East Kalimantan Environmentally Sustainable Development Strategy

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in development plans. In addition, there is potential to partner with insurance companies to help
conduct these analyses as well as provide financial risk-sharing mechanisms.
6. Implementation and enablers
Achieving successful environmentally sustainable economic growth will require new kinds of
behavior and capabilities within government and the broader society of East Kalimantan. From an
institutional standpoint, some of the challenges are organizational, as supporting environmentally
sustainable growth requires coordination across the various government departments that will
be critical to its success (e.g., planning (Bappeda), forestry, environment, agriculture, tourism,
education, public works). Another challenge will be to build the capabilities within government
to carry out this ambitious and urgent program, and to manage the stresses it creates. As with
governments in other developing regions, the provincial administration of East Kalimantan is
doubly challenged by critical priorities and constrained resources..
Strong leadership will be required to overcome the organizational challenge, build capabilities and
change mindsets towards development across the province. While individual institutional enablers
are explored in each sector strategy, five cross-cutting enablers have been identified:
• Governance and climate change institutions
• Spatial planning and policy
• Monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) and carbon accounting
• Community engagement
• Financing
GOVERNANCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE INSTITUTIONS
Governance over natural resources is one of the greatest challenges facing any
government. Resource governance can rarely be improved in isolation, but must be part
of a larger program of governance reform, such as Indonesia has been implementing over the
past decade. Beginning with the Regional Autonomy Law of 1999, decentralization has brought
substantial changes. Efforts to improve law enforcement and combat corruption, generally and
within natural resource sectors, have yielded important results, and perhaps most importantly, a
sense of momentum and optimism.
DRAFT
But governance of natural resources in Indonesia is still complex, and often contested. While much
authority over the areas outside the forest estate (Kawasan Hutan) has been given to local district
governments, roles have been undermined by conflicting regulations from central government
ministries and frequently-altered procedures. The provincial government certainly recognizes that
much progress is needed to better incorporate stakeholder input, particularly from communities.
Capacity to collect such feedback is limited, and mindset changes and institutional improvements
may be needed to insure that such feedback is effectively incorporated in planning and decision
making processes at all levels. Roles of companies and their relationships with rural communities
remain unclear. Large areas of the forest estate lack a strong government presence, and are very
hard to police and monitor.
East Kalimantan’s governance of climate change has developed organically as the
threat has become clearer and more prominent. This is quite a common pattern, as any
governments respond to new challenges by first empowering existing institutions to take on larger
tasks before establishing new institutions. As the threat from climate change has grown in priority,
East Kalimantan has established a number of institutions to provide capacity for specific threats.
East Kalimantan has likewise created several new institutions to coordinate its response to climate