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Jakarta Post

Seeking new, green capital city

Last Friday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo asked for the House of Representatives’ consent for his plan to move the capital city to Kalimantan

Sandy Nofyanza (The Jakarta Post)
Canberra
Mon, August 19, 2019

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Seeking new, green capital city

L

span>Last Friday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo asked for the House of Representatives’ consent for his plan to move the capital city to Kalimantan. The exact location, however, remains undisclosed. For now, there are two probable locations: Taman Hutan Raya (Tahura) Bukit Soeharto in East Kalimantan or a location called the “triangle area” between two regencies (Gunung Mas and Katingan) and Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan.

Both locations are historically rich. East Kalimantan once hosted the oldest kingdom in Indonesian history, namely Kutai Martadipura. Central Kalimantan is no less historically compelling. In the 1950s and 1960s, Indonesia’s first president Sukarno expressed his intention to move the capital city to Palangkaraya.

Further, moving the capital to the heart of Borneo is yet another challenge for the environment, which is currently facing serious pressure from all directions. The National Development Planning Agency’s (Bappenas) latest “Low Carbon Development” report this year highlights that Indonesia lost roughly 8 million hectares of primary forests between 2000 and 2017. Ten percent of Kalimantan’s forests alone were deforested even with the presence of Presidential Instruction No. 8/2015 on forest and peatland moratorium.

The report also argues that Indonesia’s performance in pushing its economy in a low-carbon trajectory is contingent upon two factors; the first is by recovering all degraded lands and forests and the second is by avoiding further land-use or forest losses in all concession areas that have yet to be converted.

If the latter is of utmost importance, then maintaining forest cover in conservation and protected areas is definitely
essential. 

While Kalimantan is indeed one of the regions in Indonesia that is relatively safer from geological disasters such as earthquakes, it is prone to other disasters such as forest fires. Even now, residents in Central Kalimantan are wearing masks to protect them from thick haze emanating from ongoing forest fires. Thus, moving the new capital city to Central Kalimantan will be equal to trading severe air pollution in Jakarta with potentially thick haze.

And what about the location in East Kalimantan? There are a lot of deadly untreated coal-mining pits in the province. In any case, one should not underestimate the potential of man-made ecological disasters in these areas. Hopefully, these problems will be much easier to solve when the capital city does relocate, possibly prompting the government to take immediate action.

Another intriguing aspect in the planned relocation of the capital is that East Kalimantan is also the pilot province for the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Carbon Fund scheme. The FCPF Carbon Fund is a results-based payment scheme that will allow Indonesia and East Kalimantan to receive monetary benefits through verifiable emission reductions from deforestation and forest degradation.

The province was selected as a pilot in 2015. Since then the preparation phase has been a long and intensive one, set to end later this year. The national and provincial authorities are planning to start implementing the scheme from 2020 to 2024.

According to the Emissions Reduction Program document, the program is set to reduce around 61.3 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent in net greenhouse gas emissions, of which only about one-third will be offered to the Carbon Fund — generating about US$110 million in emissions reduction payment.

It would be a historic win for Indonesia and East Kalimantan should this initiative go forward as planned. Its success will contribute directly to the national emissions reduction commitment (the NDC) signed in 2016. East Kalimantan, in particular, could become a global leader among subnational governments aiming for jurisdictional sustainability.

Now let us link this initiative with the idea of capital city relocation. First, as a forest park, the Bukit Soeharto area’s management falls under the provincial government’s responsibility. Therefore, it should be relatively easier for the central government to acquire the land — although some parcels of land are owned by coal companies and local communities.

Second, as a forest park, Bukit Soeharto serves as a place for biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization by local communities. This is especially relevant for the FCPF Carbon Fund because one of the activities designed to reduce emissions is building conservation partnerships with nearby communities, with an emphasis on creating sustainable business opportunities for the locals, in which Tahura Bukit Soeharto is targeted.

The third and arguably most important point is that developing a forested area as a new capital city means land needs to be converted for urban use, likely resulting in further deforestation that could disrupt existing biodiversity and essential environmental services (such as flood protection), negatively affecting local livelihoods and fueling new socio-environmental conflicts.

In terms of receiving the FCPF Carbon Fund payment, however, Indonesia and East Kalimantan may still be able to meet the target and get the payment desired because only one-third of the total emissions reduced from the program will be offered to the Carbon Fund for payment purposes anyway. But this also opens up the possibility of carbon emissions leakage — increased emissions outside of Carbon Fund-related activities’ boundaries.

Simply put, emissions reduced through FCPF Carbon Fund activities may be canceled out because of increased emissions from deforestation for the new capital city’s development.

It makes sense to see the new capital city developed as one that is green, smart, integrated, pedestrian-friendly, inclusive and culturally rich. But again, policymakers must be aware that the road toward such lofty goals is rocky. The new capital city’s development may first result in deforestation and forest degradation.

Hopefully, there is still enough time for policymakers to formulate appropriate responses to the growing list of environmental consequences associated with the capital city’s relocation and development.

We cannot afford to pay little to no attention to the likelihood of any negative consequences that may occur as a result of this man-made activity.

 ________________________

The writer is completing his master’s degree in environmental management and development (advanced) at the Australian National University in Canberra. The views expressed are his own.

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