REDDY at last

CLIMATE-CHANGE talks in Doha this week opened in a mood of pessimism. But one cheering announcement punctured the gloom: that Indonesia’s government had formally approved the country’s first project under the “REDD” scheme (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).

Indonesia is one of world’s big emitters of carbon, largely because of logging. REDD, to which Norway has committed $1 billion for Indonesia, pays developing countries not to chop down trees. In this project, known as Rimba Raya (“infinite forest”), forest in Borneo the size of Singapore will be preserved. Against the odds, it will not be turned into one of the vast palm-oil plantations that are eating up so much of the country.