Natural climate solutions in Indonesia: wetlands are the key to achieve Indonesia’s national climate commitment

Abstract

Indonesia offers a dramatic opportunity to contribute to tackling climate change by deploying Natural Climate Solutions (NCS), increasing carbon sequestration and storage through the protection, improved management, and restoration of drylands, peatlands, and mangrove ecosystems. Here, we estimate Indonesia's NCS mitigation opportunity for the first time using national datasets. We calculated the maximum NCS mitigation potential extent using datasets of annual national land cover, peat soil, and critical lands. We collated a national emissions factor database for each pathway, calculated from a meta-analysis, recent publications from our team, and available literature. The maximum NCS mitigation potential in 2030 is 1.3 ± 0.04 GtCO2e yr-1, based on the historical baseline period from 2009–2019. This maximum NCS potential is double Indonesia’s NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) target from the Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU) sector. Of this potential opportunity, 77% comes from wetland ecosystems. Peatlands have the largest NCS mitigation potential (960 ± 15.4 MtCO2e yr-1 or 71.5 MgCO2e ha-1 yr-1) among all other ecosystems. Mangroves provide a smaller total potential (41.1 ± 1.4 MtCO2e yr-1) but have a much higher mitigation density (12.2 MgCO2e ha-1yr-1) compared to dryland ecosystems (2.9 MgCO2e ha-1 yr-1). Therefore, protecting, managing, and restoring Indonesia’s wetlands is key to achieving the country’s emissions reduction target by 2030. The results of this study can be used to inform conservation programs and national climate policy to prioritize wetlands and other land sector initiatives to fulfill both Indonesia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) by 2030, while simultaneously providing additional co-benefits and contributing to COVID-19 recovery and economic sustainability.

Opportunities and risk management of peat restoration in Indonesia: lessons learned from peat restoration actors

“…This figure is smaller compared to the results presented in Miettinen et al (2016), which found that 70.8–93.6% of the total peatland areas were degraded. Using a similar historical baseline, Novita et al (2022) reported that 8.7 Mha of degraded peatlands in Indonesia have the potential to be restored through rewetting and improved water table management in agricultural sites. Nevertheless, both studies have several key differences in the datasets and methods used to determine the potential restoration areas.…”

“…To date, Indonesia's peat restoration program has been relying on funding from the state, international donors, and private sectors, including non‐governmental organizations (Puspitaloka et al 2021). Even though peat restoration is listed as one of the main climate mitigation strategies to achieve Indonesia's Nationally Determined Contribution and Forestry and Other Land Use Net Sink Target (MoEF 2022), with a recent study estimating that it could help reduce GHG emissions up to 269 MtCO 2 /year (Novita et al 2022), the government still prioritizes climate mitigation budget on the transportation and energy sectors (MoEF 2020). It is estimated that peat restoration in Indonesia needs a projected cost of $1.7–7.0 billion USD (Kiely et al 2021; Sari et al 2021) with an average cost of $1,866 USD per hectare for restoration (Hansson & Dargusch 2018).…”

“…It is estimated that peat restoration in Indonesia needs a projected cost of $1.7–7.0 billion USD (Kiely et al 2021; Sari et al 2021) with an average cost of $1,866 USD per hectare for restoration (Hansson & Dargusch 2018). As a cost‐efficient natural climate solution (NCS) strategy (Humpenöder et al 2020; Kiely et al 2021; Novita et al 2022), several regulations have been enacted to support the implementation of peat restoration. However, existing regulations generally have low compatibility with the actual practices in the field (Uda et al 2020).…”

Quantifying the fluxes of carbon loss from an undrained tropical peatland ecosystem in Indonesia

“…About half of peatlands in this region are currently degraded and under serious threats due to extensive peatland drainage and land use change that have caused significant carbon emissions 11 – 14 . However, a recent study 15 concluded that tropical peatlands in Indonesia have the potential to contribute up to 74% of the total maximum national mitigation potential from natural climate solutions through both conservation and restoration efforts. Therefore, conserving and restoring tropical peatland ecosystems in Indonesia is pivotal for climate change mitigation and thus fulfilling national climate commitments.…”

Greenhouse gas fluxes of different land uses in mangrove ecosystem of East Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…Once intact mangroves are disturbed and converted to other land uses, they generate substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Indonesia lost approximately 30% of its mangrove forests between 1980 and 2005 [13], or an estimated GHG emissions of 0.19 Pg CO 2e yr − 1 [12]. A recent study showed that the mangrove deforestation rate in Indonesia from 2009 to 2019 was estimated at 18,209 ha yr − 1, resulting in total emissions of 1,434,874 Mg CO 2e ha − 1 yr − 1 , which comprised approximately 10% of the total projected emissions from the total forestry sector in Indonesia (2006-2020) [6].…”