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)