Smoke rises from vegetation as land is cleared by burning for a new palm oil plantation in the Rawa Singkil wildlife reserve, part of the Leuser Ecosystem in Trumon, South Aceh, as seen in this aerial photo taken on March 3, 2018. - AFP
JAKARTA, Dec 19 (Jakarta Post/ANN): Indonesia and the United States have committed to launching a new climate partnership early next year with funding of up to US$50 million to help Indonesia achieve its forestry carbon sink goal by 2030.
In May, the Environment and Forestry Ministry and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support Indonesia’s Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU) Net Sink 2030 program.
The commitment to the new climate partnership follows up of the White House’s Fact Sheet: Strengthening the US-Indonesia Strategic Partnership published on Nov. 13, which was also announced at the bilateral meeting between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders’ Summit in Bali.
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said she appreciated that the upcoming Indonesia-US partnership would scale up the two countries’ prior agreement on the FOLU Net Sink 2030.
“We can demonstrate that our partnership is not merely a pledge, but is being translated into climate actions,” Siti said in a statement published on the ministry’s website on Friday.
USAID said it would coordinate with Jakarta at all levels from the regional to the central, as well as with international stakeholders, to support Indonesia’s climate goals.
The environment ministry and USAID are to propose detailed activities, subject to the two countries’ legal and financial requirements, under the new climate partnership’s framework agreement.
“We support the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s leadership on sustainable land use and the protection of valuable forests across Indonesia,’’ USAID Indonesia mission director Jeff Cohen said on Friday.
“This framework agreement will deepen our partnership with the government of Indonesia to address the challenges of climate change and to secure a prosperous, resilient, green future,” Cohen added.
The new partnership also includes support for conservation of orangutans in Sumatra and Kalimantan as well as other “charismatic species”, such as elephants, tigers and rhinoceros.
It also aims to support the environment ministry’s priorities, including through the Indonesian Environment Fund (BPDLH) and by strengthening stakeholder collaboration, to build and maintain sustainable and equitable natural resource management.
The ministry has also signed several agreements with other countries in its bid to seek technical and financial support for the country’s FOLU Net Sink 2030.
In September, Indonesia and Norway signed an MoU on emissions reduction in the forestry sector to support Indonesia’s carbon sink goal, with Norway to deliver its first disbursement of $56 million to Indonesia.
The following month, the environment ministry and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office signed a separate MoU on environment and climate cooperation, which included support for Indonesia’s FOLU Net Sink 2030. - Jakarta Post/ANN
