72049719RFI00001_-_Notice_of_Information_New_Environment_Activity.pdf

72049719RFI00001

SPECIAL NOTICE: Notice of Information

USAID/Indonesia: *New Environment Activity*

Reference Number: USAID/Indonesia – *New Environment Activity*

Release Date: August 7, 2019

The United States Agency for International Development Mission to Indonesia (USAID/Indonesia) is in the process of designing a new stand‐alone program to reduce the threats to biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use in Indonesia. USAID/Indonesia is distributing this Notice of

Information to provide information to the public interested in USAID’s support for the new program.

USAID/Indonesia held a meeting on July 15, 2019, at the Menara Peninsula Hotel, Jakarta, to present

USAID's strategic objectives for the new environment activity program and receive feedback from various stakeholders. The meeting focused on six questions provided in the Request for

Information/Sources Sought Notice (see Attachment 1, Section II) released on June 17, 2019. The meeting was attended by more than 40 representatives from government institutions, Non‐

Governmental Organizations, private sector, and other development partners. A summary of stakeholder input has been provided in the Appendix to this Notice for information purposes only.

This notice is not a Request for Proposals, a Request for Quotations, a Request for Information, an

Invitation for Bids, a Solicitation, or an indication that USAID/Indonesia will contract for the items contained in this Special Notice. This Notice is an attempt to share information broadly and will be treated as information only. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. If a solicitation is issued, it will be announced at www.fbo.gov at a later date, and all interested parties must respond to that announcement separately from any response to this announcement. This Special Notice does not restrict the Government's acquisition approach on a future solicitation.

Thank you for your assistance and interest in USAID programs.

Sincerely, /s/

Albert E. Carrera

Contracting Officer

Appendix

Summary of stakeholder input on July 15, 2019

1. Where and to what extent do biodiversity threats across Indonesia align with historical and projected greenhouse gas emissions from land use? What criteria or methodology should be employed by USAID to inform the geographic focus of this proposed Environment Activity?

The locations across Indonesia where biodiversity threats have high alignment with historical and projected greenhouse gas emissions are:

1. Sumatra

2. Kalimantan

3. Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda

4. Papua

Stakeholders expressed different opinions in ranking those locations. Stakeholders in the first session considered the size of remaining forest as the most important ranking criteria. Stakeholders in the second session considered the level of threats and vulnerability as the most important ranking criteria. Thus, the participants in the first session had Papua as the highest priority and the participants in the second session had Sumatra as the highest priority.

The criteria that USAID should employ (not in order of importance) to determine the geographic focus of the new program are:

1. Level of threat, vulnerability and uniqueness;

2. Relationship between biodiversity and carbon stock;

3. Size of forests;

4. Commitment of subnational government to sustainable development, green growth, and other sustainability/conservation initiatives;

5. Meta population of endangered species; and,

6. Number of donor and/or development partner that work on the same issues in the locations.

2. What are examples of sustainable and scalable approaches that USAID can implement to reduce threats to biodiversity conservation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use in

Indonesia? What approaches to reduce threats to biodiversity conservation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use in Indonesia have been overlooked or discarded by development partners and should be revisited?

● General approach

USAID should design its new activity by considering landscape characteristics first. Since the activity targets biodiversity conservation, it shouldn’t be restricted by political jurisdiction.

Later on, a jurisdictional approach can be used as a framework. For any approach, understanding local context will be crucial. These include local political context and development direction, particularly related to natural resources. Development and implementation of a communication strategy is important, using local language on development. It is important to note that development is inevitable. However, any development should by design. USAID should promote this regardless of the approach.

Notable examples are green growth plans and landscape project in South Sumatera. Multi‐ stakeholder fora informed by valid data and evidence, backed by knowledge sharing and models which can inform for the consequences of development scenarios in the jurisdictional/ intervention areas.

● Jurisdictional approach

‐ Binding political commitment/will: Implementing and binding political commitment/will of the local government can be done using legal mechanisms issued by the local government.

The local government can create and issue written regulations through district or provincial regulation not through governor or head of district regulation. This will ensure that changes in political dynamics will not easily change reforms.

‐ Agreement across jurisdictions applied on one landscape: Regarding endangered and endemic animals that migrate across jurisdictions, it’s best to establish wildlife management agreements across jurisdictions so that one landscape will have the same regulations regarding endangered or endemic species.

‐ Governance and management: Both governance and management should be implemented in unison, if not then it can’t be implemented effectively. Good governance will exist with good management. Principles of good governance include: accountability, participation, transparency, and responsibility.

‐ Focus on efforts to build local government, private sector and community understanding that business development should be an integral part of long‐term business planning.

● Landscape approach

‐ Jurisdictional approach and landscape approach can’t be separated.

‐ A jurisdictional framework is needed to implement landscape approach.

‐ Landscape based assessment can be used as a tool to design intervention in jurisdictional framework.

‐ Social forestry in clustered landscape can play a major role in any terrestrial biodiversity and climate change mitigation program.

‐ There is a growing interest from government for forest landscape restoration. USAID could support in many forms of activities including support to social forestry and forest management unit.

‐ Landscape approach needs multi stakeholders commitment. Identifying who should be the leading sector in landscape intervention is important for effective landscape governance.

‐ A landscape approach should integrate spatial planning, governance, and systems development for monitoring landscape performance.

● Fiscal and non‐fiscal policy

‐ Develop clear mechanism of fiscal and non‐fiscal policy at all levels of forest and land use governance. These should include incentives and dis‐incentives mechanisms to promote good governance and good management.

‐ Private sector needs an incentive structure to implement sustainable management. One example is restoration ecosystem concession which needs incentives to improve their development. Tax benefits are one form of incentives.

● Law enforcement

‐ Law enforcement will be key issue to facilitate integrated land use and economic development.

‐ Local communities need to be protected through policies that recognize community rights.

3. In Indonesia, what constraints face subnational governments when implementing sustainable development, green growth plans, and biodiversity conservation programs? What innovations can be adopted to better align resources with evolving political will?

The main constraints of subnational government:

1. Unclear and overlap authority as well as contradictory policy on many aspects of land use management, including planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, licensing, and law enforcement.

2. Lack of capacity, including intra and inter agency coordination within the government, and coordination with other stakeholders outside the government (e.g. private sector and community).

3. High poverty rate and corruption

Innovation

1. Integrate the indicators of sustainable development, conservation and other environment‐ friendly initiatives into national and regional mid‐term development or management plan.

2. Develop and implement fiscal and non‐fiscal incentives, such as ecological fiscal transfer, blended finance, and performance based mechanisms (e.g. REDD+, BLU).

3. Strengthen the capacity of stakeholders that are involved in planning, budgeting, implementing, and managing the initiatives, including government, private sector, and community. This includes capacity on sustainable economic livelihood development, awareness of the importance of a sustainable environment.

4. What approaches to engage smallholders have proven successful in improving sustainable rural livelihoods that also protect biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use in

Indonesia?

● Supply chain: smallholders should be fully engaged in the supply chain, i.e. commodity production (community empowerment program, social forestry, opportunity to standardize certificate for premium market and price, capacity building), finance access, market access, and other enabling environment to support the supply chain;

● Planning: smallholders should be fully involved in the project design phase: need identification, mapping, and business plan;

● Synergy, integration, and coordination: land use management must involve multiple expertise, authorities, and resources.

5. How and where can USAID engage best with the private sector to advance biodiversity conservation, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from land use, and sustainable commodity production in Indonesia?

● Where:

1. Extractive industry

2. Rehabilitating mining areas, non‐timber forest products, spices commodities.

3. In the areas where high conservation value forest aligns with sub‐national government commitment on sustainability.

4. Sumatra and Kalimantan.

● How:

1. Integrated management

Develop integrated program to sustainably manage and protect biodiversity in conservation areas (e.g. national parks, wildlife reserves, nature reserves etc.), protection areas of private sector, and other land uses. This program can employ landscape approach, jurisdiction approach, watersheds approach, ecosystem essential or other approaches.

2. Create enabling environments

Facilitate to create enabling environments that will increase the commitment of the private sector and drive them to be more environmentally‐friendly. Developing and/or strengthening policy and incentives instruments for implementing sustainable practices

(i.e. tenure security, sustainable supply chain mechanism) at national and subnational levels are relevant examples. Another example is developing accountable and transparent communication platform between the Government of Indonesia, private sector, and other relevant stakeholders to discuss and promote sustainable practices.

3. Promoting environmentally‐friendly practices

Promote the adoption of sustainable practices in private sector operations, including protection of High Conservation Value (HCV) areas, Reduced Impact Logging for climate change mitigation (RIL‐C), responsible sourcing, sustainable certification, etc. Another example is changing the mindset of stakeholders from volume‐based production to value‐ based production, and from extensification to intensification productions.

4. Strengthening law and policy enforcement

Facilitate to strengthen the implementation of existing laws and policies related to sustainable and responsible business practices, including ensuring the compliance of private sector to those laws and policies, and prosecuting forest crimes.

5. Collaboration

Collaborate with private sector and other relevant stakeholders in research and development on sustainability and in a joint program for the community that can contribute to the improvement of biodiversity conservation within and around the concessions of private sector, including social forestry program.

6. To what extent does gender equality and women's empowerment in forest and land management groups affect biodiversity conservation and sustainable environmental governance outcomes in

Indonesia? What are examples of sustainable and scalable initiatives to promote gender‐ responsive programs in biodiversity conservation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from land use in Indonesia?

● Inclusive decision making processes and the involvement of women and marginal groups in biodiversity conservation and greenhouse gas emissions reduction should be more intensive, particularly in developing regulation and policy. Development of many regulations and policies related to those issues did not involve women and marginal groups, even though they are directly impacted by the regulations and policies. As a result, many of those regulations and policies are not optimal when implemented.

● There is a need to build a cadre of skilled facilitators to advise women and marginal groups to be more involved in forest conservation. Women and marginal groups have existing local wisdom in protecting forests and in sustainable forest use. Inherited knowledge and practices that are proven successful to protect biodiversity from generation to generation should be maximized in biodiversity conservation.

● The efforts in mainstreaming gender on women and marginal groups empowerment should be conducted with considering cultural and norm sensitivities of each location. Thus, it will not place those groups in vulnerable and dangerous positions, but it will optimize their roles in achieving biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management.