Understood as a more comprehensive approach to low-emissions development than jurisdictional-scale accounting for REDD+, the Jurisdictional Approach (JA) was seen as a way to address challenges faced by early efforts to implement corporate commitments to deforestation-free supply chains. JA initiatives sought to align government-led, multistakeholder processes within provinces and districts with prospective external incentives for jurisdictional-scale performance.
Over the past several years, the community of JA proponents and practitioners had grown rapidly and coalesced around a common understanding of what the approach entails. Credible, locally led JA initiatives were underway with international support in at least a dozen provinces and districts, and a national platform had been established to link districts that had committed to sustainability. Those initiatives were accompanied by active discourses on proposals for fiscal transfers and preferential market access to provide incentives for improved jurisdictional-scale performance based on indicators such as reduced deforestation.
While it is too early to assess the ability of JA to generate significant results, practitioners have identified a number of constraints. Those include still-limited material incentives for change compared to the factors that drive businessas-usual deforestation, limited availability of spatial data for better land-use planning, low capacity of district-level officials, and misalignment of government policies between subnational and national entities and across ministries. In order to adequately test the JA theory of change, greater emphasis on creating external incentives and linking JA initiatives across jurisdictions and scales is needed to complement the facilitation of activities within individual provinces and districts.
This district profile includes key data related to sustainability in Sintang district in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and and a brief assessment of its progress towards jurisdictional sustainability. The profile has been developed collaboratively by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Sintang Government, Earth Innovation Institute, Sustainable Districts Association (Lingkar Temu Kabupaten Lestari, or LTKL) and the civil society organization coalition Forum Komunikasi Masyarakat Sintang.
Starting to be conceptualised in 2018, Sintang Lestari (Sustainable Sintang) Vision seeks to optimize socio-economic benefits while maintaining integrity of natural resources and the environment. Its key implementing regulation, Sintang Lestari Regional Action Plan (RAD-SL), aims to facilitate a systemic transition to sustainability; it is the basis for government agencies to implement work and strategic plans to achieve this vision. Designed with inputs from various stakeholders and facilitated by Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) Indonesia, RAD-SL has seven “missions” aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with performance indicators, goals/targets, and a roadmap to 2030.
A multi-stakeholder forum (Joint Secretariat, or SekBer) involving representatives from the local government, CSOs and its Forum, indigenous peoples, and the private sectorhas been established as a transparent institutional governance system to encourage the implementation of RAD-SL, improve local government capacity, and bridge communication between stakeholders.
The Terpercaya study, led by the European Forest Institute’s EU REDD Facility and Yayasan Inovasi Bumi (Inobu), aims to build shared understanding of what jurisdictional sustainability is in Indonesia, and what indicators can best measure and track progress towards jurisdictional sustainability in a transparent way. This briefing outlines the indicators selected under Terpercaya to track progress, how they differ from other standards, and the approach taken to develop a consensus on the indicators, through the involvement of a multistakeholder advisory committee.
The 22 selected indicators are grounded in Indonesian law and designed to both evaluate the performance of the jurisdictions and demonstrate the benefits of sustainable and inclusive commodity production. The indicators are grouped into environmental, social, economic and governance categories and reflect the priorities and concerns of consumers, and of the Indonesian government, people and producers. They represent a means for promoting and improving market access, while supporting sustainable and inclusive economic growth throughout Indonesia.
This document aims to introduce the jurisdictional approach (JA) and its potential to accelerate the implementation of national priority agendas in Indonesia in its medium-term development plan (RPJMN) for the period of 2020-2024, particularly to achieve sustainable food and agricultural production. Jurisdiction-based multistakeholder approach is offered as an innovative new development model to assist Indonesia achieve SDGs, from the initial perspective of sustainable food and agriculture. The concept note was formulated through a series of meetings and discussions with CSOs facilitated by Indonesia’s Sustainable Districts Association Lingkar Temu Kabupaten Lestari (LTKL) to provide inputs to Indonesia’s National Development Agency (Bappenas).
The concept note elaborates on the definition and components of JA, including the lens of sustainable commodities used in its development, and the benefits and beneficiaries of JA for sustainable food and. It also discusses existing legal basis for the approach in Indonesia, enabling preconditions for its success, and examples from various JA initiatives developed by developmental partners and CSOs throughout Indonesia. Section 6 will provide the reasoning behind the proposal to use this while also demonstrating its potential for other sectors in the future.
This paper focuses on the Rio Branco Declaration (RBD) and the 30 first-order subnational jurisdictions located in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Peru that signed it between 2014 and 2018, committing to reduce deforestation 80% by 2020, conditional upon adequate support from the international community. The authors assess each study jurisdiction’s progress toward that commitment in terms of reducing deforestation, and examine a subset of the potential factors supporting or slowing progress, including the existence of commensurate targets within jurisdictions’ legal frameworks and the international financial support pledged to jurisdictions.
The authors found that progress toward achieving the target was slow and likely unattainable in most jurisdictions outside of Brazil. Among the four jurisdictions likely to achieve the target under current deforestation trajectories, only Mato Grosso State has a target within its legal framework that is more ambitious than the RBD target. They also found that the international response to the RBD was sluggish and likely inadequate – with only one financial pledge made in direct response to the declaration and the majority of funding to support jurisdictional efforts coming from one source. The authors explore what may explain individual jurisdictions’ performance with respect to the target, including specific jurisdictional circumstances, national context, and international support.
This case study looks into private sector engagement in the Siak Pelalawan Landscape Programme (SPLP), which currently comprises eight palm oil producers, traders, and downstream buyers, namely namely Cargill, Danone, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), L’Oréal, Musim Mas, Neste, PepsiCo, and Unilever, in the Siak and Pelalawan districts in Riau province, Indonesia. The Coalition has been facilitated by Proforest and Daemeter Consulting, who also implement the programme.
Several key lessons for future private sector engagement in jurisdictional initiatives were identified. First, companies find collaboration on achieving a common goal in general attractive and efficient. The presence of a neutral convener is seen as essential to build trust within the coalitions as well as bridge trust with other stakeholder groups to allow real engagement and collaboration to take place. While SPLP activities are funded and implemented by its members, the mainstreaming of local government’s commitment to sustainable land use into policies is also highlighted as key to ensuring jurisdictionwide impact related to sustainable palm production. Companies interested in jurisdictional initiatives should be ready to commit for an extended period, as building coalitions takes time.