A jurisdictional approach in carbon emission reduction is a wholistic implementation across all systems at all level of government: local, regional/provincial, and national. It requires government agencies, forestry (and non-forestry) officials, and (local and Adat) communities to agree on a pathway of shared-contribution and shared-responsibilities towards climate goals, even when their concerns, priorities, roles, and functions differ from one another. East Kalimantan and Jambi are the two leading examples on the implementation of jurisdiction approach in carbon emission reduction actions in Indonesia. Several observed key points on the implementation to date are explain below:
- Strong Government Commitment
In 2022, Indonesia committed to transforming the Forest and Other Land Use sector into a net carbon sink by 2030 (FOLU Net Sink 2030) through activities that include reduction in deforestation and forest degradation, development of plantation forest, implementation of sustainable forest management, forest and land rehabilitation, restoration of peatlands, rehabilitation of mangrove, and biodiversity conservation. That commitment is aimed to contribute to the national bigger goal known as Long-Term Strategy for Low Carbon and Climate Resilience 2050 and the Updated Nationally Determined Contribution which increased commitment into 31.89% with own funding and 43.2% with international support. Those commitments will need to be translated to the provincial level. Therefore, strong government leadership and commitment are essential particularly at provincial, including local level.
The government of East Kalimantan and Jambi Provinces’ commitment are manifested in their provincial development plan. These provinces understand that the health of communities and the health of forests are interdependent and that the interaction of economic, social, and environmental policies are important to meet sustainability. East Kalimantan pledged to make its province a ‘green province’ through the establishment of the Green East Kalimantan (Kaltim Hijau) program. The vision of the program is to develop the province as a global example for how to combine greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals with economic development, while ensuring that development is sustainable and environmentally friendly. While, the Green Growth Plan (Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Hijau) of Jambi Province outlines a vision for low-carbon development that is centred around increased land productivity and the protection of forests and peatlands. The provincial government of West Nusa Tenggara province, more recently, has also put environmental conservation at the core of provincial development by elaborating it in their mid-term development plan, which serves as a reference for protecting forests while also improving livelihoods and the local economy.
- Collective leadership and cross sector collaboration
There is an urgent need to change the development pathway including in tropical forest landscapes before landscape management dynamics are locked-in through the development of infrastructure, extensive and unsustainable plantations, sacrificing local and global well-being with severe catastrophes as impact of the global climate change. National governments, provincial governments, regional agencies/institution, local communities (including Adat communities), and the private sector have shared crucial roles to play and required to be active co-owners of jurisdictional programs.
East Kalimantan and Jambi are gearing up to be a leading example of what integrated action and collaboration across all sectors of the economy can do. As provinces on the frontline of sustainable development which rich in forests and home to hundreds of villages and Adat communities and endangered species, including, which specific to East Kalimantan with its huge coal, oil, and gas reserves and which specific to Jambi with its huge coal mining and vast oil palm plantation. Jurisdictional program has been proven as one of catalysator for collective leadership.
Sustainability require collaboration from multi-stakeholders with distinctive (although sometimes are overlapping) authority, role, and function as well as very diverse human resources capacity. Despite the fact that working in focused partnerships and collective way to develop joint solutions found to be challenging, jurisdictional programs offer an opportunity in accelerating transition to (more) sustainable development, whereby a network of influential and representative leaders agreed to work in compatible ways to address key systemic challenges and co-create sustainable landscapes. Jurisdictional programs do not replace existing decision-making authority and should not tightly managed for adaptability along with the emerging dynamic. Jurisdictional programs generate joint benefit through the establishment of a Leadership Group from key representative stakeholders so that providing strength and opportunities in addressing different aspect of sustainability, where cross-sectoral and inclusive dialogues is a key. Leading government, academician, community, Non-Government Organizations, and corporate/private sector representatives work together and established a so-called agreement on how development occurs in “their” province – under the umbrella of a “green development plan.”
Another key element is also represented by a working group namely The East Kalimantan Provincial Climate Change Council (Dewan Daerah Perubahan Iklim/DDPI) as Part of Provincial Compact, the backbone organization for the Green East Kalimantan Program. This province recognized that developing solutions would not suffice with good collaboration across sectors, but also structured adjustment and improved solutions to effectively translating prototypes and pilots to full-scale approaches and implementation.
- Land Tenure
Land tenure security for local communities and Masyarakat Adat is critical for both forest protection and rural livelihoods. It saves forest from unresponsible displacement, potential land conflicts, and shrinking livelihood opportunities which often ends up to more severe deforestation and forest degradation. Well-documented evidence of legal recognition is thus a critical element to mitigating and adapting to climate change.
The Indonesia’s FOLU Net Sink 2030 Operational Plan provides explanation of development and consolidation of Customary Forest which is part of an effort to achieve the carbon emission reduction target through increasing protection of forest areas and strengthening forest management by customary law communities. Additionally, in the Operational Plan document, the Social Forestry is also acknowledged as an effort to increase forest cover as protection of forest areas while developing/enhancing community welfare through access to sustainable forest management and sustainable forest utilization. The on-going and continuous improvement on integrated spatial databases and analytics has been served as the scientific knowledge base for any environment sustainability initiatives.
These growing commitment to sustainability in tropical forest landscapes, the deepening understanding of different strategies and approaches through experience, and the expanding successful examples provide hope for scale up in jurisdictional transitions to carbon emission reduction actions towards the sustainability of green development in this State.