Aim

The Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition is a global initiative seeking to work with partners to transform the world’s food and land use systems, through the establishment of science-based solutions and ambitious collective actions.

Koalisi Sistem Pangan Lestari is the brand name for FOLU Indonesia.

Indonesia is a leading country in the initiative, alongside Colombia, Ethiopia, China, India, Australia, the Nordic countries and the UK. WRI Indonesia serves as the secretariat, responsible for building trust and driving collaborative work with stakeholders in Indonesia.

Where

East Kalimantan, West Papua, Papua, Indonesia, global

Why

Indonesia is highly dependent on its agriculture and land-based natural resources sectors. These sectors generate 17 percent of Indonesia’s GDP. Many Indonesians also depend on the these sectors for livelihood. Some 11 million workers and their families depend on the palm oil industry, which generates 20 percent of the national export earnings. Another 16 million people work on other food crops, 4 million on livestock and 3 million in horticulture.

Unfortunately, the growth of agriculture and land-based natural resources sectors has led to environmental damage and climate change, which eventually causes economic loss. Climate change and natural resources degradation are likely to halve Indonesia’s potential GDP growth , from 7 to 3.5 percent by 2050. The negative economic impact of forest and land fires in 2019 was estimated at US$5.2 billion. In 2012, deforestation, forest and peat fires and land use change are responsible for at least 47.8 percent of Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

At the same time, Indonesia experiences one of the world’s highest per capita rate of food loss and waste. For instance, Indonesia lost and wasted an estimated 300 kilograms of fish per capita every year. This is driven by a combination of factors, including poor infrastructure and complex value chains between farm (or port) and fork.

Ironically, the country is still on the high level of double burden malnutrition where “the hungry and the obese exist”: 36% of Indonesia’s population cannot afford staple diet and 25% experience obesity. Taken together, malnutrition, obesity and diabetes lead to GDP losses of on average 2 to 3% a year.

Indonesia thus must transform the way we produce and consume food now.

How

There are 4 priorities for food and land use transformation in Indonesia:

  1. Healthy diets

    It is critical to form a nationwide policies to promote healthy diets in the first 1,000 days of life, through breastfeeding and qualified complementary feeding, in schools, communities and faith groups; to regulate advertising and marketing of sugary junk food and beverages, especially to children; and to increase investment in universal access to health coverage.

  2. Productive and regenerative agriculture

    Indonesia’s agricultural value chains are characterised by high rates of smallholder poverty, soil erosion and food loss and waste. Innovations and technological advances in supply chain, in palm oil plantations for instance, are going to be able to increase productivity, meaning that Indonesia can meet its oil palm expansion goals without further enroachment on forests.

  3. Protecting and restoring nature

    Indonesia has made its moratorium on expansion into primary forest and carbon-rich peatlands permanent, equating to the protection of an area of 66 million hectares, and an over 80 percent reduction in peat conversion in 2017 and 2018.

  4. Healthy and productive ocean

    Indonesia has a national plan for its ocean, including a planned expansion of its marine-protected areas network and a commitment to ensure more sustainable fisheries management. To achieve these commitments, the FOLU Coalition encourages political will, joined-up government and increased investment.

Partners

The FOLU Coalition in Indonesia is housed in the Ministry of National Planning/BAPPENAS’s signature Low Carbon Development Initiative. FOLU is also developing long-term pathways for sustainable food and land use systems in Indonesia through the work of the FABLE Consortium, led by FABLE members such as the Center for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management, Bogor Agricultural University (CCROM) and the Research Center for Climate Change, University of Indonesia (RCCC-UI). Globally, our core partners include:

  • Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
  • EAT Forum
  • Global Alliance for Improve Nutrition (GAIN)
  • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
  • Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
  • SYSTEMIQ, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
  • World Resources Institute