Planting With Aussie

Australia will pay Indonesia to plant 100 million trees in Kalimantan in a climate-change deal worth 100 million Australian dollars (82 million US dollars). Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda signed the agreement in Sydney on Sunday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
The signing was witnessed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, one of 21 leaders in Sydney for the annual APEC meet. The deal could cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 700 million tons over 30 years -a greater amount than Australia's total annual emissions, Downer was quoted by DPA as saying. Called the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership, it aims to preserve 70,000 hectares of peat forests, flood 200,000 hectares of dried peat land and plant up to 100 million trees on deforested peat land. "The deforestation and burning of Indonesia's vast peat lands is the largest single source of its greenhouse gas emissions," Downer said. "Greenhouse emissions will not be reduced by posturing and stunts."