In a world shaken by a global pandemic, an economic crisis, geopolitical tensions and other pressing issues, it is easy to address what is directly in front of us rather than long-term issues. As part of this year’s April 22 Earth Day celebration, sadly, we cannot conduct outdoor activities such as tree planting or coastal cleanups. Nevertheless, we can plan for the Earth’s circumstances several decades from now in light of another crisis we are all already in: the climate crisis.

As part of its policy to tackle climate change, Indonesia should focus on the long run now in its effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment. One of the great opportunities is the establishment of a carbon market in Indonesia. To achieve this goal, the government needs to ensure clear land ownership and systematically solve land conflicts to provide data clarity for the carbon market. This must be done first to reduce emissions from land-use change and deforestation, which shall be the ultimate target of the carbon market.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan stated in the World Economic Forum in January that Indonesia aimed to set up a carbon market mechanism. He believes this will bring more investment and eventually payments for Indonesia’s rich carbon sources. His plan to utilize undisturbed forests for its carbon sink rather than continuing to rely on extractive industries and deforesting is wise.

However, there are complications and time lags to set up such a carbon market. It cannot be done in a year or two. Take China; since announcing its vision to create a carbon market in 2011, China eventually launched its carbon market in December 2017. There were intense government efforts in designing, data reporting, comparing and inventorying the carbon emissions during this timeframe. As the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, China’s strategy was to specifically target its power sector (electricity and heat), which is the country’s biggest emissions contributor.

If Indonesia wants to follow China (and California in the United States) by implementing a cap-and-trade carbon market mechanism, then Indonesia needs to target land use based industries such as forestry and plantations, one of the biggest persisting problems of greenhouse gas emission domestically. Indonesia is among the top 10 total greenhouse gas emitters in the world with around 190.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from land-based emissions, from agriculture, the conversion of carbon-rich forests to plantations and other uses.

To effectively cut emissions, we need to target the most significant emission contributing sectors specifically: land-use change and forestry-related emissions. Clarity of land use and ownership is necessary to support accurate greenhouse gas emissions inventory, which will lead to communication with the land-based private sectors to decide their carbon budget. Land clarity will help preserve forests and peatland, which are important carbon sinks for the world.

Land disputes and land-grabbing over forested land or peatland will continue without land clarity. One of the root causes of massive episodes of forest fires in Indonesia also stems from unclear land boundaries, which then leads to little supervision over land and protected areas.

The immediate path to ensuring land clarity is with the full implementation of the One Map Policy, which President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo promised to continue during his reelection campaign. The One Map Policy was started in 2011 to unify all land-use data and eventually to resolve overlapping claims and conflict over land. Such goals should be achieved via four steps: compilation, integration, synchronization and sharing of data and maps. Ideally, under these steps, the government should also pursue systematic and coordinated efforts in clarifying the overlapping mandate of various government agencies in solving land conflict rather than with ad-hoc task forces.

Currently, there are several government agencies with varying degrees of land conflict resolution, including the Environment and Forestry Ministry and Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry, with a clear separation between forest areas and other utilization areas, not to mention other institutions such as the Presidential Office, National Commission on Human Rights, courts or subnational level initiatives.

Strengthening and clarifying these overlapping mandates will be a sustainable solution for land conflict rather than ad-hoc mechanisms, which is similar to a band-aid.

Unsurprisingly, Luhut’s statement to quickly create a carbon market was met by warnings from NGOs. The carbon market is a complicated mechanism despite its huge financial potential for Indonesia. Without proper understanding, Indonesia might create future problems in agreeing to a set of obligations with global market actors without fully realizing the implications.

The One Map Policy can help address land conflict, a key challenge the government needs to properly address if it is to take advantage of the incredible carbon market opportunities in the future.

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Lawyer who previously worked with environmental NGOs in Indonesia; studying for master of global affairs at University of Notre Dame, Indiana, United States, majoring in international peace studies

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