2030: East Kalimantan Targets 108 New Climate Villages

Through the Climate Village Program, the government and people are identifying the impacts and threats of climate change as well as planning actions that can be jointly implemented.

KOMPAS/SUCIPTO

Tourists in Liu Mulang Village, Long Pahangai District, East Kalimantan, take a ketinting boat to go to the Danum Usan River, a tributary of the Mahakam River, Tuesday (10/12/2019)

BALIKPAPAN, KOMPAS — Since 2018, East Kalimantan has set up 92 climate villages. The 2030 target is the formation of 200 climate villages in East Kalimantan.

The Climate Village Program (Proklim) is the national program of the Environment and Forestry Ministry (KLHK). This program aims at increasing public involvement in climate-change adaptation and mitigation efforts. Besides, through this program, the promotion of public welfare is sought along with the proper anticipation of climate change.

“Based on data, 108 climate villages are left of East Kalimantan’s 2030 target,” said East Kalimantan Deputy Governor Hadi Mulyadi on Friday (9/12/2022).

The Proklim in East Kalimantan has been underway since 2018. Until 2022, a total of 92 climate villages have been formed in nine regencies/cities in East Kalimantan. These villages are scattered over Balikpapan (22 villages), Samarinda (14), Bontang (2), Kutai Kartanegara (18), Berau (10), Paser (13), East Kutai (6), West Kutai (6) and North Penajam Paser (1).

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With the climate villages, the government and people join hands in identifying the impacts and threats of climate change that may be faced by local residents. They later jointly draw up programs to be implemented together. The programs are also projected to produce sustainable economic benefits for residents.

The climate-change mitigation activities undertaken in climate villages include programs for the control of droughts, floods and landslides; the strengthening of food resilience; and the anticipation of rising sea level, tidal floods, sea water intrusion, abrasion and ablation or erosion caused by winds and high waves. There are also the control of climate-related diseases and other activities that can increase climate-change adaptation.

Previously, East Kalimantan Regional Secretary Sri Wahyuni said the provincial administration was committed to make the green economy part of the regional-development program. This has the aim of preventing the development in East Kalimantan from worsening greenhouse-gas emissions and impacting climate-crisis mitigation.

Green economy

Through various studies, according to Sri, the East Kalimantan provincial administration will include the green-economy perspective in its 2024-2025 regional-developing planning. The green economy in East Kalimantan’s regional development is seen as very important for the anticipation of massive development in the future.

This is because her administration predicts that the development of the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) will also have an impact on East Kalimantan’s development. For instance, the population of East Kalimantan is predicted to increase as a lot of people get closer to the IKN. The building of residential areas is also foreseen to be rising.

KOMPAS/SUCIPTO (CIP) 24-11-2020

Aerial photo of Muara Enggelam Village, one of the climate villages in Muara Wis District, Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, Sunday (11/24/2019)

For this reason, said Sri, the concept of environmentally friendly development would be required to reduce the risk of environmental destruction.

Some time ago, East Kalimantan received US$20.9 million from the World Bank. The fund was provided because East Kalimantan was assessed as having reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by the equivalent of 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Carbon Fund (FCPF-CF) Program.

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The success, added Sri, was thanks to several steps taken since 2010, including the provincial administration’s various regulations to enhance environment-oriented development.

“The regulations were implemented via different environmentally friendly development programs by the regional administration as well as companies operating in East Kalimantan,” Sri said.

Thousands of Prokim locations

Director General of Climate Change Mitigation of the KLHK, Ruandha Agung Sugardiman, said the government at present continued to intensify climate change mitigation and adaptation actions in the COVID-19 pandemic-recovery period. The government is also shifting the focus of policies and programs in the sectors of energy, waste, industry, agriculture and forestry (Kompas, 7/1/2021).

Proklim has become one of the climate-change adaptation efforts conducted by the KLHK at the local level. The main components of Proklim are climate-change adaption and mitigation.

Today there are more than 3,000 Proklim locations in villages and subdistricts. In 2024, the target was the formation of 20,000 climate villages.

In order to encourage target achievement, the KLHK has included the Proklim indicator in the evaluation of Adipura environment awardees. The assessment based on the Proklim indicator began in 2022.

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.