Indonesia’s proposal for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Results-Based Payment (RBP) 2014-2016 Period received approval from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board at the 26^th Board Meeting. The GCF approved a funding of USD 103.8 million on Indonesia’s effort in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The proposal recorded as the biggest proposal approved, surpassing Brazil with USD 96.5 million under the REDD+ RBP Pilot Programme.

The proposal submitted by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) presented the result of Indonesia’s REDD+ performance with an emissions reduction volume of around 20.3 million tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent (tCO₂eq).  Currently, Indonesia uses the average annual emissions of the land sector as baseline calculation, in line with the Guidelines for Land Use published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

MoEF will use the fund to strengthen, coordinate, and implement REDD+ architecture in Indonesia. Majority if the fund will be managed by Indonesia’s Environmental Fund Agency (BPDLH) which will be allocated to strengthen the decentralization of forest governance in the provinces through Forest Management Units (FMUs) and Social Forestry scheme for sustainable forest management.

Based on the proposal submitted to the GCF, the assistance given to FMUs are in the form of technical and institutional capacity building, the development of multi-stakeholder platform, and the development of participative social forest management in the FMUs. Furthermore, the fund will also be invested in some key areas namely forest fire prevention, reforestation, and community livelihood improvement. In the social forestry there are two main goals, the first one is to help Adat and non-Adat communities to obtain licenses under the six scheme of social forestry to expand the forest area, and the second one is to ensure the livelihood of communities who have obtained the license, to reduce the deforestation drivers.

The Directorate General of Climate Change (DGCC) of the MoEF lead the preparation of the RBP REDD + proposal to the GCF through the collaboration of various parties including international organizations. The Fiscal Policy Agency (FPA) of the MoF as the National Designated Authority (NDA) of the GCF reviewed and submitted proposals developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as the accredited entity with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and other development partners, to the GCF. Throughout the whole process, GGGI as the delivery partner of GCF Readiness project has been supporting the NDA in providing substantial technical review and inputs.

This approval is the second good news on REDD+ after the agreement of Norway’s RBP based on the Letter of Intent amounting USD 56 million. These various achievements become a momentum for actors in forestry sector to drive more conservation projects in Indonesia. And to create a progressive climate change mitigation in land-use sector, the GCF is always open for all project developers in Indonesia.