 introduce the first speaker if I could invite the ministers and ambassadors and C4 to the stage so we could hear those additional speakers. Thank you ministers. So now I'd like to welcome the Honourable Dato Ali Apong, Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism for the Government of Brunei. Distinguished guests, my fellow government leaders, delegates, ladies and gentlemen. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh and a very good morning to all of you. To start with I'd like to express my sincere gratitude for the invitation of the host country, Her Excellency Siti Nobaya Bakar, Minister of Environment and Forestry, Republic of Indonesia and to the Honourable Josh Frydenberg, Australian Minister for the Environment and Energy to deliver our country's statement at the Third Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit here in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Our theme for this summit, protecting forests and people, supporting economic growth, is very much in time and significant in our recent initiatives in Brunei Darussalam. As we hosted the Second Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit in 2016 in Brunei Darussalam, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Australian Government and the Centre for International Forestry Research for all the support in making the summit a very successful event. During the summit we acknowledged the significant role of the government institutions in promoting effective governance of our rainforests. We also recognized the essential role of the rainforest industries in bringing back investment into the forestry sector, finance forestry projects and programs and contribute to sustainable development. We also agreed that rainforest sector restoration and management is not the sole responsibility of the government but as a whole we must act and share together the responsibility of conserving our rainforest ecosystem. Ladies and gentlemen, Brunei Darussalam is a relatively small country yet we have gained recognition for having a well-capped tropical rainforest of which majority is still in pristine condition. At present 41% of the country's land area is declared as forest reserves and are protected by legislation. The country's forestry sector was formalized with the passage of the Forest Act in 1934 some eight years ago. It paved the way for the proclamation of the national forests and by adopting the principle of renewability, sustainability, multiple use and ecological equilibrium management strategies and programs we sustainably manage and administer our forests. At present I'm proud to announce that our forest reserves are still 100% covered with forests. Ladies and gentlemen, in respect of our intended nationally determined contribution INDC, our forests play an important role in mitigating our emission. Brunei's tree cover is estimated to be 72.1% of the total land area of 5,765 square kilometers. It comprises of what experts believe to be the oldest tropical rainforest in the world to include mine groves and the timber utilization quota remains at 100,000 cubic meters per year and is strictly implemented. Our timber production statistics in the past years has always been below the required logging quota. Instead we have been promoting the effective and efficient utilization and processing of timber through the use of high technologies and modern woodworking machineries. Ladies and gentlemen, peat swarms, peat swarm forests are the second most dominant forest type in Brunei's Jerusalem covering 16% of the country's land area. They are very much intact and believed to be the highest proportion of intact peat swarm ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Our peat swarm forests played a significant role during our early economic development as it supports the raw material needs of the early structural development of our oil and gas sector and its related infrastructure. However, the realization of the true protective and biological value of the peat swarm ecosystems has prompted the government to preserve the forest and finally end the exploitation of this forest ecosystem. Peat swarm forests have more benefits in terms of its biological diversity as such the sequestration of the massive carbon deposits of our peat swarm ecosystem as well as in our natural forest will be our great contribution to the global climate change initiatives. At present, we are opening our windows for more research collaborations in further understanding the ecosystem and to develop effective management strategies for the benefits of the global communities. Ladies and gentlemen, the Brunei government has steadily opened up its economy and call for partnership with stakeholders in the private sector to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the diversification as outlined in the Brunei vision 2035. At present, the development of sustainable ecotrism and the conservation of biodiversity become part of our environment strategy as continuing efforts of the government to conserve our remarkable biodiversity, rainforest and natural habitats. It stresses the development of our rainforest resources, conservation and protection and sustainable ecotrism as the main focus of the forest sector. The increasing national appreciation on forest conservation and the value of its biodiversity have led to another approach in forest management and the administration. This increasing value has led us to the development of the non-extractive economic activities such as sustainable ecotrism that would benefit the country, especially the local communities adjacent to our forest ecosystem. Sustainable ecotrism would promote responsible and committed tourism through their participation in forest conservation initiatives. Also in tree planting, culture and heritage protection and the provision of alternative livelihood to local communities. However, to realize sustainable ecotrism, our conservative society needs more entrepreneurial and creative minds from the private sector to develop our ecotrism industry. At present, we are re-accessing our ecotrism potential and identifying potential partners that will strengthen local community management skills in providing the necessary ecotrism and cultural services. Ladies and gentlemen, going back to our theme, protecting forests and people, supporting economic growth is not only a national concern but of a global issue. Brunei is relatively a small country that makes it looks manageable but of course we cannot do it alone. The issues at hand require a regional and or global approach and come up with better ideas, policies, action plans and implementation strategies. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Minister. So now I would warmly welcome the Honorable Osaya Nagamu, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests for Fiji to provide a statement from Fiji. Your Excellencies, respected dignitaries, ministers, distinguished guests, officials from member countries, organizers and coordinating partners, ladies and gentlemen. Mola Vinaka and a very good morning to you all. It is indeed an honor and privilege to be invited here today at the third Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit. I am proud to be here on behalf of the Fiji government to deliver my address at this session. I thank the government of Indonesia and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry for hosting this red summit and the coordinating partner country, Australia and the Department of Environment and Energy for their combined efforts in making this all happen. As you know, through its presidency of COP 23, Fiji has been building a grand coalition committed to taking action and communicating the sense of agency widely to all levels of government, to investors and financing institutions, to the private sector, to civil society, organizations and to local communities. As our Prime Minister, Honorable Chosaya Wurangambani Marama, stated at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting this past week, and I quote, we must accelerate climate action and drive decarbonization and press for the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement. That is limiting the increase in global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius above that of the pre-industrial age. In March, Fiji hosted the third regional Pacific NDC Dialogue on nationally determined contributions and consultations on the regional Pacific NDC hub to support countries in the process of implementation and enhancement of the NDCs. This regional platform was called for during the climate action Pacific partnership in July 2017. Built on past dialogues in support of NDC implementation, this provided a specific platform for discussions on NDC implementation planning, linkages to SDG processes, opportunities to advance gender, translating NDCs into investable and actionable projects, and long-term development strategies under the Paris Agreement, such as the 2050 platform. As a nation, we have mainstreamed and integrated climate change into national planning and development processes, economic policy and decision-making. This has led to the development of the Green Growth Framework for Fiji, the five-year and 20-year national development plans, and NDC implementation roadmap and framework for the national adaptation plan. As part of this increasingly comprehensive approach to climate change, Fiji acknowledges the importance of forest both in terms of achieving its Paris Agreement goals and those of the United Nations sustainable development agenda. In particular, the critical role of forest is acknowledged in Article 5 of the Paris Agreement, which addresses countries to take action to conserve and enhance forest, including through reducing deforestation and forest degradation. Furthermore, Fiji understands that forests are a critical part of the answer to our climate change, because we know that a 1.5-degree world is simply not possible without tackling deforestation and forest degradation and the associated emissions. Forests are a large part of our current problem in terms of continuing emission from deforestation, but an even larger part of the solution in terms of ending those emissions and enhancing the same natural carbon capture storage function of standing and regrowing forests. And without promoting healthy forests, we also know that our nations won't be resilient to the impacts of the extreme weather events without these natural bubbles and barriers that protect us and that contribute to healthy sustainable livelihoods. In our Green Growth Framework for Fiji, we have specifically recognized the role of forest in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation, and forestry protection areas are mentioned as activities which focus on sustaining the natural forest resources. Renewed efforts are identified for implementation of deforestation and reforestation and conservation of natural forest. In Fiji, 54.7% or about 1 million hectares of Fiji is forested. Of this, 89.4% or roughly 894,000 hectares is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse form of forest. Forest, in this contest, include not only land-based forest systems, but also the wider mangroves and seagrasses and reef systems that are critical to island nations. However, we also have large areas of degraded and unutilized land with potential for broad reforestation and afro-station activities. As a country, we are committed to ensuring we place the protection of our remaining forests and the pursuit of restoring degraded areas at the heart of our national response to climate change. To achieve, we embarked on the following. One, Fiji has embarked on a comprehensive red-plus strategy which continues to assess issues such as drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, strategic environmental social assessment, feedback, grievances, redress mechanisms, carbon rights, and benefit-sharing mechanisms. We have a red-plus demonstration site and MRV systems being finalized. Fiji has been working with the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility of the World Bank and the SPC GIZ Regional Program, coping with climate change in the Pacific Island region. As part of its red-plus readiness work. This includes the intent to develop an emission reduction program to cover 90 percent of the land area of Fiji and 94 percent of forested areas in Viti-Levu, Wano-Levu, and in Tabeoni. And the sale of 3.6 million red-plus emissions reduction between 2019 to 2024 to the FCPF. This readiness work also includes Fiji working closely with the University of Hamburg to establish its forest reference level work that is almost complete. Fiji has legally declared and protected forest and nature reserves, as well as a government managed national park. This national park is a model for other parks and has been replicated around the nation as community-based equal-tourism projects to improve livelihood and alleviate poverty, economic development, and biodiversity conservation. The communities living around this national park benefit from employment in managing the park and economic benefits from tourism activities. This national forest park was also awarded the certification of excellence winner in 2015 by TripAdvisor as a global tourism survey recognition and the Queens Commonwealth Canopy Award for forest conservation. Fiji acknowledges the role of carbon-rich mangroves in climate adaptation, preventing coastal erosion, addressing risk from coastal flooding and sea-level rise. Currently, Fiji is undertaking a community-based mangrove restoration and sustainable management project with support from ITTO. The project includes policy development, capacity building, establishing alternative species for mangrove-dependent communities, and educating them towards conservation of mangroves. The same project site is being used to conduct preliminary work on blue carbon with conservation international and is a first for Fiji in terms of blue carbon work. Finally, going towards Fiji has noted in its NDC that further accounting will need to take place to incorporate, will look as to how red plus will be incorporated into each NDC. At this point, I wish to acknowledge the financial, technical, scientific, capacity building and advisory support rendered towards the implementation of its global and national forest goals by various organizations including World Bank, FCPF, Jeff, FAO, GIZ, Asia, UNFF, SPC, Conservation International, UNDP, WWF, ITTO, EU, to name a few. These organizations have been instrumental in supporting Fiji drive national actions towards sustainable management, development, restoration, and protection of forest in Fiji. As Minister of Forest, I also believe that there is an important link between the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the global sustainable development goals and protecting our rainforest as all inspirable in Fiji at a sub-national level. The Ministry plan aligned to Fiji's 20-year national development plan, the SDG goals and the UNFF strategic goals, the forest sector strategic development plan prioritizes a sustainable forest management framework and compassing outputs addressing SDGs 1, 2, 5, 7, 13, 14, and 15. One of the goals of the Ministry's strategic development plan is to contribute positively to the global environment. This will address environmental-related SDGs along with commitments embedded in the Convention on Biodiversity, the United Nations Forum on Forest, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, all of which Fiji is party to. The activities implemented to deliver SDP outputs and outcomes, including uproar station and rip forest station, to enhance carbon stocks, protect and restore catchments, conserve biodiversity, establish wood and non-wood plantations, including biofuel and food security species, coastal and mangrove restoration. Most of this rip forest station includes community participation on community-owned land with a government-empowering communities, women and youth, and providing financial and development incentives for their efforts. We recognize that mangroves can play a significant role in conserving and enhancing carbon sinks, enabling adaptation to climate change, and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals 5, 13, 14, and 15. This integration of the Paris Agreement Goals and the SDGs is seen by Fiji as a critical to protecting forests and people, supporting economic growth. It will require the ongoing development of policies, plans, and frameworks to achieve this. Fiji reaffirms its commitments towards the global agenda under the SDGs and Paris Agreement. It will continue to protect forests and people, supporting economic growth and addressing rainforest conservation. Finally, I now wish to turn to the issues of finance. Critical to our efforts to protect forests is the need for innovative finance mechanisms to protect all kinds of forests. Again, including land-based forests, mangroves, and sea grasses, while negotiation on forests have been among the most constructive stance of negotiation over the last 10 years, producing a detailed rulebook on red plus. The fact remains that the rule provides no actual formal mechanism within red plus for financing forests. Red plus has struggled because the lack of a carbon market has left it dependent on voluntary action and without the certainty needed to attract private funding. Additionally, the mechanism being pursued by Norway and the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility are excellent measures to develop red plus. But we now need long-term public and private sector finance flows to ensure that finance will flow into actual forest. In this regard, I note that while many governments have implemented measures to protect forests through establishing protected areas, this is not sufficient to avoid their destruction. Furthermore, despite the natural and rural of forest, they do not offer a financial return on investing in their conservation, protection, and management that can compete with the more destructive uses. There are no well-established markets for forest carbon or the broader benefits they provide, despite being critical to our very survival. Forests have therefore been unable to attract private sector finance at any scale. The hard-core reality is that protecting forest at any scale requires capital, significant expenditure, like any green infrastructure project. Between 2006 and 2014, a total of US $9.8 billion was invested into forest. Almost 90% of which came from the public sector. However, it is estimated that somewhere between US $17 billion to $33 billion is required per year to have deforestation by 2030. Given the limits on public climate finance, financial support must come from firstly larger pools of capital available only from the private sector. PG has taken leadership in this regard by launching our own sovereign green ball, which will raise $100 million, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange last week. The proceeds of which will go towards climate mitigation and adaptation project, including possibly in the Red Cross and reforestation area. Going forward, we are hopeful that the rules being negotiated for the implementation of the Paris Agreement smooth the way for further international cooperation on Red Cross and in particular innovative financing approaches under Article 6. All countries but especially forest countries enhance the profile of forest in the NDCs, commensurate with the mitigation potential and potential to contribute to other SDGs. Mechanisms such as the GCF resale-based payment for Red Cross are implemented. Developed countries and the private sector increase financing flows for forest, especially the promise of resale-based Red Cross payments, commensurate with the mitigation potential. This includes working together to develop mechanisms that drive and attract investments, both public and private, into Red Cross in a way that values this forest for their nature- based solutions to climate change and assisting to adapt to climate change. And other countries work with PG to follow the lead we have taken with our green born to develop bonds tailored specifically towards protecting forest and landscape. We look forward to a successful Red Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit and wish you all a constructive and enjoyable three days in your participation and contributions towards the success of this summit. Vinaka and thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you Minister. I can now warmly welcome Her Excellency Dr. Amy Call, Senior Minister of State and Minister of the Environment and Water Resources for Singapore to provide a statement from Singapore. Your Excellency, City Nomaya Bakar, Minister of Environment and Forestry Indonesia, Your Excellency Josh Pryderberg, Minister for the Environment and Energy Australia, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Selamat pagi. Good morning to one and all. I'm indeed honoured to speak at the Third Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit. The team protecting forests and people supporting economic growth is a pertinent challenge that the region has to address particularly in the face of climate change. The forests of Asia and the Pacific make up about 18% of global forest cover. Primarily regarded as carbon sinks, forests also host a rich biodiversity and sustain the livelihoods of millions. Curbing deforestation and protecting existing forests are instrumental in the fight against climate change and the achievement of sustainable development goals or SDGs. Singapore would like to join the region in solidarity to reaffirm our support for sustainable forest management. There is vast carbon mitigation potential that the forests in the Asia Pacific region can contribute if the forests are managed sustainably. I'm encouraged that some advances have been made on the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation program or REDD Plus. The adoption of the Warsaw framework for REDD Plus is a step in the right direction in making REDD Plus an actuality. Countries must now focus on implementing the program to preserve forests and the carbon stored in these sinks. Since independence the development of Singapore have been based on the principle of sustainability. We moved heavy industries away from the populace, cleaned up our rivers and ramped out our public sanitation efforts. We also balanced our urban landscape with parks and gardens to provide shade, cool and fresh air, a nurtured healthy ecosystems for our native biodiversity. Indeed as I was speaking to His Excellency the minister from Brunei, he made the remark that Singapore doesn't have rainforests but we create forests. Despite being a highly urbanized city-state, more than 40% of Singapore is covered with greenery. Our forests in our four nature reserves are managed for conservation, research, recreation and education. To make Singapore a livable and environmentally sustainable city, we have implemented several initiatives to evolve Singapore from a garden city to a city in a garden. But these efforts alone are not enough for us to keep ahead of the challenges of climate change. We have to step up efforts in climate action. This means keeping track of our emissions for accounting obligations and supporting credible certification schemes. Tracking emissions as land uses change over time ensures that our nature reserves and other nature areas continue to be a valuable carbon sink. We have been monitoring and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and removals from the land use change and forestry sectors or LU-LUCF for short. Since 2013, initial results have shown that LU-LUCF contributed to a reduction of 0.5% of Singapore's total greenhouse gas emissions. The certification of forest products is also a critical step towards sustainable forest management. As consumers for wood products, especially processed products such as paper and pulp, we want Singaporeans to be environmentally conscious green buyers. Such a behavioural movement requires the support of certifying bodies. The Singapore Green Label Scheme has helped to guide Singapore's consumers when they purchase a product. This, in turn, encourages producers to adopt sustainable practices during production. In January last year, the Singapore Environment Council or SEC launched a holistic green labelling category for paper and pulp products, which encompasses pitland management and fire prevention standards as part of its criteria. Companies with such certified products are required to have their entire supply chain audited against this criteria. To walk the talk, the Singapore government runs and this goes beyond forest conservation. Given Singapore's vulnerability to the effects of climate change, we have committed under the Paris Agreement to reduce our emissions intensity by 36% from 2005 levels by 2030 and to stabilise our emissions with the aim of picking around them. We are committed to meeting our pledge and we are on track to meet our 2020 commitments. Singapore is also strengthening our resilience and adaptive capacity and integrating climate change measures into our long-term policies, strategies as well as planning. This would involve significant investments in infrastructure. We also leverage biodiversity to increase our resilience against climate change effects, like conserving our mangroves and coral reefs that help in carbon sequestration and protect our coastline. Singapore will also implement a carbon tax in 2019 that will provide a price signal to catalyse economy-wide behavioural changes to prepare our businesses to be more energy and carbon efficient and transition our economy to a low carbon future. Singapore also dexinated 2018 as our year of climate action to rally our citizens, businesses and communities to take action to reduce our carbon footprint and fight climate change. As the ASEAN chair this year, we will work with ASEAN countries to take climate action. Singapore will convene a special ASEAN meeting on climate action or SAMCA in July this year, the 10th of July to be accepted, so you could put that down in your diary. We will also hold a back-to-back expanded SAMCA with ministers from China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the UN FCC, COP, current and future presidents from Fiji and Poland respectively. These meetings will serve as a platform for constructive dialogue and send a strong signal on the region's commitment to the Paris agreement. As the chair of the ASEAN working group on climate change, Singapore has been working on the implementation of capacity building programs and technical exchanges in the region, in areas such as adaptation and mitigation. Last October, Singapore and the UN FCC organized a workshop on carbon pricing as part of the collaboration between ASEAN and UN FCC's collaborative instruments for ambitious climate action initiative. Let me conclude, climate change is a global problem. It can only be tackled effectively if all countries take climate action across all sectors. Current NDCs do not bring us to a future that is consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. It is estimated that the world's forests absorb about a third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Forests play a critical role in global efforts to address climate change. I'm indeed heartened to see representation from government research, civil society and private sectors from across Asia Pacific gathering at this summit to discuss this critical issue today. We all need to work together to preserve our environment for our future generations. I would like to thank the Indonesian government for hosting us here in Jakarta and the Australian government for supporting this event. I wish all of you a most lively and constructive discussion ahead. Terima kasih. Thank you. Mr. Ricardo Cowderan, Assistant Secretary at the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Thank you. Honorable Ministers, Excellencies, Development Partners, Distinguished Guests, Participants, Good Day, and Mabuhay. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Republic of the Philippines, Secretary Roy A. Simato, wish to extend his congratulations to her Excellency Minister Dr. Siti Nurbaya of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Indonesia and His Excellency Minister Joss Prydenberg of the Department of Environment and Energy Government of Australia for co-hosting the third Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit here in Majestic Yogyakarta, protecting forests and people supporting economic growth. In the 1950s, the Philippines started the cutting and harvesting of our natural dipterocarp forests and exported these premium hardwood species all over the world. The forestry sector alone contributed 10% of the gross domestic product during those years. We started our rehabilitation efforts in the 1960s but failed to provide solutions to major drivers of deforestation and degradation like illegal logging, slasen barn agriculture, illegal cutting, upland poverty, good governance, institutional problems including lack of government funding. Our 1990 Forestry Master Plan for Forest Development indicated that we have more than 20 million Filipinos living in the upland areas with a population growth and poverty incidents higher than the national average. Our forest coverage down from 16.8 million hectares in 1934 to only 6.84 million hectares in 2010. Roughly 19% of our total land area. From 2003 to 2010, we are losing our forest at a rate of 46,954 hectares annually and the rate of degradation is at 142,347 hectares annually. Our forest and forest land is nearing the tipping point of a reversible loss. We need to recover the forest that we lost and rehabilitate the remaining degraded areas. In 2011, we started the implementation of the National Greening Program, the biggest reforestation program of the Republic of the Philippines funded by taxpayers' money, high-value crops such as coffee, cacao and rubber. It was the first time that we used high-value crops in our reforestation activities in partnership with upland communities. Our thinking is that these upland communities will protect these trees as this will also provide them livelihood in the next three years. On the other hand, in the protection forest and protected areas, we planted endemic and indigenous three species including bamboo and rattan. Mangrove and beach forest species were planted in the coastal areas in partnership with coastal communities and local government units. The NGP, the National Greening Program has established partnership with private companies, corporations, people's organizations, civil society organizations, local government units and state universities and colleges including government offices and institutions. We have attracted almost 10,000 partners nationwide. The program has also generated 4.2 million jobs and employed 550,000 persons all coming from upland communities and rural areas. As I speak in front of you today, a total of 944 million dollars had been invested from 2011 until 2018 and 100 million dollars more was proposed for 2019. From 2011 until 2018, a total of 1.9 million hectares of degraded and denuded forest land were planted and rehabilitated. Forest rehabilitation and forest protection are the key elements in the 70% commitment of the Philippines in the Paris Agreement ratified by the Philippine government on March 23, 2017. Forest accounts to 40% of the national determined contribution. We have refocused and intensified our efforts to protect our remaining natural forests. The marching order of our Secretary is that we will further intensify our efforts to protect our natural forests. Our forests and natural growing trees are better off standing in the forest than apprehended but already cut by legal luggers and timber poachers. In order to expand our forest cover and enhance our carbon stock, we will be needing 900 million dollars more in the next five years until 2022. And the same amount from 2022 till 2028. As per our projections, we'll be able to increase our forest cover from 32% to 36%. We'll be able to further increase the resilience of our all-plant communities, improve their means of livelihood. This will also lessen the threat of flooding and landslide in our lowland communities thus enhancing agricultural productivity. But we also have to invest more on advanced technology not just on the planting and growing of trees but also on satellite technology so that we will be able to account for every hectare planted and rehabilitated. In this way we could account for every dollar spent coming from our taxpayers money. On the long term in order to ensure sustainability and gradually reduce the dependence of our communities from government, we have to invest in the development of social enterprise in the upland so that our upland farmers can become businessmen as well. We should be creating independent communities able to sustain themselves and become part of the value chain. Along this line we need the private sector as partners and civil society organizations and nongovernmental organizations to assist our upland farmers. In order to sustain the game the National Gaining Program was expanded until 2028 aligned with the Philippine Development Plan and the Philippine Forestry Master Plan. The program is our major intervention in order to achieve sustainable development goals is specifically goal one no poverty goal to zero hunger goal 13 climate action goal 15 life on land and goal 17 partnership to achieve the goal while the implementation of the program are not without the problems and difficulties we're now documenting the testimonials of beneficiaries of upland communities in the Unionist peoples women's group and upland households whose lives were improved as a result of the program communities are now empowered and transformed from being mere spectators to actual partners of government and implementers of the program. We in government are pleased by the economic games of the people in these upland communities. Farmers are able to sustain the schooling of their children gaining knowledge from training able to make investments on cooperative stores community nurseries and community transport vehicles but more importantly with the millions of dollars we have invested so far we have 1.9 million hectares of new forest rehabilitated protected and managed by empowered communities we have increased our forest cover from 23 percent to 23 percent our upland communities are now more resilient empowered and productive citizens in a more functional forest ecosystem thank you and let us work and participate for a more successful third Asia Pacific rainforest summit thank you and good day thank you so now we can change tact a little bit so we've been here for global sustainable development they confirm that we are in this together and we must find solutions together obviously countries will individually implement and report their own domestic measures to fulfill these obligations in Norway our government has decided that all ministries should report on their own contributions and achievements in the annual budget paper presented to our national parliament we are all we are already experiencing that some targets are harder to reach than others but we see progress first of January this year Norway's climate act made our national climate goals into law based on our Paris contribution Norway is now legally committed to become a net zero emission economy in 2050 that would require a mission reduction of Sam 80 to 95 percent from our 1990 levels the road there goes through a target of an at least 40 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and becoming emissions neutral by the same year we aim to fulfill this through a collective delivery the EU and its member states minister city Nuremberg Excellencies and colleagues in Norway's economy we have four main emission sources around 50 percent of the missions are already covered by the mission trading system the ETS of the EU originate originating mainly from industry aviation and oil and gas sectors remaining emissions mainly comes from transport and agriculture our electricity needs are covered almost entirely by our vast renewable hydro power resources one of the policies that have received international attention is a tax exemptions and other attractive incentives for emissions who buy electric cars this has led to a massive growth in sales of electric cars and the number of new cars with the traditional fossil combustion combustion engine now is surpassed by emission-free or hybrid cars Norway has the highest share of electric cars per capita in the world and this has happened in a few years we are using this momentum in moving towards electric transport solutions also at sea with the national ferry system gradually facing out these land genes and switching to batteries as you are all well aware the biggest challenge yet is our oil and gas sector where emissions from our production continue to represent a sizable source here the government is investing substantially in research and development on carbon capture storage the technology also recognized by IPCC as key to realize Paris agreement as for our global contribution I'm happy to confirm that rainforest remain Norway's biggest climate priority and there I would like to remind everyone important the Bali meeting back in 2007 actually was ministers Bali marked the first cop were major decisions on climate and forest were made a broad coalition of governments civil society business and scientists managed to convince the conference the time had come to formally recognize the role of tropical forest protection in any credible fight against global warming the message was clear without quickly halting and then ending tropical deforestation it would be possible to reduce emissions at the scale which would prevent the reversible rise in global temperature as you know now and we'll discuss here in Georgia Karta the decision led to the launch of a large number of programs and projects that could deliver emissions emission reductions we got the forest carbon partnership facility of the World Bank the UN red program and many smaller projects adoption of red plus in the climate convention mobilized in you and additional funding stream in climate finance some of these very much being implemented in Indonesia as we speak ladies and gentlemen one of these initiatives born out of Bali is the international climate and forest initiative Norway pledged up to three billion which a coronary year and promised to work closely with tropical forest countries to end the tropical forest laws while improving the livelihoods of those who live off in and near the forests an agreement the letter of intent was signed with Indonesia in 2010 10 the government committed Indonesia to large emission reductions the forest moratorium was issued to stop issuance of new logging concessions and aimed at improving governance of primary natural forest and peatlands the moratorium covered an area of between 64 and 72 million hectares it sent a strong political signal of change from both countries Indonesia would leave the fight to save its rainforest Norway would provide large-scale financial support to enhance the efforts since then the moratorium has been renewed several times and even been supplemented with special measures to address peatlands Indonesia's ecosystems are incredibly valuable and sustained the livelihoods of more than 260 million people living on more than 900 islands blessed with some of the richest ecosystems in the world with more plant and animal species than most other nations in the world this offer many opportunities for discovery innovation and explanation that will benefit all mankind forest play a vital role in any development scenario facing us but it also the most important source of emissions Indonesia plays an important role in reducing its carbon footprint through ending deforestation and draining peatlands and in restoring degraded forest lands in succeeding you will have made a massive global contribution to reach the Paris goal your excellency minister city norabaya even though it has taken more time than originally anticipated to establish the fundamental components of the partnership with continued strong leadership from president jokowi yourself and your teams 2018 might still be the year where norway can announce the first result based payments to Indonesia for achievements in reducing domestic forest loss and when that happens it will be the crowning example of what two countries supported by many friends can accomplish together it is never easy to change the dynamics of an economy it requires us to think very differently about what carries value for us in our daily lives such as clean air and clean water reform efforts will always be challenging until you find new economic activity that is less damaging to our environment governments must lead this transformation but do depend on partnerships with industry local and other communities civil society organizations and universities there will always be a transaction cost because if the risks involved because of the risks in world red plus can reduce these costs and help kickstarting the economy dynamic transformation across sectors through red plus forest can actually continue to be a financial source but now without the single tree being cut and sold for profit and no peatlands trained in its most simple form red plus aim to produce independently verified emissions reductions that will automatically and predictably trigger payments from donors and other partners this in turn will provide Indonesia with valuable additional financials resources that can then be used to invest in improved welfare and jobs for the Indonesian people in a new low carbon climate economy friends we must recognize that Indonesia has a strong agrarian economy depending on farmers and agro industry for jobs and growth in most countries agriculture is the biggest driver of deforestation so finding better agricultural practices is important if we are to combine environmental and economic goals recognizing the importance of shifting from expansive to intensive production governments must use a combination of stick and carrot to ensure our food production does not replace our forest and peatlands and this shift cannot be an interim one the change must be permanent ladies and gentlemen many of you in this room has worked tirelessly for more than a decade to end the days of deforestation in Indonesia and beyond and even though important progress have been made and though our coalition of partnerships are growing it is important to use events like the Asia Pacific range for a summit to recognize that the job is not yet finished I will therefore close by wishing you the best of luck in the discussions during these three days giving us new knowledge and approaches to end deforestation and forest loss in closing let me thank our host the minister of environment and forest the government of Australia and see for for making this event possible I wish you all a successful conference thank you very much for your attention thank you ambassador so now I'd call on the delivery partner to the summit Dr. Robert oh sorry Robert Nazy Nazy director general of C4 thank you good afternoon everybody I'm acutely aware that I'm here standing between you and your lunch so I will try to keep it reasonably short but if we when we talk about the Asia Pacific region I'm not doing going to talk about a country because I'm not going to speak about France here I'm not going to speak about my wife's country in Indonesia because many people know better but if you talk about Asia Pacific of dry forests all these countries all these people with all their difference I think are all going together for one reason because forests matter and forest matter for C4 C4 is a center for international forest research that been created in 1993 it's headquartered in Indonesia in Bogor and our aim since we have been created in 1993 as early about breaking the old conception about forestry and expanding forestry beyond what is considered as classical in our world and that's why we we have considered elements like what are the underlying causes of the forestation we're involved in the first system for certification of forestry developing Caterin indicator in 2016 we developed a new strategy because we thought that following the 2015 Paris agenda and 2015 declaration of the sustainable development goal we had to add up our strategy and show that forest and forestry would contribute to the 17 SDGs and not simply the SDG 15 life on land and from that we have continued working and we developed the largest integrated research program on forestry is a natural forestry with partner for mecraft and another international and national organization and our purpose is to make sure and to ensure that forest and forestry contribute to the sustainable development goal as they should and that they improve the livelihood of local people they improve the economic returns of forest but at the same time protects diversity and the environment I could speak for hours about forest and forestry I mean I've been involved with that for more than 37 years now but in terms of the maybe some entry points where people don't look really sort of forest are very important for food security and nutrition our research in Indonesia show that among various land use type the people that have the most diverse diet are the people that live in where they have the most diverse forest and agroforestry forest matter for agriculture there is a significant effect of having a forest near an oil palm or maize plantation in terms of yield because of the natural pest control exert by forest forest matter also in terms of climate change not simply because of they are carbon stock they do they are also they have a significant effect in cooling the atmosphere they have a significant effect in creating rent in places that are far away from where they are creating rivers in the skies and what is happening when you deforest in a place like Indonesia as an impact as far as China and Beijing in terms of the amount of deposit of silt that is happening and there is one ecosystem which has been close to my heart for a long time that encompass all the issue can think about forest it's a pitland and mangroves and pitland and mangroves although they represent a small percentage of the world forest are probably the richest and the most carbon-rich ecosystem in the world and also the most threatened and I think I can only encourage command Indonesia for all the efforts that Indonesia is currently doing in terms of restoring and rehabilitating pitland and working on mangroves and my last word will be that C4 is a research capacity development and communication organization we are not big we are working with many partners and we are willing to work with anybody in this room for home forest matter thank you thank you thank you ministers probably another round of applause for everyone for all the ministers so I think that's after all those presentations this morning we've probably got a lot to inform our thinking over the next couple of days and the various sessions but I think we'll stop for lunch now we are running a little bit behind schedule I know everyone's probably getting hungry so if we stop for lunch and I think we reconvene at 1.30 in the planning room again so thank you again ministers