ACHIEVING WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY IN INDONESIA

This report, produced by the Global Canopy Programme and WCS Indonesia Program, evaluates the policy coherence and trade-offs within Indonesia's development agenda regarding water, energy, and food (WEF) security. Using a WEF nexus framework, the study identifies how competing demands for land and water resources can undermine climate mitigation targets and ecosystem services. It highlights gaps in cross-sectoral and multi-scale coordination, particularly between national goals and local government priorities, and recommends improving geospatial data through the One Map Initiative and utilizing Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) to better manage resource trade-offs.

• Indonesia faces significant trade-offs between its water, energy, and food security targets and its climate and conservation commitments, as competition for finite land and water resources can lead to further deforestation.
• The energy sector's goal to increase new and renewable energy from 6% in 2014 to 23% by 2025 creates land-use conflicts, as biofuels and geothermal plants often overlap with forest areas; specifically, 42% of 312 potential geothermal locations are in conservation forests and 18% are in protected forests.
• Ambitious food security targets, including the expansion of agricultural land by 300,000 hectares by 2019, threaten forest areas and land-use emissions targets due to limited agricultural land availability and ongoing conversion of agricultural land in Java.
• Water security is pursued through both 'natural infrastructure' (watershed restoration) and 'built infrastructure' (reservoirs and irrigation), but energy and agriculture plans often fail to prioritize forest conservation, missing opportunities for climate mitigation.
• Coordination between national and sub-national governments is hampered by conflicting priorities and the reversal of decentralization policies; for example, the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) in Papua conflicts with the provincial spatial plan's goal to maintain 90% forest cover.
• The lack of reliable, consistent, and synchronized geospatial data across ministries and government levels undermines the effectiveness of land-use planning and the management of resource trade-offs.
• Indonesia's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) sets unconditional emissions reduction targets of 29% and conditional targets up to 41% by 2030, with forestry and peat fires expected to contribute nearly 60% of these reductions.

APA

Bellfield, H., Sabogal, D., Pareira, J., Gangga, A., & Leggett, M. (n.d.). ACHIEVING WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY IN INDONESIA. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/water-energy-and-food-security-Indonesia.pdf

Chicago

Bellfield, Helen, David Sabogal, Jeni Pareira, Adi Gangga, and Matt Leggett. ACHIEVING WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY IN INDONESIA. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, n.d. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/water-energy-and-food-security-Indonesia.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bellfield |first1=Helen |last2=Sabogal |first2=David |last3=Pareira |first3=Jeni |last4=Gangga |first4=Adi |last5=Leggett |first5=Matt |title=ACHIEVING WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY IN INDONESIA |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/water-energy-and-food-security-Indonesia.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bellfieldndachieving, author = {Bellfield, Helen and Sabogal, David and Pareira, Jeni and Gangga, Adi and Leggett, Matt}, title = {{ACHIEVING WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY IN INDONESIA}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/water-energy-and-food-security-Indonesia.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }