Indonesia says reforestation and cuts to deforestation will enable it to meet its Copenhagen emissions reduction commitment solely from the land-use sector.

Along with other developing nations such as China, India and Brazil, the Indonesian government announced a commitment in the lead up to the Copenhagen climate conference to cut greenhouse emissions – in its case by at least 26 per cent below business as usual levels by 2020. Like Brazil, and unlike other big emitting nations, a large part of the country’s carbon footprint comes not from industry and energy production but from deforestation.

Now the minister for forestry, Zulkifli Hasan, says a national plan to plant 21 million hectares (52 million acres) of new forest by 2020 and eradicate illegal logging and land-clearing would see the country drastically reduce its emissions. "If the scenario described proceeds, if the planting proceeds, we can reach more than 26 per cent,” Reuters reports Hasan saying at a news briefing.

The minister said the plan involves planting 500,000 hectares of new forest a year at an annual cost of $269 million. A further 300,000 hectares of degraded forest would be rehabilitated a year with the help of REDD funding from Australia, Norway, Korea and investment from the private sector.

The Indonesian government has for some time had ambitious plans for reforesting land. But its ability to bring them to fruition has been hampered by the obstacles that lie in governing a disparate and under-developed island nation with three tiers of government – bureaucratic red tape, corruption and the difficulties of law enforcement. International project developers have experienced long delays in securing the approvals required to get forest-related projects underway.

The issues are not uncommon in the developing world but the country’s move to grant more autonomy to provincial and district governments over the past decade has only made it harder for the national government in Jakarta to implement nationwide programmes of the type that would be needed to meet the forestry and emissions targets.

The climate change programme director for WWF in Indonesia, Fitrian Ardiansyah, told Reuters that for the government emissions goals to be met it would need to tackle the causes of deforestation and land degradation directly; illegal logging, land clearing for agriculture, mining expansion and other unsustainable development.