Heaptalk, Jakarta — CarbonEthics held an annual forum event Warung Kopi Karbon Biru to increase societies’ awareness of blue carbon potential in Indonesia. The forum was carried out on October 28th, 2022 by adopting “Escalating the Readiness of Blue Carbon Project in Indonesia” as the theme.
As cited in G20 report in 2022, strengthening blue carbon management along with adaptation and mitigation of climate change would contribute to reducing carbon emissions by 29% nationally and 41% globally by 2030. This measure also will empower local coastal farmers and contribute to the economic income of US$248 billion or around Rp3,540 trillion through various carbon credit schemes for Indonesia (CIDES Indonesia, 2021).
Aiming to increase awareness concerning the opportunity, CarbonEthics has coined several activities that involved private sector and government, one of which is Warung Kopi Karbon Biru forum.
The activity was attended by The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investments Affairs, Ministry of Marine and Fisheries, Alcott Group, Conservation International, Forest Carbon, Indonesia Commodity and Derivative Exchange (ICDX), the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, RARE Indonesia, South Pole, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Wildlife Works, World Research Institute (WRI) Indonesia, and Yayasan Pesisir Lestari.
Deputy Director at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Andreas Hutahaean, in his speech affirmed that the ocean and wetlands became Indonesia’s new priority sector in 2020-2024 that acts as a nature-based solution to adapt and mitigate climate change.
Hutahaean added, “Blue carbon has the potential to support Indonesia’s commitment to Net Zero Emission,” said Andreas. “Mangrove rehabilitation, as a part of the blue carbon ecosystems, could contribute to decreasing the carbon emission from the Agriculture, Forest, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector.”
In its implementation, the forum discussion was dissolved into two chambers: the “Institutional and System Challenges” and the “Implementation Challenges”. The first chamber – facilitated by Rizky Januar from World Research Institute (WRI) Indonesia – discussed the trend and current political situation of blue carbon governance ranging from policy mechanisms to enable blue carbon projects, ideal governance scheme (institutional and authorities of blue carbon projects) in Indonesia, and financing policy schemes.
In addition, the second chamber which was facilitated by Barakalla Robyn from Yayasan Pesisir Lestari discussed the problems around the blue carbon project implementation in Indonesia. Three main topics were discussed, including project set-up and applicable Standardization for Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Instruments, financing options, the implementation of blue carbon projects at non-forest estates (other land use), and ultimate beneficiaries for community-based blue carbon projects.
Organizing this discussion, CarbonEthics aims to assist the government, private and public sectors in strengthening Indonesia’s blue carbon ecosystem. CarbonEthics also expects a discussion event could encourage individuals to advocate blue carbon conservation.
