The regulation of the emerging REDD+ carbon market in Indonesia is in limbo amid an internal government disagreement, while controversial plans to loosen the country’s definition of a forest in favour of palm oil have been dropped.

REDD+ is the acronym given to a global initiative that would see developed countries pay developing nations to preserve and restore their forests, the loss of which is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions said to be driving global warming.

Indonesia was the first country to lay down a regulatory framework for REDD projects, setting rules last year for the all-important carbon-credit revenue sharing arrangements between various tiers of government, local forest peoples and project developers.

But those rules decreed by Forestry Ministry have now been rejected by the Finance Ministry, according to reports in the Jakarta Post. The Finance Ministry claims the original rules are unconstitutional, is demanding they be revised and that it should determine the distribution of financial benefits.

Meanwhile, the Forestry Ministry has also been forced to axe plans to change the definition of what constitutes a forest – to one that would have included palm oil plantations. THE END

Source: Carbon Positive