Banda Aceh - An Australian company has secured an international corporate deal, that will save 750,000 hectares of rainforest in Indonesia.
The company, Carbon Conservation, has persuaded Wall St banker Merrill Lynch to sink $9 million into local businesses in Aceh.
The deal could be worth $400 million in carbon credits for the bank.
Carbon Conservation chief executive, Dorje Sun, says the forest will be guarded by 1000 heavily-armed former Free Aceh rebels.
He says 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide will now stay locked in the rainforest.
"Never before in history has there been a commercial bank, with commercial returns in mind to actually pay people, community owners in Aceh, for the protection and the utility the rainforests provide there."
Source: www.abc.net.au (12 April 2008)
