Program Overview

WRI Indonesia is an independent research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. At WRI Indonesia, we aim to bring innovations in research and business approaches in order to create the enabling conditions for Indonesia to achieve robust economic growth while respecting environmental and social values. We seek to contribute to the accomplishment of ambitious sustainable development goals through working with leaders in public and private sectors, as well as collaborating with civil society organizations, in turning big ideas into action.

Within our Food, Land, and Water (FLW) Program, we envision critical ecosystems such as forests and peatland across Indonesia to be governed fairly and sustainably. We believe sustainable land use management is key for Indonesia to meet its climate goal, in line with keeping the global climate target below the 1.5 degree Celcius warming threshold, while providing sustainable livelihoods to forest-dependent communities and conserve biodiversity in the landscape. We intend to achieve this through safeguarding the remaining forest and peatland from deforestation, degradation, and fragmentation; maintaining forests and peatland quality through sound stewardship; and restoring degraded ecosystem to improve its productivity, conservation value, and ecosystem services.

To achieve Indonesia’s climate goal while at the same time improving the livelihood of the communities and protecting biodiversity, we work together with partners to mainstream nature-based solutions (NbS) as an approach to address global climate challenge. We aim to achieve this through research, policy advocacy, and creation of a community of practice to develop new financing model for forest conservation, advocate regulatory framework that are conducive for NbS approach, and development of multi-stakeholder platform to amplify and accelerate NbS approach in Indonesia and South East Asia region.

Southeast Asia Climate and Nature-based Solution (SCeNe) Coalition

WRI Indonesia has joined with 7 other NGOs to form the Southeast Asia Climate and Nature-based Solution (SCeNe) Coalition in recognition of the scale of action required, the time-bound opportunity for impact and the risks to people and nature if we do not act collaboratively to speed up and scale up design and implementation of high-integrity and high- quality NbS. The extensive experience of these environmental NGOs in the development and execution of NbS offers a powerful, shared platform to inform and influence this rapidly growing sector. In the first three years, the Coalition will focus on three inter-connected workstreams that together will scale NbS in the region: i) define the opportunities of where ‘triple benefit’ NbS investment should be made; ii) showcase high-integrity projects to inspire others; and iii) support national and local organizations to access carbon finance and secure funds for conservation.

The SCeNe Coalition is aimed to develop Triple Benefit Tools and Website for Southeast Asia Climate and Nature-based Solution (SCeNe) Coalition. Triple Benefit Tool will help to identify high impact of future NbS opportunities, ensuring a targeted pipeline of NbS supply that focuses on geographies with the highest conservation, social development and carbon potential. This tool will also help to validate triple benefit quality, giving the projects additional scientific credibility; to ensure finance is flowing transparently; and to increase ecosystem participation.