Momentum in Indonesia, for Nature and People

Indonesia is so important to the world. And now we have the momentum to support Indonesia in achieving its increased climate and biodiversity ambition.

At The Nature Conservancy , we have a deep commitment to place and partnership – working hand in hand with local communities, Indigenous Peoples, ranchers and farmers, as well as business and government leaders. We work together to develop innovative solutions that we can take to scale. And that is exactly what we are doing here in Indonesia in close partnership with our main partner in Indonesia, Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) to support the Government of Indonesia and other key stakeholders in tackling the biggest challenge of climate change and biodiversity loss in Indonesia.

To achieve our ambitious 2030 Goals, we must increasingly focus our efforts on places that are critical for both biodiversity and climate, and Indonesia sits right at the intersection of both.

• The largest archipelagic country in the world, it is home to the third-largest tropical rainforest and the world’s largest tropical peatlands and mangrove forests.
• It is located in the heart of the Coral Triangle, a region home to the most diverse and biologically complex marine ecosystems on the planet.
• These natural resources are crucial for sustaining Indonesian livelihoods and the country’s long-term development.
• They are also critical to fighting the climate crisis.

A few years ago, TNC developed a powerful tool in partnership with Conservation International—a map of what we call irrecoverable carbon , places that hold vast stores of carbon in nature that, if lost, could not be restored within the timeframe needed to avoid catastrophic climate change.

And Indonesia is one of the absolute brightest places on that map – simply put, a place that we cannot afford to lose. The good news is that Indonesia has been making steady progress in reducing deforestation, protecting biodiversity, restoring its peatlands and mangroves, and giving the rights over forests and other natural resources to communities.

In the period of 2021-2022, net deforestation was 113.5 thousand hectares, less than one-third of 2018-2019 level of 462.4 thousand hectares, and consistent with the general declining trend of deforestation in the country since late 1990s. It’s encouraging to see that the government’s positive efforts in recent years to reduce forest loss are working.

Indonesia is also making good progress in marine conservation. 28.9 million hectares (or 8.9%) of its total marine area are currently under protection—very close to the country’s goal of 10% by 2030 (the country recently increased its marine target to 30% of its waters by 2045).

At TNC we are looking forward to our continued work in partnership with YKAN to support the Government of Indonesia and all of the corporate and CSO partners.