The impact of climate change and natural disasters on food security in Indonesia: lessons learned on preserving forests sustainability

Abstract

Food security is one of the main goals in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG’s). Food security, natural disasters, and climate change are thought to be interrelated. Climate change contributes to natural disasters such as floods, landslides, drought, land and forest fires, resulting in reduced food production, increased food prices, and disrupted access to food distribution. Ultimately, the impacts of climate change and natural disasters are one of the main causes of hunger and affect all dimensions of food security. This study aimed to analyze the impact of climate change, natural disasters, and other determinants on food security in Indonesia using the Tobit regression. The data used was from 33 provinces in 2010-2018. Climate change was proxied by rainfall, while natural disasters were proxied by the frequency of natural disasters and facility damage due to disasters. The results showed that food crop production, GRDP per capita, and the average years of schooling had a significant effect on increasing food security. Meanwhile, rainfall and deforestation had a significant effect on reducing food security. On the other hand, although not significant, the frequency and damage to facilities due to natural disasters harms food security. The results of this study confirmed the importance of preserving forest biodiversity as an effort to achieve food security as seen from the negative effects of rainfall and deforestation on food security. In this case, deforestation was one of the contributors to climate change which in turn had an impact on the intensity of natural disasters. To achieve food security for the achievement of the SDGs, policies to reduce deforestation or forest conversion need attention as one of the efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change and natural disasters.