PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – The Lingkar Temu Kabupaten Lestari (LTKL) underscores the significance of collaborative efforts among stakeholders to actualize sustainable development, prioritizing both environmental conservation and the enhancement of community well-being. In pursuit of this goal, nine member districts of LTKL, spanning six provinces, position themselves as catalysts for the transition to sustainable development through nature-based innovation for key commodities.
This innovative model shifts away from monoculture plantations, such as oil palm, towards diverse nature-based commodities like coffee, cacao, coconut, bamboo, and agroforestry derivatives. These commodities, including patchouli, vanilla, tengkawang, pepper, peat lake cork fish albumin, gambier, and other indigenous Indonesian forest products, contribute significantly to forest and peat maintenance.
LTKL, a district association formed to unite cross-stakeholders in the pursuit of sustainable development, comprises nine districts—Aceh Tamiang, Siak, Kapuas Hulu, Musi Banyuasin, Sanggau, Sintang, Gorontalo, Sigi, and Bone Bolango. These districts collaborate with 27 national partners and over 70 national and local networks, collectively working towards the sustainable management of jurisdictional areas through collaborative actions with diverse partners.
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Towards 2030, LTKL focuses on encouraging a balance between conventional economic models based on monoculture plantations towards new nature-based economic models such as bioeconomy and restorative economy that focus on downstreaming value-added products based on nature and biodiversity managed collectively by local communities including young people. For this reason, the development of green portfolios and the involvement of the private sector including impact and climate investment and financing actors and commodity supply chain actors are crucial in triggering progress in the transformation of sustainable jurisdictions.
“The entire ecosystem in LTKL has created a blueprint for sustainable jurisdictional transformation to achieve readiness to welcome the global market. This is related to the joint commitment of 9 districts to protect at least 50% of forests, peat and important ecosystems with the welfare of 1 million smallholders and local communities in our region. There are five essential pillars in the blueprint, namely planning, policy and regulation, multi-stakeholder governance, innovation and investment, and measuring progress, reporting and communication to expand support,” said H. Husni Merza, BBA, MM, Deputy Regent of Siak as well as Deputy Chairperson of LTKL.
He further explained that since 2018 the proof of recipe, especially related to district readiness to face the global market, has continued to increase.
In terms of partnership innovation, LTKL districts have successfully connected with various local, national and global partners to help district readiness in reducing deforestation, improving supply chain transformation, traceability and preparing investment portfolios for nature-based downstream industries. Until 2023, there are 168 multi-stakeholder partners including the private sector who work together to encourage the readiness of LTKL districts towards sustainability transformation.
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In terms of readiness measurement and monitoring, LTKL has compiled and carried out readiness monitoring through the Regional Competitiveness Framework (KDSD) which is an aggregation of various national and global frameworks that map a series of policies, indicators, and tools to evaluate and improve the competitiveness of a region’s district.
Regarding the readiness of districts to face the global market, Ristika Putri Istanti, Head of the LTKL Secretariat stated that with the many standards and reporting frameworks that districts currently have to face such as Landscale, SourceUp, and RSPO P&C which includes data related to sustainable supply chain transformation, LTKL ensures that districts are currently ready to face whatever standards are given with the 5 pillars prescription modality and monitoring the maturity of collective action in LTKL districts armed with KDSD and Gotong Royong Map.
“Together with its partners, LTKL has identified the potential and readiness of sustainable districts to meet the needs of the global market. Currently, several LTKL districts are seriously preparing investment portfolios and developing downstream industries outside the large plantation commodity model. LTKL districts are aware that there are great economic opportunities by diversifying business models and increasing the portion of green investment in the district so that quality economic growth and environmental resilience, food security, and disaster resilience without forgetting cultural heritage can be realized,” said Ristika in a discussion held by LTKL on the sidelines of the RSPO Roundtable Conference 2023 in Jakarta, Tuesday (21/11).
He further added that there is a new perspective transformation, namely in addition to ensuring supply for the global company market, the district has moved to build value-added products both semi-finished for industrial needs and products for consumers as evidenced by the existence of 21 sustainable investment portfolios in LTKL districts and 36 district local business entities that are transforming into sustainable businesses with a total of 40 superior products, and obtaining investment and funding commitments of up to USD 22.7 million for various nature-based commodity downstream businesses in LTKL districts.
Nature-Based Innovation
Currently, the palm oil industry still plays an important role in the Indonesian economy and absorbs millions of workers. But on the other hand, the economic potential of nature-based solutions such as bioeconomy and bioprospection is very large and relevant to Indonesia’s biodiversity.
