NGO accuses Rimba Raya of misleading public with false carbon project information

A non-governmental organization said a claim that Rimba Raya Conservation had obtained approval from the Indonesian government for its world’s largest carbon project, on 64,000 hectares of areas in Indonesia, was in fact untrue.

Greenomics Indonesia said that it had verified various legal and spatial facts and clarified the claims with the Forestry Ministry. From the verification and clarification, it concluded that Rimba Raya's claims were untrue and this could mislead the public and the carbon market.

“Legally, it’s not true that the Indonesian government has agreed a working area of 64,000 hectares for Rimba Raya Conservation,” Greenomics Indonesia national program coordinator, Vanda Mutia Dewi, said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post, on Saturday.

She said Rimba Raya Conservation was in fact granted with an ecosystem restoration permit issued by the Forestry Ministry on March 13 on only 36,331 hectares of land.

In a clarification letter sent on June 18, the ministry’s director general of forestry planology asserted that areas outside the 36,331 hectares where conservation restoration permits were already obtained should still be processed lawfully.

“It means that Rimba Raya can not yet claim the 64,000 hectares,” said Vanda.

Greenomics Indonesia’s report also revealed that of the total 64,000 hectares claimed by Rimba Raya Conservation, there were 18,642 hectares that belonged to the Tanjung Puting Conservation Park.

In a letter sent on June 13, the ministry’s director general of forest protection and natural conservation stressed that a cooperation plan agreed by the Tanjung Puting Conservation Park and Rimba Raya Conservation was aimed only at strengthening the national park’s operations and could not yet accommodate carbon use activities because such carbon projects required a legal permit from the Forestry Ministry. (ebf)