Running head: FORESTRY SECTOR IN INDONESIA 1

Forestry Sector in Indonesia

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The Paris Agreement seeks to reinforce the international response to the impending
climate change so that the global temperature is maintained below 20 Celsius, and make a follow
up on efforts that can limit the increase in temperature to 1.50 Celsius. Most governments have
promised to honor half of what is needed to avert a 20C temperature increase. Whereas this
emission gap is wide, the UN Environment feels that it can be sealed when better measures are
implemented.
One of the main institutions to sealing the gap is forests. This implies that tropical forests have
prospective to providing resolution to climate change.
 Achieving Indonesia's climate change goals in line with The Paris Agreement needs a
serious change in its energy, investment, and subsidy policies.
 The air quality is unfavorable because of pollutants such as unsustainable urbanization
and forest fires that cause polluted air resulting in illnesses, deaths, and loss of productive
land.
 A poor system in license issuance by government and authority for mining and logging
has resulted in illegal mining activities and deforestation without environmental
concerns.
 The increasing population has caused the demand to produce sufficient food for the
population hence expanding agricultural activities that shift cultivation in areas under
forest cover.
 Indonesia considered having rich biodiversity and natural resources. There are potential
economic climates; however, achieving them requires putting the country’s course on a
more environmentally sustainable trajectory.
Introduction
Indonesia falls under tropical archipelago that consists of different kinds of forests
spreading from mountain areas into coastal region. Apart from the forest is vast in size, they are
known to be the home of different forms of diversity. The country is among the mega-diversity
nations in the region. More than 50 million people stay near the forest edges, with 50% of them
being poor (Forestry Statistics of Indonesia, 2010). A good number of the communities around
the forest region directly depend on the forest for livelihoods such as logging, gathering, hunting,
fishing and shifting cultivation (APKI, 2007). Forests are very significant because they are
FORESTRY SECTOR IN INDONESIA 3

renewable resources. Forests have been major contributors to economic development in many
regions around the globe.
Forests are good sources of fodder, firewood, housing, and energy and employ thousands
of people. Additionally, they help to balance the ecology. The current utilization of forests and
supply of its products exposes that the forest demand cannot meet human needs. Because the
population growth is far from stopping, it is important to increase forest coverage (Amacher,
2006). Current statistics show that the forest coverage in the country is 139,730,390.98 ha having
133, 333,521.98 ha of terrestrial forest cover and 2,324,786.00 ha is covered by water in the
forest. In the previous years, the forest cover has reduced drastically with an average of 1 million
ha annually. This degradation of forest is due to factors such as natural disasters, encroachment
in forest land and illegal logging.
Future Scenario
Presently, the amount of degraded forest region is 33.5 million ha. Such ruined areas have
potential and there should be intervention measures because this is a large area. An issue of
concern is the rapid acquiring of forest land which is not documented. Since most forested land
has been covered into non-forested it should be a priority to think about validation of the forest
cover and enable pro-poor and equitable activities (Kartawinata, 2005). Rehabilitating forests is
viewed as dependant on government and some private organization for funding. There is a
potential that market demand and global pressure for carbon emission cut will have an impact on
forest rehabilitation. Currently, the rates of rehabilitation and plantation progress will rely on
accomplishment in solving serious issues of land disputes that influence poverty, infrastructural
development and government efficiency (World Bank, 2006).
The Issue
According to Forestry Statistics of Indonesia (2010), the declining forest cover is as a
result of a steady increase in population. The increase in demand for the product from the forest
has increased and Indonesian forests cannot sustain by natural procedure and the forests are
quickly depleting (FAO, 2005). Additionally, the increasing urbanization has caused peat fires.
The government subsidized fuel and the reduction was from 14% to 3% but other sources of
energy still remained 7%. The country has also provided motivation to attract more investments
in a particular field such as industry, although it has led to greenhouse gas. This policy has to be
aligned with The Paris Agreement that seeks to reinforce the international response to the
FORESTRY SECTOR IN INDONESIA 4

impending climate change so that the global temperature is maintained below 20 Celsius, and
make a follow up on efforts that can limit the increase in temperature to 1.50 Celsius. Indonesia
has continually depended on coal as a source of energy which will increase from 30% in 2019 to
45% in 2025. Measures to achieve 80% energy use have been derailed by increasing demand for
fossil fuels (World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002).

The quality of air in Indonesia has become an issue of concern, especially in the capital
Jakarta because of vehicles and the required electricity to generate coal. Due to rapid
urbanization in Indonesia, pollutants will contaminate the air leading to poor air quality that has
adverse impacts on the health of people. Some illness associated with poor air quality such as
respiratory diseases will result in high mortality and morbidity. The poor management system
has seen deforestation rate increase by 1 million per ha annually. This had made it difficult to
achieve sustainable forest management and the ability to respond to disasters (Kartawinata,
2005).
Big forest fires that have occurred in Western Sumatra and Kalimantan have affected air quality
by polluting the environment and destroyed the biodiversity.
Most people have used fires to destroy forest so that they cultivate the virgin forest lands
for palm oil. Illegal trade, big log deficit, and log smuggling has reduced the anticipated forest
cover (World Bank, 2006). Even though palm oil farming has great economic benefits
particularly in rural regions, its utilization has been a serious issue in diversity loss and
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deforestation. The authority has failed to enforce effective licensing and regulatory systems. The
authority has not implemented the required measures in the mining sector because of
unproductive government regulators. For instance, more than 50% of miners operate without the
required licenses such as CnC (clean and clear) certification. The procedure for acquiring this
permit is the requirement to get forest permits and environment obligation (Rudel, 2005). Based
on statistics, poverty levels in communities that reside on the forest edges have had a great
negative impact on forests. The forest department has insufficient numbers of skilled workers
such as researchers which slow the activities at the Forestry Research and Development Agency.
Significance
Indonesia must strive to see that the growth of its economy does not have negative
impacts on natural resources. The country must put in place measures of sustainable
development. Economic growth is important for the government and its people (Tempo
Magazine, 2006). However, Indonesia must not over depend on fossil fuels and deforestation.
The quick rate of urbanization in Indonesia has impacts on the transport sector, land use, and
waste management that which will make the cities unsustainable and the high cost of living
because of the bad environment. Furthermore, there will be a great reduction in the soil, water,
and air quality. The country will benefit a lot by adopting green growth ideas earlier enough to
mitigate negative impacts for the sake of the well being of its citizens.
The increasing population has caused the demand to produce sufficient food for the
population hence expanding agricultural activities that shift cultivation in areas under forest
cover. Forests form a larger part of national resources and assets, international public good and
the main source of livelihood to more than 38 million people (Statistik, 2007). Forests are very
important since they are renewable resources. Forests have been main contributors to economic
growth in various regions around the world. Forests are good sources of fodder, firewood,
housing, and energy and employ thousands of people. Furthermore, they assist in balancing
ecology.
The present exploitation of forests and supply of its products depicts that the forest
demand is unable to meet the needs of human. The administration management and governance
tackle the problem of forest management. The forests have not attained their intended purposes
such as environmental sustainability, social and economic development, and poverty alleviation.
Forest cover losses undermine efforts to support ecosystem services, rural livelihoods and the
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government efforts to meet the international threshold of sustainability (Setiono & Husein,
2005). As the government shifts to growth and stabilization, there are very many chances to help
in finding out measures to manage forest with other stakeholders such as local public, and
contributing to equity, jobs, investments, and justice. Indonesia legislation has developed clear
goals to address the forest sector. Some of the legislation by the government is conservation,
protection, watershed, distribution of benefits and economic output.
Recommendations
Work with other government, NGO, public and other stakeholders to establish and solve
the gap between environmental targets and economic drivers such as diesel, petroleum,
electricity, and gas. Put in place measures that will research alternative sources of energy such as
geothermal, wind, sun and other renewable energy (Resosudarmo, 2004). Encourage
urbanization activities that have better investment opportunities which enable quality
infrastructure and services for future competences and growth (Kartawinata, 2005).
Develop and improve the government regulation which will check logging and make sure
that the authorities have required enforcement standards to reduce deforestation. There should be
capacity building that will amend laws to improve enforcement and prosecuting forest harvesters
Support the local-level management in enforcement and permits in other sensitive sectors like
mining. Currently, the rapid varying democratization and decentralization process has developed
different types of missions and visions, and priorities in different districts and provinces, that are
described in there forest management regulations. Such forest policies and institutional
agreements need to be synchronized but they have failed because a huge amount of money
required (OECD, 2014).
Good corporate and public governance is required. It will help in a reorganization the
systems and structure of forest management, regulations, and institutions to develop better
environments for collaborative and incorporation empowerment (Amacher, 2006).
Supporting human resources abilities to manage forests and encouraging the role of the private
sector and the public to increase international competition. Such a process will support forest
institution to achieve gross domestic product because of sustainable use of forest resources to
create jobs and improve livelihood thus alleviate poverty.
Conclusions
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The Paris Agreement seeks to reinforce the international response to the impending
climate change so that the global temperature is maintained below 20 Celsius, and make a follow
up on efforts that can limit the increase in temperature to 1.50 Celsius. This policy seeks to
address the government of Indonesia has to work with the goals of The Paris Agreement.
Problems associated with sustainable use of forest are an increase in demand for product from
the forest has increased that Indonesian forests cannot sustain by natural procedure and the forest
is quickly depleting. Rapid urbanization, poor management system, expanding agricultural
activities that shift cultivation in areas under forest cover and land use and waste management
has had significant impacts on forest and the environment (OECD, 2016).
Forest degradation results in pollution of air causing illnesses, accumulation of
greenhouse gases, loss of rich biodiversity and economic benefits. The government, agencies, the
public, and other stakeholders must move with speed to mitigate the issue. Some of the
measures recommended are supporting human resources abilities to manage forests and
encouraging the role of the private sector and the public to increase international competition.
Encourage alternative sources of energy such as geothermal, wind, sun, and other renewable
energy and developing and improving the government regulation which will check logging and
make sure that the authorities have required enforcement standards to reduce deforestation.
FORESTRY SECTOR IN INDONESIA 8

References
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