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http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Australia-Indonesia-in-forest-agreement/2007/09/09/1189276520874.html

Australia and Indonesia have signed a $100 million forestry agreement which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 700 million tonnes over 30 years.

The Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership aims to preserve 70,000 hectares of peat land forests in Indonesia's Kalimantan region, re-flood 200,000 hectares of dried peat land and plant up to 100 million new trees on rehabilitated peat land for conservation purposes.

It has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases by a greater amount than Australia's total annual emissions.

"The deforestation and burning of Indonesia's vast peat lands is the largest single source of its greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Downer said.

"Greenhouse emissions will not be reduced by posturing and stunts. They will be reduced by effective diplomacy, and the sort of international leadership shown by Australia in driving the establishment of AP6, the Sydney Declaration and this important global initiative."

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Indonesia to plant 79 million trees

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Indonesia-to-plant-79-million-trees/2007/11/28/1196036984864.html

Indonesia, which has been losing its forests at a rapid pace in recent years, launched a campaign to plant 79 million trees ahead of next month's UN climate change conference in Bali.

"We have been negligent in the past, now we have to get our act together," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said to state news agency Antara, adding he had planted saplings on the outskirts of Jakarta.

The drive is part of a global campaign to plant one billion trees launched at UN climate change talks in Nairobi last year.

Forestry ministry officials said 79 million saplings were collected from local governments around the archipelago and they planned to complete the planting in one day.

According to Greenpeace, Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000-2005, with an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer pitches destroyed every hour.

Yudhoyono said that illegal loggers and their financers were "common enemies" and must be brought to justice.

South-East Asia's biggest economy is also among the world's top three greenhouse gas emitters because of deforestation, peatland degradation, and forest fires, according to a recent report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain's development arm.

Environmental groups are concerned that rapidly expanding palm oil plantations, partly driven by ambitious plans for biofuels, are damaging the country's rainforests.

Participants from 189 countries are expected to gather in Bali in next month to discuss a new deal to fight global warming. The existing pact, the Kyoto Protocol, runs out in 2012.