Location

Gorontalo Province, Indonesia

Gorontalo is a province in Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi. Local residents have been engaged in corn production, and recently they have produced other kinds of commodity crops, such as cacao. The area was susceptible to flooding, but the forests used to mitigate some effects.

 

Issue

Increasing risk of floods due to loss of forest

Frequent forest fires and a decrease in forest area due to climate change have hampered the farmers’ livelihoods in Gorontalo Province, Indonesia. When forests are lost due to forest fire, the ecosystem services they provide are also lost; it includes the loss of the forest's flood mitigation function, which makes it vulnerable to flooding.

 

Solution / Lesson learned

Ecosystem conservation and disaster information system

In response to this situation, international assistance was provided. The project was adopted as the REDD+ Project using Joint Crediting Mechanism and was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance adaptive capacity. It aimed at restoring forest and thereby decreasing the risk of flooding in the area. Also, the disaster information system provides better information related to disaster risks to local residents. The project is executed in collaboration with a local conglomerate, the Gobel Group, which is a partner in the REDD+ Project. The Japanese company Kanematsu Corporation implemented the ecosystem conservation project, and a flood simulator called DioVISTA/Flood was used by Hitachi Ltd. These supports have led to gradual forest restoration and reduced flood risks, and improved the resilience of the local population.