The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

Rehabilitation Center (OFI), home to over 300 injured ororphaned Orangutans. In 1997, Dr. Galdikas was awarded the“Kalpataru Prize for Environmental Leadership” by theIndonesian government and is the only foreigner to ever havewon the award. For 2008, she has been nominated to receive the“Satya Lencana Pembangunan Prize for Leadership in SocialDevelopment”.InfiniteEARTH has drafted this Project Design Document to meetthe requirements of the Climate, Community and BiodiversityProject Design Standards, Second Edition (CCB Standards). TheCCB Standards serve as a screen to identify those REDD projectsthat subscribe to the highest ethical and ecological ideals. TheRimba Raya project is seeking Gold-­‐level certification under thesestandards. InfiniteEARTH will concurrently apply for certificationunder the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), a global carbonaccounting standard including a formal validation and verificationprogram for voluntary greenhouse gas offsets.REDD projects that seek certification under CCB Standards mustshow substantial climate benefits from avoided emissions, andalso demonstrate that the rights and needs of local communitieshave been addressed and important biodiversity conservationwill be achieved by project activities. The Rimba Raya project hasbeen designed to balance all three of these concerns. In July 2008, Yale University published anEnvironmental Performance Index that rankedIndonesia 102 nd out of 149 countries because of itshigh rate of deforestation. Indonesia has produced 85percent of its emissions through deforestation. A study by Greenomics Indonesia reports that ~18.4million hectares of managed forest concessions havebeen occupied illegally, mostly by plantation andmining companies that have been grantedunauthorized permits by local government officials. According to Wetlands International, oil palmplantations in Kalimantan expanded by 11.5 per centto nearly a million hectares between 2002 and 2003.4