Climate change is a major challenge for Indonesia due to its impact on food, water, energy sustainability, and environmental health. Almost all Indonesian regions are exposed to floods, landslides, soil erosion, drought, and heavy rains. In response to these challenges, the Government of Indonesia has determined integrated watershed management (IWM) to be one of the key programs to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as stated in the updated Indonesian nationally determined contribution (NDC). This paper intends to review Indonesia′s efforts in mitigating and adapting to climate change through an IWM approach, and its attempts to realize a decent life and environment for all communities. Improvement of the IWM can be conducted by strengthening the synergy between the responsible institutions for watershed management and the responsible institutions for handling mitigation and adaptation of climate change impacts. In addition, it is important to prioritize coordination, participation, and collaboration not only at the national government level but also at the international level, since numerous problems may exist in the transboundary between countries, and finding solutions should involve planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Implementing the micro watershed model (MWM), supported by culture, local wisdom, and traditional knowledge in communities, can be used to improve the current IWM.

In Indonesia, 2145 watersheds currently need to be restored, where around 21 million people spread over ± 23,000 villages live below the poverty line with a high dependence on forests. This condition requires an integrated approach in watershed management, which is aimed at technically restoring environmental conditions and ensuring the welfare of the people in it. One of the strategic approaches that can be taken is to revive local wisdom and traditional knowledge (TK), which has been eroded and neglected, and integrate them with technical approaches based on modern science and knowledge. Based on the author’s research and literature studies, this paper discusses the theoretical framework and implementation practices in integrating traditional knowledge into a science-based sociotechnical system to manage upstream watersheds sustainably. Based on the empirical evidence, efforts to create good biophysical and socio-economic watershed conditions can only be achieved through the active participation of farmers in adopting and integrating scientific technology into their traditional knowledge. This integration is realized in designing and implementing watershed management technology by considering the principles of suitability, applicability, feasibility, and acceptability. In the long term, it is necessary to document TK, patent it, and transfer it to the next generation to ensure that indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ social, cultural, and economic interests are protected.

Indonesian watershed management continues to struggle with various problems caused by natural disasters, particularly hydrometeorological disasters, which are worsened by the effects of climate change. Coordinating and synchronizing the interest of many parties in watershed management with various scenarios of natural conditions is a big challenge in the creation of a healthy and productive watershed. Multiple initiatives have been undertaken, from establishing rules and policies to implementing them and assessing the effects, leading to various lessons being learned for better management. This article presents a study on watershed management in Indonesia and recommends alternative improvements toward healthy and productive watershed management. A combination of a descriptive qualitative analysis of the authors’ experience in various research activities and a critical analysis is used to examine existing conditions and to formulate recommendations for better sustainable management toward a healthy and productive watershed. Most Indonesian watersheds are susceptible to degradation due to numerous threats. The challenges in Indonesian watershed management, including land degradation and climate-induced disasters, lack of synchronization and coordination, limited resources, and anthropogenic factors, have led to decreased watershed health and productivity and hindered effective management. Integrated management, especially at the micro-watershed level, addresses these challenges. Successful integrated watershed management requires community involvement, appropriate management action for specific locations, technological support, regulatory alignment, and stakeholder collaboration to ensure a healthy, productive, and sustainable watershed for present and future generations.

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world, with 17,000 islands of varying sizes and elevations, from lowlands to very high mountains, stretching more than 5000 km eastward from Sabang in Aceh to Merauke in Papua. Although occupying only 1.3% of the world’s land area, Indonesia possesses the third-largest rainforest and the second-highest level of biodiversity, with very high species diversity and endemism. However, during the last two decades, Indonesia has been known as a country with a high level of deforestation, a producer of smoke from burning forests and land, and a producer of carbon emissions. The aim of this paper is to review the environmental history and the long process of Indonesian forest management towards achieving environmental sustainability and community welfare. To do this, we analyze the milestones of Indonesian forest management history, present and future challenges, and provide strategic recommendations toward a viable Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) system. Our review showed that the history of forestry management in Indonesia has evolved through a long process, especially related to contestation over the control of natural resources and supporting policies and regulations. During the process, many efforts have been applied to reduce the deforestation rate, such as a moratorium on permitting primary natural forest and peat land, land rehabilitation and soil conservation, environmental protection, and other significant regulations. Therefore, these efforts should be maintained and improved continuously in the future due to their significant positive impacts on a variety of forest areas toward the achievement of viable SFM. Finally, we conclude that the Indonesian government has struggled to formulate sustainable forest management policies that balance economic, ecological, and social needs, among others, through developing and implementing social forestry instruments, developing and implementing human resource capacity, increasing community literacy, strengthening forest governance by eliminating ambiguity and overlapping regulations, simplification of bureaucracy, revitalization of traditional wisdom, and fair law enforcement.

Dominated by mountainous topography, high rainfall, and erosion-sensitive soil types, and with the majority of its population living in rural areas as farmers, most of Indonesia’s watersheds are highly vulnerable to erosion. In 1984, the Government of Indonesia established 22 priority watersheds to be handled, which marked the start of formal soil and water conservation activities. Although it has not fully succeeded in improving watershed conditions from all aspects, something which is indicated by fluctuations in the area of degraded land, over the past 40 years the Indonesian government has systematically implemented various soil and water conservation techniques in various areas with the support of policies, laws and regulations, and research and development. These systematic efforts have shown positive results, with a 40% reduction in the area of degraded land over the last 15 years from 2004–2018. This paper reviews policy, implementation, and research and development of soil and water conservation activities in Indonesia over the last 40 years from the 1980s to 2020 and explores the dynamics of the activities.