The Ministry of Forestry has issued a new regulation with the stated objective of improving the credibility and governance of carbon trading involving carbon offsets originating in the local forestry sector.
Given its vast forest resources, Indonesia should be a world leader in carbon offset trading. However, tough questions are increasingly being asked, both domestically and internationally, about the development and management of Indonesia’s forest resources for carbon offset purposes. Accordingly, the Ministry of Forestry clearly feels compelled to try to do something to improve Indonesia’s carbon trading “credentials” in the case of carbon offsets originating in the local forestry sector and otherwise to do more to promote the trading of these offsets.
In this article, the writer will review the main provisions of the new Minister of Forestry regulation, focusing on the issue of whether or not the initiatives introduced by this new regulation are likely to be enough to satisfy the critics of Indonesia’s forest management policies and associated carbon offset trading activities.
Author:
Bill Sullivan (bsullivan@cteolaw.com)