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Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. ANTARA/HO-Biro Pers Setpres/Muchlis Jr/aa/FR - 

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan encouraged nations worldwide to collaborate in the fight against the impacts of climate change through real action.

During the Major Economies Forum Ministerial Meeting on Energy and Climate on Thursday, Pandjaitan also underscored Indonesia's commitment to fighting against the impacts of climate change and deforestation.

"Indonesia continues to commit and contribute through strong efforts in ensuring the forest management practice and in protecting and managing natural resources," he noted through a statement on Friday.

"We call for cooperation with nations in the world in pursuit of sustainable forest management," he affirmed.

Pandjaitan also highlighted Indonesia's support to combating the impacts of climate change.

One such support is through the Global Blended Finance alliance to support health, digital, and environmental sustainability that will be discussed in Bali in April while welcoming the G20 Summit.

To ensure a sustainable future, a path should be outlined for developing countries to have in place an innovative financing scheme and adequate technology to create new breakthroughs, he affirmed.

"In the direction of fulfilling this ambition, Indonesia has invited various nations to unveil the Global Blended Finance Alliance," he noted.

Moreover, the minister explained that Indonesia had 120 million hectares of forests, thereby constituting the third-biggest tropical forest in the world.

According to Pandjaitan, within the last five years, the government had made various efforts to streamline sustainable forest management through a policy ecosystem.

The endeavors encompass forest land management, such as the resolution of palm oil plantation in forest areas that refers to the President's Instruction on the Sustainable Palm Oil Plantation Work Plan for 2019-2024 period.

The second involves forest fire prevention and rehabilitation through reformation in forest and land fire control and policies.

"In 2020, forest fires in Indonesia had declined significantly by up to 82 percent from the previous year," he noted.

The minister also stated that verification was the key component of the policy ecosystem.

"Currently, Indonesia has prepared an integrated system, Wood Legality Verification System (SVLK), to ensure that Indonesia conducts effective forest management," he elaborated.

The fourth concerns creating room for the people's participation, such as developing a program to secure the forest and to provide 12.7 million hectares of forests until 2024 for the local residents.

"These four policy elements have significantly reduced the pace of deforestation to its lowest level within the last 20 years," Pandjaitan highlighted.

"In 2020, deforestation had reached 115 thousand hectares, or declined by 75 percent, as compared to that during the previous year," he added//ANT