Indonesia planted millions of hectares of forests to reduce emissions

Speaking to reporters on Jan. 6, Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said Indonesia is planning to plant millions of hectares of forests to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25% by 2020.

According to the plan, by 2020, Indonesia will have an additional 21.15 million hectares of forest.

An additional 500,000 hectares of newly planted forests will be replenished each year at a cost of 2,500 billion rupees (US $ 269 million) and 300,000 hectares of degraded forest will be repaired.

Hadan stated that if the plan is implemented, Indonesia will achieve its goal of reducing 26% of emissions.

In 2009, the country established a mechanism to encourage forest conservation projects to operate under UN assistance to reduce emissions.

Indonesia is currently one of the fastest deforestation countries in the world and is also the third largest country in the world, second only to China and the United States (according to 2007 data from the World Bank).

The total forest area in Indonesia is now 130 million hectares./.