[Jakarta, 29 November 2018] In their vision and mission, Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidate Pair No. 2 in Indonesia’s 2019 Election, Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno, claim that they will actively contribute to addressing global climate change in accordance with Indonesia’s circumstances. However, they have not yet demonstrated concrete steps to realize this commitment, nor have they shown readiness to tackle the root causes of climate change in Indonesia—namely, massive deforestation and peatland destruction driven by weak forest and land sector governance.
These findings were presented during the event “Election Talk 2019: Examining Presidential Candidates’ Visions and Missions”, organized by Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan at Kedai Tjikini, Jakarta, on 29 November 2018.
This conclusion was drawn from Madani’s analysis of the document titled “Four Pillars for Indonesia’s Prosperity: Prosperity Together with Prabowo–Sandi”, published by Prabowo–Sandi’s National Campaign Team under the Indonesia Adil Makmur Coalition. The document outlines the pair’s vision and mission should they be elected in 2019.
The proportion of sustainable environmental governance within the document is only 17.6%, with breakdowns as follows:
sustainable forest management: 8.1%
land tenure inequality: 2%
renewable energy: 1.4%
law enforcement: 6.1%
Notably, commitments related to peatland protection, disaster mitigation, industrial pollution, palm oil plantations, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights are entirely absent.
Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan appreciates the stated intention to improve environmental conditions through forest rehabilitation, restoration of degraded lands and watersheds, and a moratorium on expired land-use rights (HGU/HGB). However, these proposed solutions risk exacerbating land inequality and accelerating monoculture plantation expansion, given the commitment to rehabilitate degraded forests into industrial timber plantations.
“This indicates that the Prabowo–Sandi pair has not yet fully understood Indonesia’s environmental challenges and lacks a clear concept of development without destruction,” said Teguh Surya, Executive Director of Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan.
As business actors, both Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno are involved in palm oil plantation companies, including PT Tidar Kerinci Agung owned by Prabowo and PT Provident Agro Tbk linked to Sandi. Unfortunately, improving palm oil governance is not addressed, despite sustainable palm oil being a major topic of both national and global debate in terms of economics, smallholders, and environmental impacts.
Corruption in natural resource governance is closely linked to limited public information access, particularly in forestry. Therefore, governance reforms must begin with ensuring transparency and open public access to information, as stressed by Forest Watch Indonesia Executive Director, Soelthon Nanggara.
“The next government must truly prioritize transparency. In natural resource governance, the public needs not only openness in licensing systems, but also monitoring and evaluation of impacts. Transparency must be comprehensive—not only information disclosure, but access to documents along with maps. What matters most is not the existence of transparency regulations, but how public institutions actually implement open data and information access for society.”
Beyond transparency, climate action must also be accelerated through the energy sector. Nuly Nazlia, Finance and Operations Director at Koaksi Indonesia, emphasized the importance of strong commitments from the elected President and Vice President to accelerate energy transition by making renewable energy and energy efficiency the first choice in national electricity planning, based on local potential and supported by policy, financing, technology, and human resource capacity-building.
“Biofuel policies as part of renewable energy must be monitored and evaluated from upstream to downstream, ensuring they do not focus solely on economic interests but also account for social and environmental dimensions,” Nuly said.
She further stressed that commitments to sustainable development must be reflected in improved energy governance that upholds accountability, transparency, public participation, law enforcement, and a just transition away from fossil fuels based on comprehensive recovery efforts.
Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan urges both candidate pairs to:
Strengthen commitments to continue and enhance previous environmental protection and governance policies, particularly regarding law enforcement, peatland recovery, palm oil governance reform, Indigenous Peoples’ rights protection, and corruption prevention.
Avoid land rehabilitation through industrial timber plantations and commit to halting large-scale monoculture plantation expansion.
Reinforce commitments and work seriously toward greenhouse gas emission reduction targets as stated in Indonesia’s NDC.
Commit clearly to phasing out fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy sources that are not land-based, while ensuring technology transfer so communities can adopt renewable energy independently.
Media Contacts
Muhammad Teguh Surya
Executive Director, Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan
teguh.surya@madaniberkelanjutan.id | +62 819-1519-1979Melodya Apriliana
Digital Communication Campaigner, Yayasan Madani Berkelanjutan
melodya.a@madaniberkelanjutan.id | +62 838-4227-2452
