Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Head of UKP4, Indonesia Green Economy and Natural Capital Partnership in the Heart of Borneo Rio Conventions Pavillion 15:50 – 16:05, 19 June 2012
Excellencies, Fellow Members of the Panel, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1.
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I am here to share with you the work that the Government of Indonesia is carrying out to protect our forests, biodiversity and increasing people’s welfare while doing so. Before I get to the Heart of Borneo, and the good work that this partnership in Kalimantan is undertaking, please allow me to put things into context. Two years ago, I flew to Oslo with the President of Indonesia as we signed a historic agreement with the Government of Norway to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, or REDD+. REDD+ is still an abstract concept and the challenges and success stories for REDD+ is in the making as we speak. To implement it, we needed a laboratory to experiment, to get our hands dirty in order to understand what it takes to make it work. For this reason, in December 2010 the President selected Kalimantan Tengah, or Central Kalimantan, as the pilot province. Central Kalimantan is one of the four provinces in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. It was chosen not only because of the vast forests within its provincial borders – it’s the third largest forested province in Indonesia – the expansive peat land, and its biodiversity. More over, there were at least 6 REDD+ projects working on peat land and couple more others focusing on the forests in Central Kalimantan, including the forefront Heart of Borneo Initiative. These accumulated experiences, whether positive or negative, were in need to be elevated as lessons learned for other provinces in implementing REDD+, and for the central government in making the policies. Ultimately, Central Kalimantan was chosen because there were ample challenges for us to overcome. In the short time that we have spent in Central Kalimantan, the crucial elements to ensure our success were evident from the onset. I would like to share 2 of them.
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For one, involvement of local government provides the strong foundation for ownership and sustainability of the outcome. Indonesia is a young decentralized democracy. Authority rests not in the hands of the central government, but in the region heads. We worked closely with the government of Central Kalimantan to produce a regional strategy on REDD+. We knew that the old paradigm of central government spoon-‐feeding the regions would no longer work. So we empowered the people of Central Kalimantan to write and thus really owned the strategy. The governor himself insisted that a multistakeholder process had to be taken, and will still be done continuously. Using this strategy, the leadership of Central Kalimantan was ready to to embark with me on the journey to continue the development while protecting its forests. The second element is to always be practical. After 2 years of developing strategy and creating enabling conditions for REDD+ in Central Kalimantan, I realized that it is about time to really push for impact. In the end what matters for me is the decreasing deforestation and the increasing welfare of local and indigenous people. Initiated by the Governor, we are now starting multiple initiatives in Ex-‐Mega Rice Area, vast peat land covering more than 1 million ha in Central Kalimantan. The initiatives are focusing on actions on the ground, for example peat land rehabilitation and mapping of indigenous people’s rights. I believe those 2 aforementioned elements are also what have made and will continue making the initiative of “Green Economy Corridor in the Heart of Borneo” as a leading example of how we should manage our natural capital. Ladies and Gentlemen, In the past 15 years, more than 500 new flora or fauna species have been discovered in the Heart of Borneo, at the astonishing rate of more than three per month. Borneo’s cultural diversity is as varied as its animal and plant life. In Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island, alone, 142 different languages are believed still to be in use today. Many people depend directly on the forest for edible and medicinal plants; fish; meat; construction materials and water. It is obvious that in the Heart of Borneo, cultural and natural biodiversity depend on each other and ecosystem services underpin people’s livelihoods.
10. However, the current economic path taken is not a sustainable one. The destructive use of natural resource capital ultimately results in the loss of ecosystem services which in turn harms the local communities depending on them for food and shelter.
11. Starting off as voluntary agreement between neighboring countries in 2007 in respect of traditional wisdom, national policies and regulations, and international environmental law, the Heart of Borneo Initiative is pushing for a functioning framework for trans-‐boundary cooperation, the establishment of protected areas, sustainable natural resource management, ecotourism development and capacity building. 12. Apart from that, there has been widespread partner-‐country and international support stemming from the Heart of Borneo initiative. One example of such support began in August 2011. My office, Indonesia’s President’s Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight, and REDD+ Taskforce launched the Kalimantan Green Economy Corridor pilot project with support from UNEP and in partnership with numerous organisations including WWF. This unique forward-‐looking project intends to analyze and develop options to ensure economic growth supports and enhances natural and social capital across Kalimantan, and the initial results of the study have been very encouraging. 13. On the national level, green thinking is slowly but surely making an impact on the national development planning process. In January 2012, President Yudhoyono issued Presidential Regulation stipulating a new spatial plan for the island of Kalimantan. The Regulation sets forth a vision of achieving forest conservation across 45% of Kalimantan and highlights this as Indonesia’s commitment as “lungs of the world.” The Heart of Borneo will be the foundation of the commitment identified as a new National Strategic Area, Indonesia’s first based on natural capital values. 14. Through common, yet differentiated programs, the three countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam) and partners are beginning to deliver lasting conservation and sustainable development through green economy approaches. Embedding the values of ecosystems, biodiversity and watershed services is central to delivering sustainable growth and prosperity at local, national and regional levels across the Heart of Borneo. Ladies and Gentlemen, 15. Success of REDD+ in Central Kalimantan and nationally, through the support of a cornerstone program like Heart of Borneo Initiative, will be important in providing a testament of how we can turn the green economy concept into tangible results. 16. We are in now Rio to forge ahead with a global agreement on sustainable development. This event is an excellent opportunity to see how the actions we carry
out on the ground can build the basis for future understanding and agreement on what works and what does not work; what are the must have’s for sustainability. We can not get there without getting our hands dirty. People are eager to see change happens, and I do believe we are here to make that aspiration, to make that vision of change, becomes reality. 17. Thank you.