Bali, 9 October 2024 - Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation on the environment and forestry.
The newly signed MoU covers over a dozen thematic areas, including climate adaptation and mitigation, forests and nature-based solutions, sustainable consumption and production, circular economy, biodiversity conservation, and pollution action.
The signing ceremony took place during a workshop on tropical forest monitoring co-organized by UNEP and MoEF. Participants at the event explored how to use remote sensing technology in forest monitoring and strengthen international collaboration in monitoring tropical forests to support forest management.
“This MoU signifies a critical partnership aimed at providing a framework for cooperation to further shared goals and objectives concerning environment and forestry, particularly on conservation and protection of nature, sustainable use of natural resources, mainstreaming of environmental policies, and enhancement of environmental governance,” said Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Minister of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia. “I would like to convey appreciation and thank UNEP for this cooperation that will support our priority programmes on environment and forestry issues, and Indonesia’s commitments and initiatives at international, regional and national levels.”
Forest inventory is a key area of focus for Indonesia, home to the world’s third-largest tropical forest and to more mangroves than any other country. Trees are some of the planet’s most important warehouses of carbon, with mangroves among the most carbon-rich ecosystems, absorbing the element and stabilizing the climate.
The signing of the agreement comes as the world prepares for three months of environmental diplomacy, with each of the three “Rio Conventions” on climate, biodiversity and desertification holding their Conference of Parties, or COPs, between October and December. Later in November, countries will also convene in the Republic of Korea, for a fifth round of discussion aimed at developing a treaty to end plastic pollution.
UNEP and Indonesia have been working together on a range of issues that are pivotal to addressing the triple planetary crisis – the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature, land and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste.
Through the UN-REDD Programme, the UN’s knowledge and advisory platform on forest solutions to the climate crisis, UNEP works with Indonesia on REDD+ safeguards, forest carbon finance and accessing REDD+ results-based payments. Indonesia is a participating country of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA), a UNEP-administered Regional Seas Programme. In cooperation with COBSEA, Indonesia recently launched its Capacity Center for Clean Seas to support the implementation of the Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter. And as part of its efforts to improve environmental and human health, Indonesia participates in the UNEP-coordinated Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET) and currently serves as the Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Health and Environment.
“Coordinated action across the Asia-Pacific region is vital to achieving climate stability, peace with nature and a pollution-free planet,” said Dechen Tsering, UNEP Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific and interim director of UNEP’s Climate Change Division. “At UNEP, we look forward to a continued collaboration with Indonesia on issues that can help attain common goals for people and for nature.”
