HOW CAN INDONESIA ACHIEVE WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY WITHOUT ERODING ITS NATURAL CAPITAL?

This briefing note, produced by WCS Indonesia and the Global Canopy Programme, evaluates the coherence of Indonesia's water, energy, and food (WEF) security targets. It argues that while Indonesia aims for rapid economic growth and self-sufficiency, its 'business-as-usual' model of exploiting natural resources has led to severe environmental degradation, which now threatens the very security targets the government seeks to achieve. The document advocates for a WEF nexus approach to manage trade-offs between sector goals and forest conservation.

• There is a lack of coherence between water security goals and the strategic plans of the energy and agriculture sectors. While water security objectives explicitly value forest management and conservation for improving water supply, the energy and agriculture sectors focus almost exclusively on built infrastructure, such as dams and irrigation networks.
• Ambitious targets for biofuels, agricultural commodities, and food self-sufficiency risk driving further deforestation unless productivity is increased. A case study in Aceh demonstrates that increasing oil palm yields to the national industry average (3.67 t/ha) would reduce the land required for production to 41,000 hectares less than the current area, whereas a business-as-usual scenario would require converting at least 220,000 hectares of land.
• The use of degraded land for agricultural and bioenergy production is not currently prioritised in the strategic plans of the energy and agriculture sectors, despite being a key objective for the forest and environment sector. An exception is a 2015 Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the local Governments of Katingan and Pulang Pisau districts in Central Kalimantan for sustainable bioenergy on former mining areas.
• Indonesia's governance structure creates significant coordination challenges due to the complexity of the legal framework and the high degree of authority held by local Governments. Sub-national development plans often treat the national mid-term development plan as a 'menu' of options rather than a holistic guide, and there is a lack of clarity regarding the hierarchy of lower-level regulations across different sectors.
• Environmental degradation, specifically forest and peatland fires, has caused severe economic losses that undermine GDP growth. Forest fires in 2015 exposed 43 million people to toxic gases and caused respiratory illness for approximately 0.5 million people, while recent fires are estimated to have cost 2% of GDP.
• Legislative mapping reveals that the environmental/forestry sector has the strongest legal connectivity to other WEF sectors, while the energy sector has the least. Across all sectors, legislation focuses on maximising production and rarely recognises the role of the environment in maintaining the stability of water, energy, and food security.

APA

Bellfield, H., Leggett, M., Trivedi, M., Pareira, J., & Gangga, A. (n.d.). HOW CAN INDONESIA ACHIEVE WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY WITHOUT ERODING ITS NATURAL CAPITAL? Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WEF-Briefing-Note-2.pdf

Chicago

Bellfield, Helen, Matt Leggett, Mandar Trivedi, Jeni Pareira, and Adi Gangga. HOW CAN INDONESIA ACHIEVE WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY WITHOUT ERODING ITS NATURAL CAPITAL? Climate and Development Knowledge Network, n.d. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WEF-Briefing-Note-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bellfield |first1=Helen |last2=Leggett |first2=Matt |last3=Trivedi |first3=Mandar |last4=Pareira |first4=Jeni |last5=Gangga |first5=Adi |title=HOW CAN INDONESIA ACHIEVE WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY WITHOUT ERODING ITS NATURAL CAPITAL? |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WEF-Briefing-Note-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bellfieldndhow, author = {Bellfield, Helen and Leggett, Matt and Trivedi, Mandar and Pareira, Jeni and Gangga, Adi}, title = {{HOW CAN INDONESIA ACHIEVE WATER, ENERGY AND FOOD SECURITY WITHOUT ERODING ITS NATURAL CAPITAL?}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WEF-Briefing-Note-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }