Indonesia plays a significant role globally in terms of greenhouse gas emissions from land use change and forestry, accounting for approximately 27 percent of total emissions. Over the past decade, this number reached its peak, largely influenced by various economic and humanitarian crises that had significant impacts on deforestation and forest degradation within the country.
Here are seven insights from Indonesia’s experience in coping with crises:
- Environmental and financial crises led to increased reliance on forests
Earlier crises like the Asian financial crisis, coupled by El Niño events in 2006, 2009, 2011, 2015, have caused widespread humanitarian suffering and forest fires, forcing smallholders to rely more on forests. These crises had substantial impact on household income, with per capita expenditure declining by about 24 percent between 1997 and 1998. Smallholders thus depended more on forest resources, such as timber and commodities, both as a means for coping with the economic and social effects of the crisis and in response to changes in relative prices..
- Agriculture became a shock absorber
As a coping mechanism, a significant portion of households turned to agriculture and expanded the area they cultivated in response to the economic crisis. A survey undertaken by CIFOR found that 36 percent of the 63 percent of households surveyed had expanded the area they cultivated. A large part of this expansion appears to have been for increased production of tree crops, driven in part by their increased profitability, as well as by coping strategies underlined by record high deforestation rates for the period between 2000 to 2005, when Indonesia was the second-most deforesting country, after Brazil.
- Price volatility influenced changes on land clearing
Changes in relative prices influenced farmer behavior regarding land clearing. Although rattan prices have tripled since the onset of the crisis, rattan collection increased in Central Sulawesi but not in West Kalimantan, where transport is more limited and buyers are scarce. Although increases in cash crop prices were ultimately eroded by inflation, they remained significant in some cases. One example that shows how farmer behavior impacted land clearing was the price of coffee in Sumatra. The real price of coffee in Sumatra in 1998 was about 20 percent higher than the previous year. A CIFOR survey of rural households in five provinces showed that 17 percent of households that considered themselves better off as a result of the crisis increased the area they were cultivating, presumably to take advantage of the increased profit potential of individual crops.
- Repeated exposure to toxic haze is alarming for communities
An aggravating factor to the crisis is that many in forest-dependent and peat-dependent communities in Indonesia have been exposed to periodic periods of toxic air pollution caused by peat fires. Current trends in Indonesia's fire activity would lead to 37,000 excess deaths due to exposure to fine particulate matter. Repeated exposure to toxic haze is alarming for communities.
- Lower rates of deforestation were seen during the pandemic
Research in the United States shows that despite the severe impacts of the COVID pandemic, deforestation rates were lower, at 113,534.3 hectares during the pandemic. This was achieved, in part, by effective sustainable forest management policies and proactive poverty alleviation programmes.
- Social security can be a forest conservation tool
A study on forest conservation programmes in reducing deforestation has found that a poverty-alleviation programme in Indonesia was successful, as it served as a sort of insurance against harvest failures, guaranteeing rural communities cash transfers and making it less likely they will cut down forests as a source of income. The study also calculated that the economic benefit from the avoided carbon emissions alone could be 10 times greater than the cost of administering the programme. This underlines that fulfilling basic needs through poverty allevation and social security programmes can be effective in reducing emissions.
- Basic income for nature and climate can be effective in halting deforestation
Results from research in Papua underscores that a proposed basic income for nature and climate could address the global importance of Tanah Papua ́s forest, while at the same time tackling poverty and providing social protection for the people. The proposed scheme could provide tangible and immediate benefits to the stewards of the forests and to decision makers at various government levels. It is apparent that the standing carbon stocks of Tanah Papua ́s forest have an enormous financial value, if their valuation follows the carbon pricing logic of comparable REDD+ initiatives in a high forest cover, low deforestation context. This proposed scheme underlines that a combination of policies through moratoria and proactive social security policies can lead to dramatic improvements in environmental governance generating substantial climate impact.
These insights from Indonesia's experience in coping with crises extends beyond its borders and may have implications for tropical forests in other regions. They highlight the importance of integrating social security measures into climate change mitigation strategies and the potential for such interventions to achieve both environmental and social goals.
