Australia has signed a deal with Indonesia to support a Sumatra Forest Carbon Partnership program to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through a $30 million fund.

“This is part of the Indonesia-Australia Sumatra Forest Carbon Partnership framework signed by Prime Minister Rudd and President Yudhoyono in June 2008,” the Australian Embassy in Jakarta said in a written statement, adding that the program is a significant progress of the bilateral partnership in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

Australia, France, Norway, England and United States announced at Copenhagen in December that they would allocate US$3.5 billion of fast-start fund for REDD-plus initiatives. Australia’s contribution is worth about US$120 million and namely aims to focus on Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Aside from the program in Central Kalimantan and Sumatra, Indonesia and Australia are working on outlining policy and calculation framework for REDD-plus. The partnership aims at setting up foundation for the application of the global REDD mechanism.
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