Welcome to SEARCA Knowledge Center on Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management in Southeast Asia (KC3)

Indonesia

Published on 15 August 2020 by UNEP
Kalimantan, Indonesia’s portion of Borneo island, is no stranger to peatland fires. In early July, one of its provinces, Central Kalimantan, declared a state of emergency after over 700 blazes were detected there. The fires, usually started by farmers looking to cheaply clear land, are a right of Indonesia’s dry season. They produce a cloud of haze that can blanket villages, cities and even neighbouring…
Published on 9 June 2020 Indonesia
The Covid-19 pandemic is a silent reminder that we are at a tipping point of two of the world's greatest yet invisible enemies — climate change and biodiversity loss. The three global challenges are interlinked. Some researchers are suggesting a link between humanity's destruction of biodiversity and the conditions conducive for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19 that were once contained in the wild.…
Published on 2 June 2020 Indonesia
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$300 million loan for state-owned geothermal energy company PT Geo Dipa Energi (GDE) to expand its geothermal power generation capacity. GDE will receive an additional $35 million loan from the Clean Technology Fund for the project managed also by the ADB, the bank announced on Thursday. The company will use the loan to increase its generation capacity…
Published on 13 May 2020 Indonesia
Shortages in key commodities have been reported in most of Indonesia’s 34 provinces as the nation copes with the double whammy of the coronavirus outbreak causing supply chain disruption and a dry spell hurting harvests. Garlic, sugar, chili and chicken eggs are in short supply in more than 20 provinces, while rice, a staple food for Indonesians, is in deficit in seven provinces across the…
Published on 17 December 2019
Extensive wildfire disasters, such as recently reported in Australia, Indonesia, and the United States, adversely affect communities, economies, and ecosystems. More generally, they contribute to air pollution and global warming and indicate that existing mechanisms to deal with wildfire, centered around disaster risk management, are insufficient. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and other emissions from peatland and forest wildfires contribute substantially to the global greenhouse effect, thus…
Published on 21 November 2019
Young environmental activist Greta Thunberg's famous quote "listen to the scientists", during her meeting with the US Congress is a clarion call for policy-makers to take steps to save the planet. The scientific consensus on the climate crisis and the need to take immediate action is clear. New reports are being released regularly. Yet the problems of climate change are not only problems of science and technology. They are also moral, ethical…
Published on 14 October 2019
Forest fires raging across Indonesia have sent air quality levels across Southeast Asia plummeting as they belch out emissions that aggravate global warming. The country's palm oil industry bears much of the blame for the out-of-control blazes critics say, as producers burn land to make way for their plantations. The pulp-and-paper sector has also come in for criticism over the issue, as have small-scale farmers who use…
Published on 20 September 2019
With fierce blazes raging in jungles from the Amazon to Indonesia, concerns are mounting about the impact as rainforests play a vital role in protecting the planet against global warming. The latest serious outbreak is in Indonesia, where smog-belching fires started to clear land for agriculture are burning out of control, blanketing the region in toxic smog. Why are rainforests important in fight against global…
Published on 7 August 2019
Indonesian leader Joko Widodo warned Tuesday that officials would be sacked if they failed to stamp out rampant forest fires that are belching out toxic smog over Malaysia and Singapore. The threat came as Indonesia faced pressure from its neighbors to douse the blazes, which are blamed for sending air quality plummeting in parts of Southeast Asia. “I’ve told the military and police chiefs to…
Published on 7 August 2019
Vegan ice cream is a hot commodity these days. But violent storms that have devastated farms in Southeast Asia are threatening to take away one of its best ingredients -- coconuts. Much of the world’s supply comes from the region, which is grappling with an increase in storms’ frequency and intensity because of warming seas. Coconuts’ natural creaminess is seen by some as the best way…
Published on 1 August 2019
Compared to other tropical countries, Indonesia has made strong progress in reducing deforestation in recent years. The Indonesian government released its official deforestation numbers in May 2018, showing that the rate of forest loss has been declining from 2015 to 2018. The data reported deforestation of 440,000 hectares in 2018, slightly lower than the 2017 number of 480,000 hectares. Global Forest Watch released similar numbers showing a 40 percent decrease…
Published on 22 July 2019 Indonesia
Indonesia’s president has reportedly signaled a major shift in energy policy, saying he wants to “start reducing the use of coal.” Such a policy would run counter to the administration’s previously stated long-term plans of fueling the country’s growing energy demand with coal, with 39 coal-fired plants under construction and 68 more announced. Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, and…
Published on 4 July 2019 Indonesia
Over the past half-century, the rainforests of Borneo have been logged, strip-mined, burned, and converted for monoculture plantations. The forests that local people primarily relied upon for sustenance are now felled to feed commodities into the global market. But the Dayak Iban of Sungai Utik community in Indonesian Borneo has managed to fend off loggers and land invaders from their forest home. Sungai Utik’s efforts…
Published on 7 May 2019
The number of hotspots in restored peatlands in Indonesia has dropped by nearly 93 percent since 2015, on the back of restoration efforts. The figure was revealed on Thursday (May 2) by the head of Indonesia's peatland restoration agency Nazir Foead, on the sidelines of the 6th Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources. Indonesia in 2016 launched an initiative to restore peatlands as part of efforts to tackle…
Published on 8 August 2018
Although Indonesia is the world’s third largest grower of rice, it still must import rice almost every year, mainly to keep reserves at a safe level. The main reasons for the gap can be traced to farmers using non-optimal production techniques and to the fact that each person in the country consumes an average 150 kg of rice per year – an…
Published on 16 July 2018
The workshop used Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and the Talanoa dialogue as tools to gather reliable information from national and local government representatives. Climate planning and implementation can also benefit from the capacity building of local and national staff. It is important to ensure that they are knowledgeable about climate issues and the role that their organization or office plays in addressing these issues…
Published on 25 June 2018
A statement from the Indonesian Consulate General in Sydney received by Antara here on Saturday mentioned that the launching ceremony was attended by the Consul General of RI in Sydney, Heru Subolo.This collaborative program has been developed by the Griffith Asia Institute under the leadership of Professor Caitlin Byrne as the director of the institute.This three-year program includes four main activities, namely high-level dialogue; joint…
Published on 20 June 2018
In a new study, which will be presented at the upcoming Blue Carbon Summit in Jakarta on July 17 and 18, Daniel Murdiyarso, a principal scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and a student from from Indonesia’s Bogor Agricultural University and the country’s National Nuclear Energy Agency, determined that sediment in mudflat, fringe, and interior mangrove systems in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province…
Published on 19 June 2018
In some Indonesian villages on Borneo Island and Java, people cut down trees along the banks of rivers to sell or use for fuel. Without the trees there as a buffer, the soil erodes into the streams, swallowing up the water or turning it murky brown. At the same time, these islands are experiencing more instances of intense rain and drought, making it more difficult…
Published on 7 June 2018
As part of the initiative, religious leaders will visit prayer groups across the country to preach about the importance of reducing plastic waste, explain how plastic waste can worsen the severity of natural disasters such as floods and landslides, and encourage consumers to switch to traditional bags, made from materials such as rattan and bamboo. “We have local wisdom about these things in Indonesia,”…
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