Enviro News Asia, Yogyakarta — The Central Executive Board of The Association of The Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI) emphasized the importance of strong synergy among businesses, academia, and the government to strengthen the forestry sector’s role in the national forest carbon business.
During the Forest Carbon Trade Business Matching: Business, Academic, and Government Synergy for Indonesia’s Climate Action event, held in conjunction with the 62nd Anniversary of The Faculty of Forestry of Universitas Gajah Mada on Wednesday (October 15, 2025), Sugijanto Soewadi, representing APHI, presented Indonesia’s vast potential in the forest carbon business sector.
Sugijanto explained that the potential for carbon reduction and absorption from Indonesia’s production forests reaches 66.24 million tons of CO₂ per year, derived from various Forest Utilization Business Licensing (PBPH) permits. Currently, six PBPH proponents have entered the Verified Carbon Unit (VCU) validation stage under the Verra scheme, with a potential yield of 17.27 million tons of CO₂eq, which is targeted to begin trading by mid-2026.
According to him, the forest carbon business represents a strategic new economic opportunity for Indonesia, particularly given the country’s tropical geography rich in carbon reserves. However, he stressed that this opportunity also presents complex challenges that require strong governance, high accountability, and integrity in every stage of carbon trading.
“The forest carbon business is an environmental conservation business in the global market that demands high integrity. Continuous synergy among stakeholders is essential to maintain market trust,” said Sugijanto.
He also highlighted the need to accelerate regulatory development and policy harmonization, including the revision of Ministerial Regulation of Environment and Forestry (PermenLHK) No. 7/2023 and the formulation of technical guidelines for integrating the National Registry System (SRN) with international voluntary carbon schemes such as Verra and Gold Standard.
APHI hopes that strengthened policies and improved business capacity will accelerate the forestry sector’s contribution to the FOLU Net Sink 2030 national target, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 60 percent of total national emissions. (**)
