Info ICCC 3rd ed.

INFO ICCC L I N K I N G

3rd Edition - April 2013

Editorial Established in October 2011 under the US-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership, Indonesia Climate Change Center (ICCC) is a platform of network that reaches scientist communities, international organizations, Indonesian ministries, and academics to encourage robust science-policy linkages in support of actions to deal with issues on climate change in Indonesia.

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Information Media of Indonesia Climate Change Center

THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED

TO ATTRACT RENEWABLE ENERGY INVESTMENT IN INDONESIA

By Artissa Panjaitan

Info ICCC is a quarterly newsletter which serves information on issues and study result conducted by ICCC. ICCC encourages free dissemination of information available on this newsletter for non-commercial purpose with acknowledgement of Info ICCC as the source Feedback and suggestion on ICCC and its activity implementation can be sent through email to info@iccc-network.net Source: PLN

or addressed Gedung Kementerian BUMN 18th floor, Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan No.13, Jakarta 10110.

Further information on ICCC is available on www.ICCC-network.net.

Info ICCC Team: Steering Committee: Rachmat Witoelar, Agus Purnomo, Amanda Katili Niode, Murni Titi Resdiana, Farhan Helmy, National Council on Climate Change (DNPI) Editor in Chief: Farrah Mardiati, Indonesia Climate Change Center (ICCC) Contributors: Eli Nur Nirmala Sari, Dadang Hilman, Harityas Wiyoga, Artissa Panjaitan, Indonesia Climate Change Center (ICCC)

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Fig. 1: Electrification Ratio of households by each province.

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ndonesia Power Generation sector (“Power”) is estimated to emit 110 million ton CO2e in 2005. In business as usual (“BAU”) process, Power sector emission is estimated to grow to 370 and 810 million ton CO2e in 2020 and 2030 respectively. In this respect, Indonesia voluntarily commits to reduce 26% of its BAU emission by 2020 and has been initiating Low Emission Development Strategies.

Growth of electricity generation capacity in the next 20 years will be predominantly driven by demand from 6–7% average economic growth and improvements of the country’s electrification rate. There is a clear need for power generation capacity in remote and sparsely populated areas

(see fig. 1). However, to meet the demand of economic growth, it is imperative for Indonesia to choose cost competitive technologies while at the same time abating GHG emissions.1 Indonesia has sizeable Renewable Energy (RE) resources, but only a small percentage has been deployed for Electric Power and Bio-fuel. Biomass is an important source of RE in Indonesia, especially using Crop to Energy and cofiring solutions. Biomass Power has large potential, but it is not yet well promoted.

Biomass consists of biological materials derived from living, or recently living organism, in the form of solids, liquids and gases. It can be obtained from specific organisms that are intentionally

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Information Media of Indonesia Climate Change Center

biomass residiues forestry, energy plants

direct combustion

biomass pretreatment

gasification

conventional steam power plant

fuel cell

organic wastes, sewage animal manure, energy crops

anaerobic digestion

biogas microturbine power plant

engine-generator set

oily fruits, grains, shoots vegetable oil production

Supply

producer gas

Conditioning

Source: wisions.net

oil

Energy conversion Fig 2: Transformation paths to generate electricity from biomass.

grown & harvested to make use of their photosynthetic energy (energy crops). Biomass wastes can equally apply to both plant (e.g. biomass residues, forestry & organic wastes) and animal (e.g. animal manure).

included) and profitability. Risk Profile of a country can affect both and be measured in terms of pre-operating costs, legal aspects, price-market competition, input costs, payment terms & conditions, insurance protection and market growth potential.

Over all, biomass is converted into energy through direct combustion. Some types of dry solid biomass can be directly converted into heat. Some other biomass energy, initially, need to be converted into liquids and gases through biochemical and thermochemical reactions.

There are five contributing policies which are imperatives to look out in order to construct a scientific and balanced industrial recommendation to attract RE investments to Indonesia. They are secure biomass feed stock, remove investment barriers, provide investment incentives, punish for delinquency, have an adequate presentation of investment opportunities.

A new Feed In Tariff (FIT) scheme for Biomass Power has been issued by Ministry of Mineral and Energy in January 2012. The scheme has different geographical coefficients of selling price compared to Hydro Power. But, there is not much attraction in to Biomass Power sector yet. As such, somehow, Indonesia RE Investment Risk Profile has not been perceived attractive by Power investors.

It is essential to have a renewed perspective in nation-wide policy and to attract new RE investments in Indonesia. There is also the needs to research the importance of the Indonesia RE Investment Risk Profile (“Risk Profile�). Investigating biomass energy can be a groundbreaking alternative on how to attract investments for other types of RE, which will lead onto mainstreaming the low emission development strategies for Indonesia.

The multi-element nature of investment Risk Profile of power/ electricity sector in a developing country is clear. From business perspectives, investment value or attractiveness is measured in two terms, i.e. capital cost (within which availability of capital is

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Security of biomass feed stock, productivity and energy contents of biomass are key factors in determining the best biomass supply for generating electricity in a certain area. Clear legal framework to secure feed stock as well as attractive FIT and fiscal incentives for RE are expected to increase the use of biomass for electricity generation. An example of cultivation of various energy crops and their theoretical electricity potentials2 per hectare through anaerobic digestion path and biogas yields of selected substances are given on Figure 2.

Therefore, investigating each imperative to eventually identify the parameters to attract investments is essential. The security of biomass feed stock, which is the suitability, productivity, logistics for typical Indonesia regions such as the availability of cultivation area and the growth opportunity, infrastructure, and manpower for feed stock cultivations needs to be identified. In addition, the economic aspects of biomass feed stock cultivation as well the dynamics of pricing mechanism for feed stock and electricity selling price need to be calculated.

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Information Media of Indonesia Climate Change Center

Fig 3: Transformation paths to generate electricity from biomass.

Recommendations to remove investment barriers need to be made by analyzing the current policies and construct scientific and legal approaches to delineate areas (especially degraded land) that can be included as well as certain areas that must be excluded from RE investment potentials.

Several strategies on the improvements of the policies for a simple & fair process to award RE licenses need to be formulated in order to structure required permits to award a location to a prospective investor, structure the application process of permits, analyze the solicited RE projects and unsolicited RE sites/locations, and selecting a Government Office in charge of monitoring and assisting the process of issuing RE investment permits, and lastly structure a method to determine the cost of RE investment permits.

Furthermore, incentive, which will be identified by understanding PLN’s and GOI’s criteria in existing incentive schemes, such as price zoning, fiscal scheme, and development of infrastructure for access needs to be proposed. Calculating macro-economic impacts of such incentives; and capturing investors’ perspectives to improve RE in-

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vestment attractiveness such as adjustable price mechanism and protection for minimum return of investments will help constructing a robust incentive schemes.

Punish delinquency is believed to be one key factor in improving RE investment attractiveness. It is by first capturing investors’ and public’s perspective on delinquencies and consequences, defining delinquencies that warrant for penalties, then a robust and fair scheme of penalties for delinquencies can be constructed. How to present PLN’s development capacity and targets as well as the mechanism to change PLN’s plans from non-renewable energy power to RE and vice versa in order to present attractive renewable energy opportunities adequately need to be comprehensively understood. A transparent and legal ways of disseminating and promoting RE opportunities can be achieved also by capturing investors’ and public’s perspectives on the appropriate way of presenting attractive RE opportunities.

1 Estimated emission rates of gas, diesel and coal are at 452, 583 and 920 kg CO2e per MWh respectively.

Coal is currently the cheapest source of energy and only suitable for base load supply. Gas has the lowest emission rate and best suited for peak load supply. Despite its lack of supply chain infrastructure, Biogas can provide the lowest emission rate and suitable for peak and base load supply.

2 Source: “Bioenergy in Germany: Facts & Figures, January 2012”, Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection.

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Integrating peatland science and policy:

opportunity and challenges for implementation in Indonesia

By Farrah Mardiati

Orangutan in Rawa Tripa, Aceh. Orangutan is one of the fauna prone to extinction impacted by the loss of biodiversity due to land use change. All forms of land use change involve deforestation, drainage, fire and lead to loss of fauna and flora, lowering of water table and large emissions of CO2.

(Photo by Fendra/ICCC)

Politics, science and policy

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ealizing sustainable peatland management should involve integrating peatland science and policy. Peatland management requires robust policy, which is based on accurate scientific findings on peatland. However, channeling peatland science into policy is another challenge. It requires data quality, transparency, political will and action. There has been a major gulf between science researchers and users. As policy makers are required to make decisions rapidly, while scientists need to test, analyses and interpret the data, a common language is needed to bridge communication between scientists and policy makers and other stakeholders. The existence of consultants as ‘the knowledge brokers’ has been increasing and in some cases has helped in bridging the communication gap.

Other key challenge in integrating science into policy is that there are deep conceptual and philosophical differences, such as social and political requirements, which are turbulent and driven by hidden agendas and subject to multiple short-term pressures. When politics, policy and science coincide, flexibility, patience and perseverance of all parties are required to wait for a window of opportunity. Promising initiatives may be stalled

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or abandoned owing to unforeseen circumstances such as elections, bureaucratic changes or other social events.

Scientific knowledge is a fundamentally important underpinning of peatland policy and management. This requires understanding the needs of policy makers. Scientific information can be acquired in a random manner, for example blue skies research favored in developed countries, or targeted in response to particular needs of industry or government. Hence, the policy makers need to know what they need, so that they can have the right questions and get the right science.

According to the Study of Environment, Canada Conservation Authority Officers in 2010, personal communication was the most used, accessible, trustworthy, relevant, and shared and preferred to receive science information. Published literature, mostly reports, was the next most important. However, lack of time, resources and available, relevant science information, as well as limited training and general resistance to change and competing priorities remain being the barriers.

Peatland management involves a lot of actors and stakeholders, which are inter-related to each other. They are scientist, policy makers, decision makers, business sectors, NGOs and interna-

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ICCC Highlights

tional intervention such as conventions and agreements. This will certainly have an impact on data quality and transparency such as the availability of data, the quality, the importance of data gaps (if any) as there are still limited standardization of methods, target important data acquisition requirements, and how secretive the scientist and companies are about the data.

Learning from the Mega Rice Project in Central Kalimantan

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mproving peatland management in Indonesia should take the case of Mega Rice Project into account as it provides valuable lessons learned for integrating peatland science into policy. The establishment of Central Kalimantan Mega Rice Project around 1997 – 1998 was intended to replace land lost in Java to development during the time. The project was begun with construction of the main drainage/irrigation channels over than 4500 km long. The land was prepared for 22,500 households.

The first environmental impact assessment was published in 1996 by Wetlands International on the fifth months after the project started. The second assessment was completed by IPB and it showed only 30% of the area was suitable for agriculture. However, the Ministry of Environment continued to support the project.

In 1998, Head of BAPPENAS commissioned a re-evaluation of the project and it showed only 10% of the area could be used for new rice production. A seminar showed the project had been wrong from the start and violated regulation on peatland management, as a total of one million hectares (mainly peatland) forest was cleared. As an impact, the project has been said to increase droughts and flood risk, trigger the loss of peat carbon (oxidation and fire), result on land with little agricultural value, and cause the loss of traditional livelihoods. It was until September 1998, the project was cancelled by President Habibie, but the decision was still not integrated into development planning as the mega rice project was still included in a new development plan, which was Kawasan Pengembangan Ekonomi Terpadu (KAPET) Daerah Aliran Sungai (DAS) Kahayan, Kapuas and Barito (Kakab), which covering 2.77 Mha in Central Kalimantan.

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This case has been brought to attention of many environmental activists, such as WALHI, who at that time filed a civil law suit against the president and 9 ministries on the grounds in August 1999. At least five points covered by the law suit: the project has violated land management regulation UU 24/1992, used reforestation fund illegally, commenced before an environmental impact assessment was agreed with the BAPPENAL EIA Commission, ignored traditional wisdom in the development of natural resources, and causes degradation of environmental quality.

This law suit has resulted on the establishment of ‘conservation zones’ on peat which has more than 3 meters thickness through a Presidential Decree 80/1999, and the Ministry of Forestry and Estate Corps and authority to the local government of Central Kalimantan were to coordinate land management outside the conservation zones. The law suit has as well proved to be effective as in 2000 the Minister of Regional Development finally cancelled the Kapet pending a Presidential Decree. A more significant step was the establishment of an ‘Ad hoc’ team to prepare guidelines for rehabilitation of the former MRP area by the Minister of Acceleration and Development in 2002. In 2004, the Ad hoc team comprising international professional scientists published its conclusions that were later translated into an action plan.

Towards an effective peatland management

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eatland plays a great role in climate change mitigation. Hence, peatland management should entirely be based on the accurate science for its unique characteristic that it is initiated and accumulates only under permanently waterlogged, acidic and nutrient and oxygen deficient conditions. Peatlands have formed mostly in sub coastal locations, mainly during the last 6000 years.

However, peat inland in Central Kalimantan has been dated to more than 25,000 years before present. Lowland peatland is covered with rain forest trees up to 45 meters tall that are the source of the peat.

They are reservoirs of considerable biodiversity and many species are rare and endangered. Moreover, they are very large carbon stores, mostly in the peat, with around 2000 t CO2e per hectare for each

metre of peat thickness.

All forms of land use change involve deforestation, drainage, fire and lead to loss of fauna and flora, lowering of water table and large emissions of CO2, which increase with depth of drainage. Peatland water management will maintain water tables as high as possible but corps cannot grow in permanently waterlogged and flood conditions. Under all development land uses, peat will decompose under the oxic conditions, releasing CO2 constantly, leading to subsidence and eventual disappearance of the peat.

Degraded, drained and plantation peatland will emit CO2 constantly until the peat disappears. Fire must be controlled, and most importantly prevented. Peat subsidence will continue until peat disappears and/or the drainage base is reached when flooding will prevent further cultivation. Converting degraded peatland to plantations will not reduce emissions.

Conversion of biodiversity of peatland to other land uses should cease. Ideally, degraded peatland should be rehabilitated to swamp forest. For this, local people must be involved and provided with livelihoods, and alternative income streams replacing plantation must be found (such as REDD+).

Hence, an integrated policy is needed in peatland management in order to stop peat swamp forest conversion to other land uses, to accelerate rehabilitation of degraded peatland, to remove plantations from deep peat/domes, to cancel already granted concession licenses. This will be even realistic with the establishment of a cross-agency/Minsitry coordinating body directly responsible to the President to have authority and oversight for all aspects of land use on Indonesia’s peatland. The person in charge should have high level status on an equal footing with Ministers and Director Generals to enable decision making. This body ideally should comprise peatland scientists, managers and regulators as well as technocrats and international advisors, and equipped with training and capacity building.

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Information Media of Indonesia Climate Change Center

The Development of

Peatland research in Indonesia

By Farrah Mardiati

Not only reservoirs of considerable biodiversity where many species living there are rare and endangered, peatland is also a very large carbon stores where per hectare of each metre of peat thickness contains of around 2000 t CO2e. Currently, emission from peatlands is 41.4% of total global emissions, which is the biggest emitter among other sectors. If there is no significant action to address this, peatland emissions will still be quite dominant, about 32% in 2030 (Source: DNPI, 2011).

Peatland as a unique ecosystem, which will be very difficult to be rehabilitated if it has been damaged, needs to be recognized. To prevent peatlands degradation and to reduce the negative impact of degraded peatlands, a science-based management of peat is very important to be established and carried out, most importantly by taking into account the emission reduction goals.

(Photo by Fendra/ICCC)

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ICCC Highlights

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eatland research in Indonesia has been conducted since the late Dutch period. There were several researchers who firstly described tropical peats. In 1890, tropical peat of Sumatra was described by Koorders. Later, the occurrence of tropical peats in the upper Kapuas river basin, West Kalimantan was mentioned by some of Dutch expolrers, such as Mollengraff. During that early period, forest and peat fires have been as well recorded in the upper Kapuas lakes, the Mahakam lakes, and South Kalimantan. Until the later period, Dr. B. Polak was one of Dutch researchers known for his great peatland research especially during 1940 – 1950 periods.

However, within the management of its own government, focus on peatland research has been so much shifted to fit into economic and social needs, mainly for agriculture and transmigration sites. During the period of the New Order regime, led by the late President Soeharto, most peatland researches were focusing on the use of peats for agriculture, particularly for rice paddy and also for energy use.

One of the known research with this focus as well as the first publication on tropical peatland was written by J.P. Andriesse, in 1988 (“Nature and Management of Tropical Peat Soils”, FAO Soil Bulletin 59). This publication of bulletin was significantly influence by research carried out by Driessen et al at the International Rice Research Institute, Phillipines, and the Soil Research Institute, Bogor, Indonesia. During this period, Rasau Jaya Peat complex in West Kalimantan was drained and converted into a set of transmigration sites in 1972, where Departement of Public Works was the main actor for this conversion as they carried out drainage canals.

Along with the development of human activities in peatland, which has triggered the occurrence of peat fire and haze, significant number of foreign researchers to implement many kind of researches and development projects in Central Kalimantan have been increasing. Especially during 1996, the government of Indonesia carried out the mega rice project where millions hectares of peatland were burnt for rice paddy production in Central Kalimantan. This has drawn a lot of attention from many international researches from UK, Japan, as well as from Gajah Mada University, Indonesian local institution.

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The 1997/1998 big peat fires on Mega Rice Project (MRP) led to new focus on peatland research and development. Peatland research predominantly shifted from peat uses for agriculture into environmental issues and concerns. In addition to big fires of 1997/1998, many international publications and declaration, such as the Brundtland Report, the Forest Principles, the Rio Delaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21, also have major supports on this shift. High deforestation rates of tropical peat swamp forest in Sumatra and Kalimantan were later observed and recorded in this period. It is important to note that the end of Soeharto governance in 1998, and subsequent political change in Indonesia have significant impacts on land use changes, leading to peatland forest decline. More and more research on peatland with issues on deforestation, drainage and carbon emission were central, that it brought major steps for peatland conservation. Some of the researches were Tropical Peatland (published by Palangkaraya University, Central Kalimantan), series of peat maps by the Wetlands International, as well as REDD Initiative at COP 13 of the UNFCCC in 2007 in Bali.

Along the way, focus of peatland researches has been constantly changed.

As the topic of climate change has grown wider in international discussions and negotiations, carbon trade has become a new ‘jargon’ for peat conservation and peat carbon becomes a ‘new tradable’ aspect. In the field, the expansion of oil palms and timber plantations on peats is very rapid and largely considered as threat. In early 2000, most peatland areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan are not well managed, leading to a problem of open access. With the shifting of peatlad research focus, from agricultural use into environmental issues and concerns and now into a more specific focus on carbon emission reduction for climate change mitigation, significant number of peatland scientists has grown and not only in Kalimantan but also to other region such as Sumatra and a few in Papua.

tant, and that significant development has shifted from peat uses into sustainable peat uses and conservation. This development has not only led an increasing number of peatland scientists in Indonesia, but also led an increasing number of stakeholders in peatland research and project.

With the latest focus of peatland researches, which is focusing on climate change mitigation through reducing emission from peat, carbon in peats has been treated as a valuable aspect to support climate change goals. However, several essentials for to support maximizing peatland research remain lacking. Laboratory equipment and technicians are still limited, only few peer reviewed of published papers whereas data on peatlands are mostly unpublished and scattered at hands of few scholars, and no standardized methods on peatland research are some of the limitations to achieve a comprehensive integrated peatland researches on sustainable peat uses and conservation focus.

Moreover, a peatland research center is yet to be realized and a need to establish the ‘blue ocean’ collaboration among stakeholder is also of great importance.

Several things remain for consideration in realizing peatland research to support sustainable peatland management, such as forming a professional collaboration to minimize bureaucratic intervention, empowering civil society, as well as communicating and realizing scientific findings into practice.

Source: “Status of peatland research and capacity in Indonesia”, Gusti Z Anshari, Center for Wetlands People and biodiversity of Tanjungpura University, Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia (2013)

The occurrence of peats in Indonesia opens new opportunities for scientific achievement since the Dutch time. It has brought the understanding that peatland research in Indonesia is globally impor-

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Towards carbon sink agriculture, energy independence and protectionof REDD+ designated areas: could crop to Energy on Degraded Land be an answer?

By Artissa Panjaitan

Development needs in Indonesia put pressures for expansion to new areas. As the results, almost all of land degradation is induced by human socio-economic activity1. However, definition of land degradation is a broad universe and partly driven by specific land types and locations2 as well as related events 3 that is designed to create impacts on targeted socioeconomic developments.

Indonesia evidently has sizeable Degraded Land areas. The actual size of areas certainly depends on how we define land degradation and the time or method of inspection (data capture). However, without getting bogged by lengthy discussions on the detail definition4 of degraded land, Indonesia must start to construct its policy in creating value from degraded land. Taking definitive actions to manage the impacts of land degradation is surely as important as controlling the sources of degradation.

The direction in the definition of land degradation on a certain geographic area may be encapsulated by 2 lines of thoughts, degradation of ecosystem, and economic value. In reality, these 2 lines of thoughts are intertwined but the structure below (figure 1) allows us to think in a clear view of what science and policies are required to take definitive actions.

As of now, some of degraded areas have become scattered settlement spots by indigenous people and former workers of

forest concessioners. They began establishing small holding cultivation but most of degraded terrain is left as shrub land.

They live in remote areas without sufficient access to market for their cultivated products and limited supply of electricity.

There is a tendency that these groups of peopleapply slash and burn land clearing to get their farms ready for planting, and get tempted to encroach forest areas for timber as additional source of income.

Under current set up of degraded land conditions, there are challenges and opportunities simultaneously realized. People live sparsely on degraded land areas with basic needs for livelihood, electricityand education.Cultivation products have little value creation potentials due difficulties to reach the market. People on degraded lands get tempted to encroach forest areas for additional income.Large areas are left unproductive and continue degrading while there is a clear need to expand for economic development/growth areas.

Hence, Indonesia policy makers can take this opportunity to use degraded land areas for developing crops of biomass energy that allow simultaneous solutions for protection of remaining forests and designate them as REDD+ areas, carbon sequestration, changing slash and burn farm practices, bio-ethanol production to replace gasoline, generating green electricity for sparsely populated areasto support value-add economy and education and creation of new local jobs.

Fig 1: Structure and concerns in the course of land degradation.

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Fig 2: Building Indonesia Roadmap of Crop-to-Energy Product Development.

It is apparent that Indonesia has a growing transportation fuel import 5 and increasing electric power demand. More importantly, there is a pressure to stimulate economic growth in remote areas and those supplied by diesel power. These areas have been subjected to long standing sensitive issues of fuel/ energy subsidies and unstable distribution.

Using degraded land and current technology, a solution to make Indonesia more independent in energy supply is possible. That is by having a nation-wide Crop to Energy policy on degraded land. This is a significantly different concept than what is at the moment commonly proposed as Waste to Energy biomass power. The size of economic impacts that can be triggered by using this policy will allow Indonesia to develop remote areas more rapidly and abate greenhouse gas emissions6 .

Indonesia’s policy makers should take a strategic step to make the best use of its equatorial land forbio-energy to replace a portion of fuel import,job creations, and contribution to global emission reduction efforts. By creating value added opportunities on degraded land there will also be a turn-around in forest degradation path. As part of the policy, GOI must also be able to configure an impartial resolution to settle conflict of claims on degraded land areas.A credible Government of Indonesia (GOI) policy and cohesiveness in implementation processwill help attract investments to cultivate energy crops on Indonesia’s Degraded Land.

To build convincing scientific evidence that Indonesia can develop bio-energy by utilizing its degraded land is also necessary to be targeted for bio-energy on mineral soil areas7 where highly tolerant and productive crops have been identified, i.e.: Cassava

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and King Grass (PennisetumPurpureophoides). The use of these 2 crops would also present a competitive opportunity toward the mainstream crops of oil palm and rubber trees.

In view of Indonesia in road to adopt “Crop to Energy” policy, there are two hypothesis of a 2-step implementation process for bio-energy. The first step will make use of Cassava as an already proven viable crop. Indonesian farmers are familiar with this plant and the application of bio-energy processing requires an already matured processing technology. This plant is relatively resistant to pests and diseases in Indonesia.

Bio-ethanol productiontarget is to replace 25-26% gasoline in Transportation Fuel8. The biomass wastes after processing/ producing ethanol will be anaerobically digested to produce biogas for Power (electricity).

In 5 – 10 years after that, the second type of non-food crops will be rolled out using Cellulosic Ethanol processing technology.

This second type of crop will be King Grass or plants with similar genetics.Cellulosic Ethanol Technology from grass will replace cassava as the source of ethanol production. Using syngascomposition process, the grass can also be used to produce jet fuels and biodiesel. Cassava starch will later be used for food production, bio-degradable plastics for food packages and other starch based products.As of today, King Grass has already been used through anaerobicdigestion to produce biogas and then fed to internal combustion engine for electricity. This crop gives more advantages than wood based crops, due to little presence of lignin.

Both of these species can grow in less fertile soil conditions and lower level of rain fall than Oil Palm. King Grass can even grow

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ICCC Highlights

Fig 3: indicates a hypothesison the components of such strategy and how they are logically connected in the process will possibly result on an outcome to establish a robust Strategy.

productively in a rain fall level of 800 mm/year provided the soil has sufficient nutrients. Therefore, they are more readily to be planted on degraded land areas than other known crops in Indonesia.

Digester residues and decomposed wastes of farms will be used to fertilize bio-energy farms, replacing slash and burn practice. Over a few yearsthis process can be expected to increase 5–10 g/kg (0.5–1%) of organic Carbon in the top soil. This translates to approximately 55–110 million ton CO2e sequestration in 30 cm layer of top soil per 1 million ha. As such, Indonesia can participate in REDD+ initiatives while capitalizing from degraded lands.

Figure 3 indicates a hypothesison the components of such strategy and how they are logically connected in the process will possibly result on an outcome to establish a robust Strategy.

In drafting National Strategy to use Degraded Land for Crop to Energy, there are 7 main items in long term perspectives that need to be considered. They are biomass Crop Research & Development, Delineation & Certification9 of Degraded Land for Farms, Feed Stock supply, Development of Processing Technologies10, Standards of Farming Practices, End Products & Distribution, Fiscal Incentive and Investment Policies11.

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To start this initiative, Indonesia needs to secure degraded land for Crop-to-Energy farms12. This would be a critical step due to the size of land to be secured should match Indonesia’s Spatial Planning and the National Plan for bio-energy. However, the main challenge in securing degraded land is possibly freeing designated areas from speculation of land price and to resolve claims with minimal delays and additional costs.

Simultaneous use of land with local communities will be a lesser issue if market based biomass price is used. In addition, to have a buy-in from local population, GOI needs to put them at the fore front of job opportunities and to offer improvement programs for the site/local infrastructure. Lessons from other experiences can be drawn and adopted to local customs. Key elements in such policy draft will include technology options to process for bio-energy; in the case of bio-ethanol, content of lignin among crops will determine standards for the use of grass and trees. These standards will help industries to grow in support of the policy, and in the case of biogas production, standardization of anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis. Other key elements are fiscal Incentives, incl. removal of fossil fuel subsidies, indicative profit & loss of a typical bio-ethanol company.

In a typical set-up of using degraded land, illustration of farm operations is described in Figure 4. Crop to Energy farm land is situated outside a buffer area and maintain a standardized operations. The main products of this development will be transportation fuel, electric power and defensible REDD+ areas.

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Fig 4: Illustration of Crop-to-Energy farm operations.

1 Only a small portion of land degradation is caused by natural calamity (volcanic eruption, tsunami) but none of them have lasting and unrecoverable damage.

2 Degradation measures are different on mountainous (steep) and flat land as well as by classifications of soil types (mineral and carbonaceous land).

3 Current and future activities, such as: projected subsidence of peat land areas.

7 Geospatial & geological maps equipped by literature studies can be used to scan for these areas.

8 RON 88 consumption will grow from 27.6 to 32.3 billion liters assuming: a) 2012 to 2020 fuel CAGR at 2%, b) 8-10% growth of more efficient new cars. In 2020, 8.1 billion liters of bioethanol will be used.

9 Need improvement in Indonesia legal framework conditions.

10 Depends on crop type and dry solid content

4 Discussion of detail definition should be done concurrently.

Estimates of degraded land in Indonesia vary between 6 and 55 million ha.

11 Staggered FIT for biomass, guaranteed over depreciation period of equipment.

5 RON 88 import in 2011 at 15.25 billion liters. Source: Ditjen MIGAS, PT.Pertamina (Persero), analyzed by Pusdatin KESDM.

12 Land requirement for 7.2 billion liters bio-ethanol from Cassava, at 30,000 kg/ha crop and an average conversion of cassava to alcohol is at 6.5 kg/liter, is 1.55 million ha.

6 The potential of developing remote areas can be simulated/ approachedby using the difference of national average and the existing regional average income.

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ICCC Highlights

International Indonesia Peatland Conversation for a robust science based policy on peatland management

Experts were giving presentation and discussing the integration of peatland science into policy in the International Indonesia Peatland Conversation event, last February. (Photo: ICCC documentation).

The Indonesia National Council on Climate Change (Dewan Nasional Perubahan Iklim/DNPI) and Indonesia Climate Change Center(ICCC) facilitate an international conversation on peatland management in Indonesia. Taking place in Bandung from 25 to 28 February 2013,the International Indonesia Peatland Conversation(IIPC) serves as a discussion forum aiming to increase awareness on and understanding of what is needed to achieve Indonesia’s targets for green house gas (GHG) emission reductions from peatland.

Attended by 50 participants (comprising both national and international scientists, and policy makers from Indonesia) from over 35 institutions, “IIPCidentified the challenges and opportunities in realizing policy implementation that will contribute to Indonesia’s GHG emission reduction target from an effective peatland management,” says RachmatWitoelar, the executive chairman of National Council on Climate Change. “IIPC has also resultedin determining priority needs in policy development for sustainable peatland management,” Mr.Witoelar continued.

As a productive dialogue between scientific experts in peatland management and government of Indonesia policy makers, several topics were discussed, which include key elements of effective peatland management that should be considered in Indonesia, and significant examples of policy development processes that have produced positive results.This conversation also identified the issues and opportunities to be further explored in Indonesia in order to mitigate the impact of climate change from peatland; as well as the necessary starting points to develop a policy agenda to pursue in the near term.

“This obviously needs significant commitment from all stakeholders, government, private sector, technical experts in peatland, and environmental organization, as well as the communities. That is why we believe that a robust policy on peatland management by utilizing science input needs to be encouraged to be able to contribute to GHG emission reduction target in particular and in general, to contribute to the better future of our earth,” he added.

The sustainable peatland management involves five areas, such as protection of remaining intact peat forests; restoration of degraded and drained peatland; prevention of peat forest fires; restriction the development of new plantation concessions on peat; and reduction of emissions from existing plantations.“From the IIPC, the participant has also proposed the sixth area as another important component towards Sustainable Peatland Management, which is to raise awareness on the importance ofpeatland and capacity building. It is a good progress that now we have the framework for sustainable peatland management in Indonesia,” said Eli Nur Nirmala Sari, the Peatland and Peatland Mapping Cluster Program Coordinator from the ICCC.

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“The result of IIPC suggests many issues to be addressed to support the sustainable peatland management in Indonesia, such as the needs of institutional arrangement to enforce better coordination and leadership in peat management,” said Eli. “Moreover, the policy for the standard practice of degraded peatland needs to be developed,” she continued.

Amongst the priorities need to be taken for sustainable peatland management in Indonesia, ICCC is in its way to synthesizing the key action points. As its function is to convene dialogues between scientific experts and Indonesia’s policy makers, ICCC is going to conduct series of expert discussions to focus on deliberating those key strategies into policy recommendations for the Government of Indonesia. “During the IIPC, it is acknowledged that Indonesia needs more policy enforcement. In order to achieve that, we, the scientists and representatives of the government, have agreed on the basis for analyzing the gaps and the peat policy, and the needs for greater harmonization and an improved inter-ministerial coordination for peat management,” Eli added. “It is great to acknowledge that the scientist communities are willing to stand behind to encourage the GOI doing it differently and to provide opportunity for scientific input for the rationale for peatland new zoning, and the requirements of an effective improved water management.”

About the stronger role of civil society organization (CSO) and the private sector, Eli said that, “CSO and private sectors need to have a stronger role in peat management; they also need to be involved. So they are one of our stakeholders to be reached in our focus group discussion within the near future.”

A kick off meeting will be facilitated by ICCC as a follow up of IIPC to identify more details of strategic plan for Sustainable Peatland Management in Indonesia. “We will focus on an accurate peatland map for Indonesia; incentives in peatland;GHG inventory in Indonesia; and spatial planning,” Eli said.

ICCC is a platform of network that reaches scientist communities, international organizations, Indonesian ministries, and academics to encourage robust science-policy linkages in support of actions to deal with issues on climate change in Indonesia. Established in 2011 under the US – Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership, ICCC provides support to the Government of Indonesia in developing climate change policies and actions with focus on climate resilience; peatland and peatland mapping; low emission development strategies (LEDS); and measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) for climate programs in Indonesia.

Under the peatland and peatland mapping program, the goal of ICCC is to support peatlandmapping and slowing the loss of peatlands, a key cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia.

3rd Edition - April 2013