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.

Indonesia is an archipelago with significant variations in natural resources, infrastructure, socioeconomic, culture, human resource capacity, accessibility, and access to financial and technical assistance. In this situation, integrated and unique efforts are needed to manage natural resources and build synergy between their protection and utilization to achieve water, energy, and food (WEF) security in accordance with the SDG targets. This paper analyzes the implementations of the WEF nexus in rural Indonesia by examining existing legal frameworks and other related policies, journals, textbooks, and publications. We explore factors influencing the success and failure of the implementation of the WEF nexus approaches from technical, socioeconomic, cultural, political, and institutional perspectives of the rural development framework.

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.

Planning is one of the very important stages in the micro watershed management. Difficulties and failures in the management of micro watershed are often caused by failures in the building of participatory planning processes with the community as well as a collaborative mechanism with relevant parties. This action research aims to find the applicable processes or stages of participatory planning based on the experience and evaluation of existing processes. The research was carried out in the Naruan micro watershed, Keduang sub-watershed, Bengawan Solo upper watershed. Some lessons learned that can be found from this research are as follows: 1) detailed baseline data related to the potential and vulnerability characteristics of micro watershed is very important to be understood before planning process; 2) micro watershed planning process cannot fully rely on community participation, but it should be a combination of top-down and participatory mechanism; 3) top-down planning is related to the provision of proper land management guidelines in the upstream area; 4) participatory planning is carried out when preparing of land use plans, determining the appropriate types of soil and water conservation activities, as well as identifying the resources contribution from the community as a form of participation; 5) collaborative action plans are needed to be built with relevant parties to support integrative and sustainable micro watershed management.

Upstream watershed management that is not suitable for its carrying capacity causes watershed degradation, shown by the land degradation and landslides in the upstream area (on-site), sedimentation, flooding, and drought in the downstream area (off-site). One of the disaster mitigation efforts is the implementation of soil and water conservation in the upstream watershed, which requires community participation. Generally, community participation is still passive participation. The research aimed to identify community participation in soil and water conservation, and efforts to increase community participation in mitigating hydro-meteorological disasters. The research was conducted in the Micro Naruan Catchment, upstream of the Keduang Sub Watershed, the Bengawan Solo Watershed. Data were collected through observation, in-depth interviews, and Focus Group Discussions. The data are community perceptions of soil and water conservation, local wisdom related to soil and water conservation, and community participation of soil and water conservation activities from planning to evaluation. As mitigation efforts, soil and water conservation activities include planting perennial crops and controlling surface and gully erosion. The results show that: 1) people in the upstream watershed do not fully understand the linkages between upstream and downstream in the watershed; 2) community participation in soil and water conservation is not yet optimal; and 3) the community has local wisdom in soil and water conservation. To increase community participation in soil and water conservation, it is recommended that the techniques and patterns applied are not only to reduce disaster risk but also to improve the community’s economy.