“Indonesia has become the country with the lowest rate of deforestation. This shows that Indonesia's commitment is evidence-based, not just promises but also active contribution to the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Pact,” Siti said during a discussion on Indonesia’s FOLU Net Sink 2030 program at the Indonesia Pavilion of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Wednesday.

The minister said that according to Indonesia’s emission reduction targets in its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) document, the Forestry and Land Use (FOLU) sector was one the main focus for Indonesia to mitigate climate change.

United Kingdom’s Minister for Asia, Energy, Climate and Environment Zac Goldsmith commended Indonesia’s international leadership in climate and environmental issues as laudable, especially its ambition in protecting and restoring land to mitigate climate change in its FOLU Net Sink 2030 operational plan.

“The promise being made at the moment with nature is a really big promise,” Goldsmith said during the discussion, as quoted by Channel News Asia.

“We rely, all of us around the world, on Indonesia's success. Indonesia is doing a global service of protecting these extraordinary natural treasures. If Indonesia fails, we all fail and if Indonesia succeeds, we have a chance globally to succeed,” he added.

Last month, Indonesia and the United Kingdom signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support Indonesia’s forestry sector especially in achieving the FOLU Net Sink 2030.

Also at the event, Norway Minister for International Development Anne Beathe Tvinnereim said that Indonesia was one step ahead in mitigating climate change by reducing its deforestation, while also being open to collaboration with others such as with Norway.

“Our hope is that Indonesia will be a guiding star on tropical forests for other countries,” Tvinnereim said.

According to government data, Indonesia has recorded the lowest rate of deforestation in the last two decades to around 113,500 hectares per year between 2020-2021.

In September, Indonesia and Norway signed an MoU on emission reduction in the forestry sector to support FOLU Net Sink 2030 through results based payments, after last year Indonesia announced the termination of the Letter of Intent (LoI) agreement by Indonesia and Norway on emission reduction under the REDD+ scheme.

Last year at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Indonesia was among the over 140 countries that declared a pledge to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

However, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment report by a group of international environmental groups published last month, the world is not on track to meet the forest loss and land degradation target pledged in Glasgow.

According to the report, halting deforestation completely by 2030 would need a 10 percent annual reduction of deforestation globally. However, in 2021 deforestation rates around the world “declined only modestly” by 6.3 percent compared to the 2018-2020 baseline.

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