Indonesia has secured a grant of US$103.8 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for avoiding 20.3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from 2014 to 2016. The country has also received a $56 million grant from Norway for reducing deforestation and carbon emissions.

Notwithstanding the amount, the grants are proof of the international community’s trust in Indonesia, which has been struggling to protect its remaining forests and the environment amid expansion of the agro-industry sector, such as palm oil.

Indonesia has been the world’s largest palm oil producer for more than a decade, but lagged behind in curbing deforestation and forest fires thanks in part to slash and burn practices in the sector.

In 2015, the country saw the worst-ever fire disaster and haze crisis that caused Rp 221 trillion ($15 billion) in economic losses to the country, an amount equal to 1.9 percent of its gross domestic product that year. The fires, which damaged 2.6 million hectares of land and forests, claimed 24 lives and caused hundreds of thousands of people to suffer from respiratory problems.

The government has come under pressure both at home and from the international community to control the fires and enforce the law against those behind the land and forest fires. The law may have been enforced, but corporations and individuals convicted for starting fires have not paid the fines.

The country’s poor handling of deforestation has even led the European Union to list palm oil as the only commodity to be capped over concerns of deforestation. Indonesia is challenging this non-tariff barrier at the World Trade Organization.

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