The President's Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4), REDD+ Task Force and the Ministry of Forestry urged greater transparency in measuring Indonesia's deforestation rates. The two-day gathering in Jakarta last week drew more than 50 forestry experts and observers for a discussion on approaches and methodologies in deforestation calculation.

The event was attended by experts from the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Forestry, Geospatial Information Agency (BIG), National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), National Planning Agency (Bappenas) and experts from various international research centers.

Many participants expressed their approval of the Ministry of Forestry's posting of spatial data related to deforestation on its website. The latest deforestation figure released by the Ministry of Forestry in 2011 was 450,000 hectares per year. This figure, defined as 'net deforestation', incorporates regrowth and plantation forests. The same data set can also be used to derive the figure of primary forest cover loss to measure carbon emissions.

Head of UKP4 and REDD+ Task Force Kuntoro Mangkusubroto emphasized that transparency in the process of measuring forest loss was key to gaining public trust in government data and in achieving sustainable growth for Indonesia through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degragdation (REDD+) program.

Tempo
12 February 2013