The Indonesian government is aiming for the forestry and land use sector to be not only carbon neutral but also a carbon sink by 2030 as part of a greater emissions reduction strategy.

Indonesia has targeted to reduce emissions by 29 per cent independently and 41 per cent with international assistance in its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat in 2016.

The latest updated NDC document, submitted by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry on July 21 of this year, says that a large chunk of emissions reduction is expected to come from the forestry and land use sector by 2030, at 24.5 per cent. This makes up around 692 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The ministry is now trying to take corrective measures to support the plan, including by reducing deforestation and preventing land degradation and forest fires, according to Deputy Minister Alue Dohong.

He said the government would also continue to prevent biodiversity loss and update policies in line with environmental international conventions, as well as redirect forest economics from logging operations to sustainable forest management.

“By implementing these corrective measures, we are optimistic that we can achieve the carbon sink target by 2030,” Alue told a press conference on July 21.

Director-general for climate change control Laksmi Dhewanti said the ministry’s existing climate change mitigation policies would be instrumental in achieving the carbon sink target.

This includes policies that aim at improving forest resource and industrial forests (HTI) management to reduce reliance on timber from natural forest, as well as better spatial planning for infrastructure development that will not sacrifice natural forest.

Director-general for forest planning and environment management Ruandha Agung Sugardiman said the ministry would regularly monitor the implementation of its own existing policies to ensure forests become a carbon sink by 2030.

Yet, activists are still unconvinced that Indonesia’s forests can be carbon neutral by 2030, saying the government has not provided transparent details on how and how much carbon should be reduced from each of the measures, while some existing strategies still threaten natural forests.

Forest Watch Indonesia campaigner Ode Mufti Barri said the government’s carbon reduction-related records were often incomplete and tended not to favour independent cross-checking. This includes the ministry’s 2020 deforestation data, which present only the deforestation rate without detailing where and why it still occurred.

According to the data, Indonesia recorded last year the lowest annual forest loss in the past 10 years, at around 115,000ha.

However, deforestation might not be gone for good anytime soon as emissions reduction strategies in Indonesia’s updated NDCs still state that 450,000ha of deforestation is an acceptable loss until 2030.

Mufti said natural forests inside industrial forests and other concession areas that adopted sustainable practices and silviculture were still at risk of producing carbon if they were cleared to make way for commercial forests.

“With the current policy regimes, we think the carbon sink goal is not realistic,” Mufti said on July 22, adding that the impact of the newly enacted Job Creation Law on the forestry sector had yet to be evaluated.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia forest campaigner Iqbal Damanik said that while the goal was laudable and necessary, it was less clear how the government could offset the carbon potentially produced by the forestry sector.

He pointed out that the oil palm moratorium – which is expected to curb plantation expansion in forests – could end as early as September this year. Not to mention that the government’s indicative maps of the natural forests and peatland moratorium were unreliable and regularly changed without transparency.

“Our forests do not only exist in the areas according to official maps,” Iqbal said, adding that the carbon sink target would not be achieved until all forests were protected.

THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK