The government of Papua province in Indonesia has entered into an agreement with an Australian financial firm New Forests to establish a forestry carbon finance project.
The project - which could involve more than one million hectares - aims to create a perpetual financial base for local communities through carbon credits generated by forest conservation.
It follows the recent decision by Papuan Governor Barnabas Suebu to impose a province-wide moratorium on logging.
The Managing Director of New Forests, David Brand, says the project looks to deliver high-quality carbon credits to the voluntary market.
He says Governor Suebu sees the emerging carbon market as a chance to offer better returns for the people of Papua.
"It's having a lot of logging going on. They have a very limited amount of revenue for that. The forest is gone and the local community isn't really benefitting. Whereas if he can set up these ecosystem payment type deals like carbon-credit deals, that can generate revenue for community development as well as keep the forests standing."
David Brand of New Forests.
