Along with Australia, the Indonesian government is hoping to turn  a deforestation disaster in Borneo island into a global lesson on how to help locals save tropical forests. After the Amazon, the rainforest in Borneo is the next biggest center of efforts to fight deforestation which is the greatest contributor to global warming.

CARE Indonesia is one of the many organizations helping the Indonesian government to preserve and rehabilitate 100k Ha of carbon-rich peat land in Central Kalimantan. Another organization Greenline Care Indonesia is also in the efforts of restoring 183k Ha of rainforest in East Kalimantan. There is a potential revenue from carbon offset of billions of dollars annually in the near future through saving the forest. However, the greatest challenge would be to change the behavior of the community to support the fight against deforestation.

Half of the forest in Central Borneo has been cleared while the other half still forested but is under threat. However, this represents only a fraction of an area of forest that was cleared in the 1990’s by the orders of former President Suharto. He mistakenly hoped of growing vast crops of rice on Borneo which is mostly peat land. At the time, about 1 million hectares of forest were cleared. The majority of this land is sitting on carbon-rich peat swamps.

Peat forest as found in Central Borneo soak up vast amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide) locking away carbon in the wood and soil. Every year, 1 Ha of peat soil releases 2,000 tonnes of CO2 as well as large amounts of methane which is a more powerful greenhouse gas than Co2.

In the meanwhile, despite the disaster the carbon industry sees a great opportunity in the vast amount of carbon locked away in the peat soils. By stopping the peat land from burning and doing replanting on the bare land carbon traders sell carbon offset, which is the balance of reduced carbon amounts through deforestation prevention.

There are now many green companies interested in a project that aims to use carbon credits from saving forests to reward developing nations. This project is called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). Projects like these are tightly backed up by the United Nations and it is hoped that REDD will become a broader climate pact and ready by 2012.

For more information about projects like these, please fill out this form.

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