Indonesia calls COP26 deforestation pledge ‘unfair’, says development ‘won’t stop in the name of emissions’

Indonesian Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar has slammed the terms of deal under the COP26 to end deforestation by 2030, calling it “inappropriate and unfair” days after the island country’s President Joko Widodo joined with 127 other nations to sign the historic forest agreement.

In a Facebook post, Bakar said the authorities could not “promise what we can’t do”.

“The massive development of President Jokowi’s era must not stop in the name of carbon emissions or in the name of deforestation,” she said, referring to Widodo by his nickname.

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“Indonesia’s natural wealth, including forests, must be managed for its use according to sustainable principles, besides being fair,” she said.

The deal was announced on Monday at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. It was the event’s first major announcement.

It pledges $19.2 billion of public and private funds and promises to end and reverse deforestation by 2030.

The environment minister was joined by the country’s vice foreign minister, Mahendra Siregar, who on Thursday said that zero deforestation by 2030 was not even part of the COP26 pledge.

“The declaration issued does not refer at all to the ‘end deforestation by 2030’,” he said in a statement.

“It is important to move beyond mere narrative, rhetoric, arbitrary targets and sound bites,” he added.

He further said that the pledge did not mean to halt deforestation completely but to ensure there was no net loss of forested land.

Mahendra later told Reuters that Indonesia interprets “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030”, as stated in the pledge, as “sustainable forest management... not end deforestation by 2030”.

Indonesia is home to the world’s third-largest expanse of tropical forest cover, but rampant deforestation since the 1960s has seen half of the country’s forests cut down by illegal loggers and to make way for commercial plantations such as palm oil.

(With inputs from agencies)