On July 17-19, 2023, the GCF Task Force Indonesia organized a regional meeting in Manokwari, West Papua. While regional meetings are usually reserved for delegates only, we invited partners from NGOs, universities, and private sector representatives to participate in this month’s event. We were also honored to have representatives from Indonesia’s Ministry of Home Affairs and the Indonesia Environment Fund joining in the discussions.
Building on the meeting’s theme of “From Ridge to Reef: Partnership for Forest, Community, and Biodiversity,” delegates and partners gathered to share their stories and lessons learned on their efforts to manage forest, empower community, and preserve biodiversity.
The first two days of the meeting focused on discussions organized through five panels: (i) Policy on subnational contributions to addressing climate change; (ii) GCF Task Force Global Collaboration; (iii) Partnerships for community and biodiversity; (iv) Partnerships for innovation, technology, and information; and (v) Partnerships for investment and private sector participation.
A GCF Task Force delegate-only session was also held on the first day to select new Executive Committee members from Indonesia. Prof. Gusti Hardiasyah (West Kalimantan) and Prof. Charlie Heatubun (West Papua) were selected to represent GCF Task Force Indonesia within the Executive Committee, replacing Prof. Daddy Ruhiyat (East Kalimantan) and Dr. Estiko Wiradyo (Papua) for the upcoming year.
Prof. Charlie Heatubun and Prof. Gusti Hardiasyah
The last day of the event featured an excursion to the Arfak mountain area. The meeting was capped with a visit to Kwau village, where participants met the Kwau people and heard their story about developing ecotourism to support and maintain their nature and culture. We also witnessed the giant banana plant and visited a Bowerbird nest, a species of bird endemic to Papua land.
Key decisions from the meeting included agreement on several workstreams for the GCF Task Force Indonesia in the coming year:
- Capacity building on remote sensing and jurisdiction-based emissions estimates;
- Development of bioeconomy potential; and
- Assistance in access to innovative funding
This meeting also officially launched West Papua’s rumahmitra website: https://rumahmitra.papuabaratprov.go.id/id/, a web-based communication platform for development partners in West Papua to share information on activities they are implementing. The platform is expected to help showcase activities organized by partners in the province, and thus may provide inspiration for further work and/or collaboration, as well as avoid repetition.
See here for additional information about this meeting.