East Kalimantan Environmentally Sustainable Development Strategy

11
Executive summary
East Kalimantan has an ambitious goal to become a Green Province. This goal includes contributing
to a 26 percent reduction in CO2e emissions by 2020 as part of Indonesia’s national commitment.
Our vision of a Green East Kalimantan also involves developing new, environmentally sustainable
economic sectors that are also equitable and meet our belief in “developing East Kalimantan for all.”
The document also sets out a comprehensive series of initiatives aimed at climate-compatible
economic development. We consider the measures we need to take to protect our people from the
impact of climate change. Together, abatement measures, adaptation measures and development
opportunities create the framework for our province’s climate compatible development strategy.
EMISSION ABATEMENT
Five broad initiatives account for 75 percent of all of the CO2e reduction opportunities in the
province. And while they demand different approaches, these efforts all share something in
common: increasing the efficiency of land use.
1.
The single most important measure we can take to cut emissions is to enforce a zero
burning policy. This effort achieves the greatest abatement at the lowest cost. By prohibiting
the use of fire as a tool to clear land, by enforcing this prohibition, and by creating a system of early
warning and fire brigades, we can prevent damaging forest and peatland fires. This can reduce
emissions in East Kalimantan by as much as 47 MtCO2e by 2030 at a cost of USD 0.40 per ton.
Since the devastation of the 1980s and late 1990s, we’ve learned much about the damage
caused by these fires, and equally, about the practical difficulties of preventing them.
Enforcement remains the biggest challenge. We’ve also learned that the economic pressures that
drive farmers, planters and miners to use fire as a tool are felt most keenly by smallholders, and so
our efforts must give them clear incentives and tools to use alternative methods of land clearing.
DRAFT
2. Reduced impact logging is the second largest abatement opportunity overall, with the
potential to prevent 34 MtCO2e of emissions at an implementation cost of USD 1.10
per ton. Reduced impact logging will require a relatively high investment of more than USD
100 per hectare and could be even higher if substantial investments in road construction are
required. While the forestry sector economic contribution is less to East Kalimantan than it has
been in the past, it still remains important for many of our most rural communities. Poor logging
practices, often carried out in violation of existing laws and regulations, mean that for every ton
of carbon harvested into saleable timber, as many as another five tons are emitted from timber
which is damaged, and left to rot or burn as waste.
We need to improve harvesting planning, and extracting practices. We need to change the
behavior of our loggers, and this will require a major investment in forestry management
units across the province, and as well as investment in road and skidding infrastructure, both
from government and from forestry companies. Last but not least, investments in skidding
technology and the training of forest workers are also required. These efforts will require a
relatively high investment of USD 150 per hectare, but a truly sustainable forestry industry could
be an important source of livelihoods for us for many years to come.