Fidelis E. Satriastanti – A number of environmental non-government organizations have criticized the speed at which the government has issued carbon-trading regulations about revenue sharing, saying that there were many issues to be resolved before benefits could be considered.

Wirendro Sumargo, executive director of Forest Watch Indonesia, said it was far too premature to issue regulations for carbon-trading mechanisms, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

"I don't think that we are quite ready for these new carbon-trading regulations, especially revenue sharing," Wirendro said. "Discussions concerning REDD have not even been completed, yet we're already talking about benefit sharing."

The Forestry Ministry in May this year issued its regulations on carbon trading, which including an addendum outlining the proportional revenue-sharing plans for the three tiers of government. According to the addendum, the central government would get 40 percent, provincial governments 20 percent with the remainder going to district governments.

Wirendro said the core issues such as on the overlapping jurisdictions between the central government and local governments had still not being resolved until now.

"These government levels are still fighting over the ownership of the land," he said. "Issuing binding revenue-sharing proportions now will only intensify the problem because we're talking about money here."

However, Suparno, head of the law bureau at the Forestry Ministry, said the regulations concerning revenue sharing were not set in stone as they still needed the approval from the Finance Ministry.

"Revenue sharing is not going to take effect for at least a few years, because we still need to consult with the Finance Ministry to include revenues based on non-taxed state revenue," Suparno said. "What we have issued are just a guidelines."

He said there could be changes in the details of the revenue-sharing system before it was settled by a government decree.

Yuyun Indradi, a forest campaigner of Greenpeace, said the regulations would not be effective because local communities, who would be mostly responsible for preserving the forests, were not included.

"There is no specific article or statement in the regulations mentioning compensation for local communities," Yuyun said. "Meanwhile, the central government is talking about their share when they, basically, won't be doing anything much about preserving forests."

He said the proposed revenue-sharing system could result in bigger leakages in the system leaving nothing for local communities.

However, Suparno said the role of the local communities and their compensation would be discussed in the next government decree.

"We've thought about that issue and we are still considering including their share of the revenue in the government decree," he said.