Insights: WRI's Blog

The World Economic Forum (WEF) report stated that around 4.8 million tons of plastic waste are not managed properly every year. Additionally, 620 thousand tons of them go into the sea and putting its ecosystem in danger. Meanwhile, marine health is very important for the economy and welfare of the people in an archipelagic country like Indonesia. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge in the amount of waste that could worsen this situation. As a result, the government's efforts to target a 70 percent reduction in plastic waste in the oceans by 2025 and achieve zero marine plastic waste in 2040 through the realization of a circular economy are threatened.

The 12th Edition presents the Top 5 Places to Watch indicated to be illegal logging areas from 1 October to 31 December 2020.

Indonesia has the largest mangrove forest in the world, which is 22.6% of the total mangrove forest area. This forest grows and develops in the transition zone between land and sea. Its ecological existence demands the role of various stakeholders in its management, considering many benefits it provides for the environment.

The latest IPCC report (2021) shows that people's actions will determine the future of our climate. The steps taken by every individual will be impactful in reducing emissions. The latest version of the EMISI app comes with the newest feature that will help every individual or organization to count, reduce, and sequester their GHG emissions from our daily activities.

Apart from inadequate drainage capacity, there are three main factors that are often linked to flooding in Jakarta: extreme rainfall, changes in land cover, and land subsidence. So far, efforts to deal with floods in Jakarta have been carried out through grey infrastructure approach. However, the effectiveness of physical infrastructure will become increasingly limited, especially when affected by the climate crisis. Nature-based Solutions approach is considered capable to overcome these shortcomings while providing multi-benefits.

A study in 2015 by Jenna Jambeck, an oceanographer from the United States (US), revealed six out of 11 Southeast Asian countries are in the top 20 countries that mismanage their plastic waste. Indonesia is in second place, followed by the Philippines (third), Vietnam (fourth), and Thailand (sixth), Malaysia (eighth), and Myanmar (17th). ASEAN countries need to manage not only their own plastic waste, but also waste from other sources, such as countries or oceans. Therefore, collaborative efforts from ASEAN countries to fight the global marine plastic waste problem are urgently needed.

Structural problems of land management have occurred since the colonial era and have led to land conflicts. According to WRI study, multistakeholder institutions are one of the options to prevent and resolve land conflict in Indonesia in an effective and sustainable manner. Here are seven aspects that need to be considered in implementing this option to optimized the impact.

It is undeniable that the youth of today and the future are key actors in Indonesia’s economic development. However, if you look into the unemployment rate of youth in 2020, 43.05 percent are unemployed, or an increase of 1.29 percent from 2019. To make things worse, the recent COVID-19 crisis has accentuated uncertainty for these young people, not to mention underprivileged youth who lives in rural area. This is why the acknowledgement of youth’s agency, capacity to think and make decisions for themselves is important.

GDP is the total value of output produced by a country, and is commonly used to measure economic growth. However, GDP does not measure the level of social welfare, such as public health or education level. Considering the limitations of GDP in reflecting the relationship between economic activity and environmental conditions, the Natural Capital Accounting framework was developed to be able to measure assets, values, and changes in natural capital - including marine and coastal resources.