An article Warief Djajanto Basorie, The Jakarta Post.

The vision and mission statement is the candidate’s platform. Prabowo, chief patron of the Gerindra Party, spells out eight planks in his nine-page program statement that stem from the action plan that he announced on July 15 last year.

Plank VII is titled “Safeguarding Nature Conservation and the Environment”. In it, Prabowo has one line on climate change: “To take an active role in addressing global climate change in balance with Indonesia’s conditions.”

The phrase “in balance with Indonesia’s conditions” can invite a broad interpretation. It could mean anything from decisions that support custom-based communities in forest areas to policies that favor holders of forest concessions. To his credit, however, Prabowo stated a parallel promise to reforest 77 million hectares of destroyed forests and turn coal mining into an activity that is environmentally and socially friendly.

Other pledges include taking “stern action” against environmental polluters, protecting biodivesity, executing the planting of timber-producing trees by people — both collectively and individually — in plots up to 5 hectares in size, and issuing certification for all forest-based businesses and the products derived from them to earn global market acceptance.

Two of his other actions would be to require rent-permit holders of forested areas to develop urban forests at the district and city level and to rehabilitate river systems and water resources.

Meanwhile Jokowi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) submitted a 41-page action plan that covers 31 “strategic agendas” across three broad fields. Twelve are in political sovereignty, 16 in economic self-reliance and three in cultural identity. These 31 points are crystallized into nine priorities called the Nawacita. Climate change and the environment in the broader sense, however, do not make it onto this priority list.

The issue of climate change is only given a single line in point three in the section on economic self-reliance: “We are committed to a climate change blueprint, not only as an environmental issue but also for the national economy.”

Despite this one line, Jokowi plans to offer collateral benefits for the forest sector and customary communities. This includes rehabilitating 100 million hectares of critical land and land without forest cover, resolving conflicts over concessions and overlapping permits, and “establishing accurate forest resource data to ensure business certainty and fairness”.

To read full article, click here.