Critical Appraisal of Indonesia´s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)

Written by: Meutia Safira Fakhrani

“Deforestation means there are still forests lost” - Grita, Program Director at Indonesian Centre for
Environmental Law2

Recently, the Government of Indonesia has released a press on its historical low deforestation rate
to 75%. Following Indonesia´s NDC commitment on reducing global emissions up to 29% (unconditional)
and 41% (conditional) by 2030, this is supposed to be an early stage of success for Indonesia reaching its
climate ambitions target1. Nonetheless, is Indonesia truly on the track?

According to Indonesia´s First Biennial Update Report submitted to UNFCCC in January 2016,
Indonesia Land Use Change and Forestry (LUCF) have mostly contributed to the overall
countries´emissions (63%). Hence, forestry has been one of Indonesia´s key sectors to mitigate GHG
emissions—along with energy, agriculture, and waste management.

Moratorium of new permits on primary forests and peatland has become an enacted mitigation
policy to achieve emissions reduction target from forest conversion. Integrated under One Map Policy,
Indonesia has been aspiring to ensure the transparency of geospatial data and information among
related entities in maintaining forestry assessments3. Additionally, the establishment of Community
Based Forest Management would see local participation in managing sustainable forest management.
However, high conflict of interests in favor of land conversion, for instance for palm oil plantation and
building infrastructure, has still arisen. Some cases that have emerged in the media have proven that
Indonesia has been struggling to run better monitoring and sanctioning illegal acts in forestry.
Additionally, it could be argued that reforestation efforts have not significantly supported the mitigation
action in Indonesia.

Being vulnerable to climate-related natural disasters, Indonesia has proposed to reinforce

mitigation and adaptation of climate change in sync. Joint Adaptation and Mitigation (PROKLIM) for
instance, has been highly taken into account to achieve NDC targets both in the short term and long
term. Accordingly, convergent policy on climate change adaptation & disaster risks reduction and local
capacity strengthening have become Indonesia´s main adaptation goals. Ultimately, Indonesia should see
unprecedented challenges as a window of opportunities to knock off NDC targets by 2030.
References

1. Government of Indonesia. 2016. First Nationally Determined Contribution Republic of Indonesia.

https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/Indonesia%20First/First%20ND
C%20Indonesia_submitted%20to%20UNFCCC%20Set_November%20%202016.pdf , accessed on
13th May 2021.
2. Mongabay. 2021. Deforestation in Indonesia hits record low, but experts fear a rebound.
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/2021-deforestation-in-indonesia-hits-record-low-but-exp
erts-fear-a-rebound/ , accessed on 27th May 2021.
3. MoEF. 2016. National Forest Reference Emission Level for Deforestation and Forest Degradation:
In the Context of Decision 1/CP.16 para 70 UNFCCC (Encourages developing country Parties to
contribute to mitigation actions in the forest sector), Directorate General of Climate Change. The
Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Indonesia.
https://redd.unfccc.int/files/frel_submission_by__indonesia_final.pdf , accessed on 27th May
2021.