Indonesia's options in becoming a high-income country: Accelerating the turning point in deforestation?

Abstract

The Indonesian Government has set a target for the country's involvement in the group of high-income countries by 2045 while committing to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, including reducing forest loss. To achieve both targets, the Government plans land-use development with low, inclusive, integrated, and informed emissions, contributing to maintaining economic growth. However, expanding farmland, plantations, and infrastructure projects require converting forest areas to support economic development. A lower profit and the inefficient operation of the current forestry business also motivate a more extensive conversion of forests to other land uses. Improved governance strategies and plans are required to address the complex problems of the local politics, forest management unit, spatial plan, revegetation of ex-mining areas, fire management, watershed management, forestland productivity, social involvement, land- reform, and legal aspects. Improving these governance aspects is crucial to accelerating economic growth and ensuring minimum forest loss. This paper discusses the possibility of achieving a government target to end deforestation and place Indonesia among high-income countries by 2045. This paper indicates that without any improvement in forest management and governance, the Government's target to secure Indonesia as a high-income country by 2045 will be delayed by about ten years, with more significant forest loss. This paper also proposes several enabling strategies to create a minimum forest loss and continuously gain higher per capita income in the forthcoming years.