Aim

The Think Climate Indonesia is a three-year partnership aimed at enabling local think tanks in Indonesia to engage more effectively in climate actions.

Please see the brochure below for further info on Think Climate Indonesia Initiative.

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Where

Riau, Indonesia

What and Why

Indonesia is home to one of the largest tropical forests in the world; a rich and diverse ecosystem teeming with life. But deforestation and the conversion of these forests for agricultural purposes have made Indonesia one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases and a significant contributor to climate change. With a largely coastal population whose livelihoods rely on the land and water, Indonesian is also particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change.

Despite the efforts of the Indonesian government in recent years, little progress has been made towards implementing policies to reduce land-based emissions. Reducing these emissions while also strengthening climate resilience through adaptation and mitigation requires politically relevant actions.

This initiative will respond to these complex challenges by supporting the efforts of local policy-research organizations—think tanks—to gather evidence. Urgent actions on climate change adaptation and mitigation are required. Indonesian emissions reduction approaches that are also aimed at strengthening resilience require politically relevant integration of environmental, economic, and social issues.

The good news is that existing knowledge, ready financing, and a willing government mean achieving climate action that meets economic and social development needs in Indonesia is possible. However, knowledge gaps and difficulties coordinating across institutions continue to complicate efforts. In the coming years, the Indonesian government will require quality, relevant, and timely climate-related evidence, data, and analysis to develop the policy, regulatory, and market frameworks that can help move their economies towards low carbon growth.

How

Government of Indonesia has been championing social forestry to improve local communities’ access on forest management. A better access for the communities would create more opportunity for around 1.4 million people but ridden with environmental degradation and governance challenges. However, after more than a decade of its implementation, it is still unclear the how the policy would contribute to climate adaptation strategies and help the forest-dependent communities in securing their food supply.
WRI Indonesia has produced and continued to implement research programs in two landscapes; Suligi-Batu Gajah Protected Forest and Rimbang Baling Conservation Forest, both in Riau provinces. Through this research, WRI Indonesia would like to investigate best practices for sustainable and inclusive community-based forests management and for the restoration of food subsistence and livelihood opportunities that rely on forest resources. WRI Indonesia will harvest the on-going partnership with local institutions in Riau such as the provincial and municipality government, universities, communities, and local NGOs to get insights sought in this project. This partnership is also necessary to feed the new Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition platform, which aims to create an integrated food and land use system. FOLU will provide a space to discuss proven practices for the implementation of social forestry and agroforestry and what they contribute to the sustainable transformation of food systems. Therefore, the insights gained could help influence better food policy at the local level with local relevancy and interest, beyond the political stir from national policy.

WRI Indonesia have started to integrate gender and social inclusion into their project design and activities. Through ThinkClimate!, WRI Indonesia funded by IDRC, will support the organization in strengthening their gender, social inclusion and human rights integration by assessing how have the organization adopt GESI using project documents, report, and interviews with the project leaders. More info about this integration please visit.

More info about this project please visit Think Climate Indonesia – Organizational strengthening and core research | IDRC - International Development Research Centre.

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