Synergy potential between climate change mitigation and forest conservation policies in the Indonesian forest sector: implications for achieving multiple sustainable development objectives

There has been growing interest in achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by identifying effective interactions or synergy potential among measures/policies on sustainable development. The simultaneous implementation of climate change mitigation (SDG 13) and forest protection (SDG 15) is an example of an interaction where the measures/policies that contribute to both goals can be identified and the overlaps eliminated. However, there are limited studies that quantitatively evaluate the synergy potential in the forest sector. This study is the first attempt to examine the synergy potential in the forest sector in Indonesia focusing on climate change mitigation and forest protection. We evaluated four scenarios that differentiated climate and forest policy options and assessed the effectiveness of implementing these two policies simultaneously by 2030, using a computable general equilibrium model and a land-use model. We found that the additional efforts needed for emission reduction were larger for the scenario not considering forest protection than for that considering forest protection. This caused differences in the mitigation measures introduced and the resulting land use that depended on the scenario. Consequently, mitigation costs would be reduced by implementing mitigation and forest protection policies simultaneously, suggesting that the synergy effect in the forest sector in Indonesia does exist. This also implies simultaneous contributions to SDGs 13 and 15 (Targets 13.2 and 15.2). To realize such synergies, which have not yet been considered, it is necessary for policymakers to fill the institutional gaps between the policies/strategies of mitigation and forest conservation and enforce the policies for SDGs.