The delegation of the Republic of Indonesia is attending the Fourth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-4), held by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) from 11-15 March 2019. Led by the Ambassador/Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia to the UNEP, H.E. Mr. Soehardjono Sastromihardjo, the delegation presents five initiatives from Indonesia for global environment.
Four of these initiatives have been agreed during the consultation session between Member States during the Open-Ended Committee of Permanent Representatives meetings and are scheduled to be adopted as UNEA-4 Resolutions during the assembly’s closing plenary session on Friday, 15 March 2019.
The second resolution is related to sustainable management of peatlands. As a vital global carbon storage, peatland plays a pivotal role in the global effort to tackle climate change. The resolution is intended to promote international cooperation in sustainable management of peatlands. It calls all actors to cooperate with existing national, regional, and international peatland management organization, including with the newly established International Tropical Peatland Center in Bogor Indonesia.
Sustainable management of Mangrove becomes the focus of the third resolution. Mangrove has a significant role in addressing the impact of climate change and also provide protection from natural disasters such as tropical storms, hurricanes, tsunamis and coastal erosion. Lives of millions of people depend on mangrove forests as their primary source of food and income. Therefore, this resolution encourages member states to prevent conversion, destruction, and over-exploitation of the mangrove ecosystems. Indonesia worked together with Sri Lanka in this resolution.
The fourth draft resolution aims to promote international cooperation in protecting and conserving marine environment. This draft resolution is a follow up from the 2018 Bali Declaration on Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities. This draft resolution calls all actors to enhance capacity building, know-how, lessons learned, knowledge sharing through collaboration and partnerships involving governments, financial institutions, private sector, civil society and experts at the regional and global levels in the protection of coastal and marine ecosystems from land-based activities and sources of pollution.
The last draft resolution discusses sustainable coral reef management. The draft resolution serves as a follow up from the previous UNEA-2 resolution on the same subject. Through the draft resolution, Indonesia invites all Member States to enhance coordination, harmonization, and enforcement of local, regional, and global policy on the conservation and sustainable management of coral reefs. It also encourages member states to produce global report on the status of coral reefs in 2020. Launched as a joint initiative between Indonesia and Monaco, the resolution obtains supports from South Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines.