Rattan Collector in the redd: australia’s carbon offset project in central kalimantan

The report critiques the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP), a bilateral agreement between Australia and Indonesia designed to pilot REDD carbon offsets. It argues that the project ignores indigenous land rights, fails to address the primary drivers of deforestation, and risks creating social conflict. The document further contends that market-based REDD mechanisms generally shift climate responsibility from rich to poor nations and are prone to 'leakage' and permanence issues.

• The Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP) is designed as a pilot to demonstrate the feasibility of using REDD to produce low-cost carbon offsets for Australia and other polluters, rather than focusing on domestic emissions reductions.
• The KFCP project fails to recognize or guarantee the land tenure rights of local forest-dependent and indigenous communities, which has led to increased social tension and conflict in Central Kalimantan.
• The project is ecologically ineffective because it targets a small area (approximately 100,000 ha) while ignoring massive regional deforestation drivers, such as the planned expansion of 360,000 ha of palm oil concessions in the ex-Mega Rice Project area.
• Evidence of 'carbon leakage' undermines the project's effectiveness, as palm oil firms have been found illegally clearing land in nearby zones that were supposed to be under a deforestation moratorium.
• Market-based REDD is fundamentally flawed because it does not treat the underlying causes of climate change and relies on carbon sinks that are impermanent and vulnerable to fire, weather, and illegal logging.
• The Indonesian government's forest moratorium, established via a partnership with Norway, is described as a 'paper tiger' because it primarily protects forests already covered by existing laws and excludes secondary forests and existing concessions.

APA

Pearse, R., & Dehm, J. (2011). Rattan Collector in the redd: australia’s carbon offset project in central kalimantan. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/REDD-report-2.pdf

Chicago

Pearse, Rebecca, and Julia Dehm. Rattan Collector in the redd: australia’s carbon offset project in central kalimantan. Friends of the Earth International, 2011. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/REDD-report-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pearse |first1=Rebecca |last2=Dehm |first2=Julia |title=Rattan Collector in the redd: australia’s carbon offset project in central kalimantan |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=December 2011 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/REDD-report-2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pearse2011rattan, author = {Pearse, Rebecca and Dehm, Julia}, title = {{Rattan Collector in the redd: australia’s carbon offset project in central kalimantan}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2011}, month = dec, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/REDD-report-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }