REDDcalculator.com: A web-based decision-support tool for implementing Indonesia's forest moratorium

Abstract

1.The governments of Norway and Indonesia are collaborating on a REDD+ partnership that would contribute to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and peatland conversion in Indonesia. Part of this agreement requires Indonesia to implement a 2-year moratorium to suspend the issuance of new permits for conversion of peat and natural forests for forestry or agriculture. 2.This partnership offers an unprecedented opportunity for Indonesia to mitigate its deforestation and carbon emission levels. However, it has also galvanized intense debates within Indonesian society regarding the scope of the moratorium and its consequent environmental and socioeconomic ramifications. 3.We developed a web-based application for evaluating the implications and trade-offs of implementing Indonesia's forest moratorium in Kalimantan. This spatially explicit tool quantifies the moratorium's benefits for carbon conservation and its opportunity costs under alternative user-defined moratorium scenarios. This application could serve as a useful framework for understanding the costs and benefits of REDD+ implementation across Indonesia and other forest-rich tropical nations. © 2011 The Authors. Methods in Ecology and Evolution © 2011 British Ecological Society.