In a financial deal with Norway, Indonesia has agreed to set a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear primary forests and peatlands. The deal, which took effect Friday, will protect 158 million acres of trees from logging and conversion into plantations. As part of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program, Norway will pay a fixed sum per ton of CO2 emissions Indonesia prevents through forest protection. The agreement could yield up to $1 billion. However, the agreement allegedly fell short of some projections.

Norway agreed to a $1 billion deal to aid Indonesia in forest protection on Thursday, despite a long list of exemptions, a "maze" of reforms, and a lack of maps indicating specific conservation areas.

Indonesia responded to criticism of its new forest protection plan by releasing a new moratorium map, one forestry analysts say is an improvement over its predecessor. The plan, which received $1 billion in aid from Norway, includes a two-year ban on deforestation in new and existing protected areas throughout the country. However, the original map, at 1:19,000,000 scale, was immediately criticized as useless for determining which areas were and were not exempted from the moratorium. The new map is 1:250,000 scale.

In a financial deal with Norway, Indonesia has agreed to set a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear primary forests and peatlands. The deal, which took effect Friday, will protect 158 million acres of trees from logging and conversion into plantations. As part of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program, Norway will pay a fixed sum per ton of CO2 emissions Indonesia prevents through forest protection. The agreement could yield up to $1 billion. However, the agreement allegedly fell short of some projections.