Ecological rehabilitation can earn billions

Ecological rehabilitation can earn billions

JAKARTA (JP): A scientist claimed here on Thursday that our
country can earn billions of dollars through ecological business
by trading green house gases with developed countries as
stipulated in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Otto Soemarwoto, an environmental expert from Padjadjaran
University, said that such an endeavor could be done through
charging funds for rehabilitating the environment to reduce green
house gas emissions.

"There are always complaints about how expensive a
rehabilitation program is; how the environmental budget is
limited and so on. So, this is the alternative to get the
budget," Otto said during a seminar organized by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.

The seminar was held as a brainstorming session on
environmental policy ideas to face the coming Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, next year.

The basis of the trade, he disclosed, is the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol which arranges the implementation of the Convention on
Climate Change Framework produced by the 1992 Earth Summit
Conference in Rio.

Based on the protocol, developed countries, or those
categorized as Annex I countries such as the United States and
western European states, are obliged to reduce their green house
gas emissions as they are the biggest contributor to global
warming.

For carbon dioxide emissions alone, developed countries
contribute 75 percent of the total global emission.

The gases are carbon dioxide or usually equivalent with
carbon, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbon,
perfluorocarbon and sulfurhexafluoride.

"The protocol provides three mechanisms for the climate change
mitigation. One of them is Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
between Annex I countries and non-Annex countries or developing
countries," Otto said.

That means, he added, that Annex I countries can conduct
emission reducing projects in non-Annex countries.

This is particularly attractive to developed countries since
it is much cheaper to conduct such endeavors in developing
countries.

"For example, we have some 12 million hectares of land in a
critical state due to deforestation which needs to be
rehabilitated. The land produces an average of around 25 tons of
carbon per hectare annually," Otto noted.

"With the carbon price of, say, US$5 per ton, the potential
investment to rehabilitate the land is $1.5 billion per year!" he
remarked.

He conceded that such figures may seem fantastic, but are not
fantasy.

"That is the actual potential provided by the Kyoto Protocol.
And the amount of money we can get depends on our ability to
trade," Otto said, adding that Costa Rica is one country that has
been successful in getting funds through such an arrangement.

"It's much better than getting a loan from the World Bank for
example. Besides, it will increase the revenue of several
provinces whose revenue is low like East Nusa Tenggara," he said.

East Nusa Tenggara, he pointed out, earns revenue from animal
husbandry like cows.

"Cows produce a big amount of methane gas, so local
governments can sell the methane," he said.

Of course, he added, there are many things that have to be
discussed and formed, like a control system and the mechanism of
the project.

"But like I said, it has great potential and we benefit from
it as our environment is also being protected and rehabilitated,"
Otto said.

The important thing that must be considered, he added, is
the local community's involvement.

"Promotion within the community is very essential and it has
to be done in an simple way so that people will easily
understand. Local communities also have to be given an
incentive," Otto said.

Similarly, a member of People's Consultative Assembly member
M.S. Zulkarnaen said that we have to be ready for such an
arrangement.

"The Rio Summit will be conducted next year. Therefore, we
have to be ready with our proposal and procedures," said
Zulkarnaen who is a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic
Party for Struggle. (hdn)