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2024 election crucial for forests, environment: Activists
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Greenpeace Indonesia activists protest against the destruction of forests in Papua in front of the Environment and Forestry Ministry's office in Jakarta on April 8, 2021. (Antara/Indrianto Eko Suwarso)
E
nvironmentalists have warned that the 2024 election could well determine the fate of the country’s forests, citing previous spikes in deforestation after regime change alongside the fragility of the government’s environmental pledges and achievements.
Madani Foundation executive director Nadia Hadad said 2024 would be a crucial moment for Indonesia not only because of the presidential, legislative and regional elections but also because of the climate crisis and ongoing El Niño climactic phenomenon.
“We are currently facing a climate crisis that will be more worrying if we don’t do anything,”
“This is the moment to choose leaders who can implement environmental protection agendas against natural disasters and climate change that we are currently facing,” Nadia said in a discussion hosted by Madani on Thursday.
She added that the new government would need to follow through with the current administration’s environmental pledges, such as the 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to global emissions reduction and the 2060 net-zero goal outlined in the Long-Term Strategy for Low Carbon and Climate Resilience (LTS-LCCR).
However, the incoming government would also have to reconcile such environmental pledges with policies that ran counter to the spirit of environmental protection, such as the Job Creation Law.
Mufti Fathul Barri, executive director of Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI), expressed concern that deforestation tended to rise soon after regime change in Indonesia, based on data the FWI had gathered from the Environment and Forestry Ministry.
