Ini masih ada hubungannya dengan posting EAP kemarin. Kebetulan kita disuruh bikin essay 2000 kata yang berkaitan dengan topik/rencana studi di Australia ntar. Nah lho, waktu itu saya bingung banget mo tulis apaan, secara masih ngambang di pikiran bakalan fokus kemana. Karena desired topic-nya Climate Change, pengennya sih memperdalam di Climate Change Science-nya, maksudnya yang berbau modelling atau biogeochemistry gitu. Tapiiii, sekarang koq tertarik dengan socio-economic aspects-nya juga, apalagi kegiatan mitigasi dan adaptasi udah jadi fokus utama pembangunan di banyak negara. Dan, di kurikulumnya juga ada pilihan seru: International Climate Law! Hadoh, jadi bingung milihnya.
Anyway, back to the topic, akhirnya saya memutuskan untuk menulis essay yang simple. Judulnya “Indonesia’s Target on Reducing 26 to 41 per cent of Its Carbon Emissions: Mission Impossible?” Waktu awalnya sih mau ngarah ke carbon counting gitu, tapi karena jumlah katanya dibatasi dan keknya bakalan menjurus ke teknis, jadi saya bikin seperti ini aja. Sedikit lebih populer dan (moga-moga) bisa langsung ditangkep. Halah, padahal dari judulnya sih udah bisa dikira-kirakan isinya?
Monggo dibaca.
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INDONESIA’S TARGET ON REDUCING 26 TO 41 PER CENT OF ITS CARBON EMISSIONS: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
OVERVIEW
As one of the developing countries in the world, Indonesia is struggling to reduce its carbon emissions. A report from the World Bank (2007) said that Indonesia is among the top three carbon emitters in the world. On account of that fact, the Government of Indonesia is willing to take action to put the brakes on the emission rate. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, The President of Republic of Indonesia, in his speech to the world’s leaders at the G20 Meeting in Pittsburg in September, 2009, said that Indonesia is committed to cutting its carbon emissions by 26 per cent from its business-as-usual level in 2020 and can be increased to 41 per cent with international support (Fogarty, 2009). Many countries have responded to this statement positively, yet the numbers of people who are skeptical cannot be ignored. The skeptics believe this is an ambitious target, with regard to the condition of the country and the time limit of fulfilling this plan. Nevertheless, the Indonesian government has to keep on track and has already set up some targeted sectors to combat climate change. Some of these targeted sectors are forestry, agriculture and energy.
Figure 1. Indonesia’s National Greenhouse Gases Inventory in 2000 (Indonesian Ministry of Environment, 2009).
Forests are known as ‘carbon pools’, meaning that they store a great amount of any form of carbon. Yet, this sector is very prone to climate change. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Environment, forestry and land use change account for almost half of the total carbon emissions in Indonesia, much higher than the other sectors (Figure 1). This is due to several problems, such as wildfires, deforestation and illegal logging. Although these problems can occur naturally, the last two mentioned are more likely to be caused by anthropogenic factors. This essay will focus on the challenges encountered by the forestry sector, which are deforestation and illegal logging, also some possible solutions have been or will be undertaken to overcome the problems, for this sector is known as the main contributor of carbon emissions in Indonesia.
HANDLING DEFORESTATION
Deforestation is the main issue faced by the Indonesian forestry sector. In fact, it is not only Indonesia that has to deal with this problem since deforestation has become a major problem in almost all developing countries (Corbera et al, 2009). The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2003 released a report showing the status of deforestation in every part of the world. It can be found that the countries which have the highest annual loss of forest are mainly developing or least developed nations (Table 1). Thus, deforestation puts more pressure on these countries, as they are also dealing with other issues, such as politics, economy and security.
Table 1. Countries with the highest annual loss of forest in the period from 1990 to 2000 (Adapted from FAO, 2003).
Since 1996, deforestation in Indonesia has increased to an average of 2 million hectares per year (FWI/GWF, 2002). In addition to that fact, research shows that in the past few decades, the forested areas in Indonesia have been declining rapidly, from 82 per cent to 49 per cent (The Economist, 2011). Much of this is due to land use change for developing areas and plantations. As the population grows, people need more areas for their housing and daily activities. Moreover, because of the high demand of crude palm oil, the growth of the palm plantations is inevitable. Figure 2 describes the increasing palm oil areas in Indonesia for the period from 1985 to 2008. More than 20 million hectares of forest have been converted to palm plantations areas during this period (Rainforest vs. Palm Oil, 2011).
Figure 2. Palm oil area in Indonesia 1985-2008 (http://ecodaily.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/rainforest-vs-palm-oil/).
Another issue related to deforestation is the fact that there is a positive correlation between corruption and deforestation. According to Koyuncu & Yilmaz (2009), corruption has more influence than the rural development, meaning that this problem should be taken seriously in combating against forest degradation. It becomes more important if a country like Indonesia has a problem in financial transparency and is vulnerable to misuse the money.
TACKLING ILLEGAL LOGGING
Illegal logging practices in Indonesia involve certain activities such as exploiting conservation areas, overharvesting forests, manipulating transport documentations and smuggling logs (BlueGreen Alliance, 2010). Logging for wood products is still ongoing for its economical benefits. Unfortunately, this is done without considering the rule of selective tree-cutting. This condition is going to become worse when the logging activities are being undertaken on a massive scale, meaning forests will lose a great number of trees. A report from Chatham House (2010) stated that even though 75 per cent of illegal logging cases have declined from their peak in 2000, it is found that almost 40 per cent of timber production in 2006 was still illegal. It means that, to some extent, the cases of illegal logging have not been completely overcome. In addition, many of these cases may involve criminal acts that need stronger actions as the response (The Economist, 2011).
EFFORTS UNDERTAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDONESIA
Despite the gloomy facts that are linked with the efforts of the Government of Indonesia to cut carbon emissions from the forestry sector, there is some positive development. Nowadays, as countries are more aware of the climate change problems, a number of agreements have been proposed to address the issue. Binding agreements, mainly between developing and developed countries, are made for the purpose of reducing carbon emissions through conserving forests. For example, one of the developed countries, Norway, acknowledged the initiative of Indonesia on reducing its emissions and proposed a moratorium between the two countries. In this moratorium, Indonesia would receive US$1 billion for controlling logging concessions. By doing this, it is hoped that the new regulations could be applied to control the deforestation rate in Indonesia (Caploe, 2009). Furthermore, a trade agreement, which is worth almost US$ 10 billion annually, between Indonesia and the European Union, has also been made to control timber production. A number of countries and organisations, like Australia, the United States, and the World Bank, are also willing to give funds for forest preservation initiatives (Laurance, 2010). However, given to the fact that a large amount of money has been made available to be used for protecting the forests from degradation, there is also much attention on how these funds are spent. Padden (2011) mentioned that even though financial support has been provided by donators, the Government of Indonesia has yet to implement properly any scheme to address the deforestation problems because of different perceptions on how the money should be used.
Another type of work that has been undertaken is not directly related to the forests management, but it is dealing with the people who are involved in managing the forest. The Indonesia Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), together with several key agencies in Indonesia and with the funding support from Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund (ICCTF), has started several programmes to increase public awareness on climate change issues. Programmes, such as training and education, have been implemented to give information needed by people that are dealing with the problems. These programmes, of course, concern the improvement of the basic knowledge of climate change and how to adapt and mitigate the negative effects of climate change, not only in the forestry sector, but also for other sectors that deal with the problems (ICCTF, 2010).
Furthermore, a number of schemes have been initiated to reduce the deforestation rate and illegal logging activities. One of these schemes is REDD or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. The aims of this scheme are to reduce carbon emissions, as well as to conserve biodiversity and to improve local people’s welfare (Varghese, 2009). Basically, this programme is a market-based tool that uses incentives given by donators, which can be a country and/or an organisation, to the nations that can maintain their forests. This programme is then succeeded by REDD+, a similar scheme with the inclusion of several activities such as sustainable forest management, conservation, and increasing carbon stocks (Madeira, 2008). However, there are some difficulties in implementing the scheme into reality, such as finding the right mechanisms for conserving the forest, counting the amount of carbon that should be reduced and distributing the benefits, especially to the inhabitants of the forests. Also, it is still unclear whether the scheme should be monitored by central or local government. Nevertheless, implementing the scheme would be at least a good starting point taken by the Government of Indonesia to achieve the target of reducing carbon emissions.
CONCLUSION
From the point of view, which is the Indonesian forestry sector, it can be concluded that tackling a changing climate will be a full time job. There are many obstacles hindering Indonesia to reduce its carbon emissions because everything should be well-managed before making a rather optimistic, yet almost unrealistic target. Controlling the deforestation rate and illegal logging are two problems that should be handled carefully, even though funding support has been provided and several programmes have been implemented. This is because every step undertaken depends on the discretion of the government and its people, how further they want to go and handle the problems. All in all, this is not a dead end road provided that every part of the nation is aware of the climate change problems, not only in the forestry sector, but also for every sector that accounts for the climate change issue. By integrated work, reducing carbon emissions will be a possible target.
Nice essay
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See? It happened to me. I tend to have more and more interest about the socio-economic perspective about the environment, the cultural aspects, and even philosophical thoughts about it!
The thing is in the matter of climate change, or even environment in general, all sciences are combined. Both technical and social stuffs are taking into account. Maths, Stats and Natural Sciences are tools to quantify the effects, but the problem lies on the fact that not everyone speaks these languages. People need something real to give them a better understanding on the issue.
A conversation with the liaison officer on the ADS Info Day have given me an epiphany to see not only on physical aspects, but also on things understood by public.