establish a carbon trading market aimed at protecting one of the planet’s largest remaining swaths of tropical forest, according to a new report. From 2003 to 2006, Indonesia lost nearly $2 billion annually in potential government revenues because of illegal logging, corruption, and government mismanagement, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The report called into question whether Indonesia can emerge as a reliable partner in conservation schemes such as the United Nations’ REDD program, or Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, under which poor nations are paid in exchange for preserving carbon-absorbing forests. Without stricter enforcement, the report said, investors will have no confidence that carbon credits would have any value and that carbon sinks would actually be preserved. “In the absence of safeguards, the carbon finance market will simply inject more money into an already corrupt system, shortcutting needed reforms and exacerbating the situation,” the report said. A 2007 World Bank report listed Indonesia as the planet’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely because of deforestation.