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Norway, Indonesia sign agreement for protection of rainforests
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Environmentalists blame Indonesia -- home to the world's third-largest rainforest area -- for a deforestation free-for-all by allowing companies to clear land for plantations.
Indonesia and Norway have signed a new agreement for the protection of rainforests. This comes months after the collapse of a similar $1-billion agreement that was part of a UN-backed global initiative criticised for its ineffectiveness.
The deal was signed by Norwegian Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide and his Indonesian counterpart Siti Nurbaya Bakar in Indonesia's capital Jakarta.
Environmentalists blame Indonesia -- home to the world's third-largest rainforest area -- for a deforestation free-for-all by allowing companies to clear land for plantations.
The country's tree cover has decreased by 18 percent since 2000, a loss that accounts for 6.5 percent of the global total since then, according to Global Forest Watch.
Jakarta has made some progress by reducing the rate of primary forest loss for five straight years up to 2021, according to monitor Global Forest Watch, and in 2020 claimed its lowest deforestation rate for two decades.
According to the deal, Norway will send Jakarta an initial $56 million payment for its deforestation reduction in the year 2016 to 2017.
Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative will pay the instalments directly to Indonesia's Environment Fund.
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"Today we are proud to embark on a new partnership to support the Indonesian government's impressive results and ambitious plans," Barth Eide said.
But environmental activists say the deal will not change the situation in Indonesia with vast swathes of rainforest still being destroyed to make way for palm and timber plantations that threaten endangered species and push indigenous people off their lands.
"The agreement does not solve existing problems, including recognition of indigenous people," Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner Iqbal Damanik told AFP.
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"The point made is 'successfully reducing deforestation', not zero deforestation. It means there is still deforestation in Indonesia going forward."
Indonesia has an ambitious goal to reach a net carbon sink in its forestry sector -- storing more carbon than it releases into the atmosphere -- by 2030 but its vast forests are still shrinking.
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