Integrated Water Resources Conservation Management for a Sustainable Food Security

Abstract

Many of Indonesia’s watersheds are reaching a critical stage. As a result of higher rates of erosion and sedimentation, the number of critical watersheds in Indonesia has increased from 22 in 1984 to 58 in 2000 and in 2014 this number has reached 108. This result in food security is being threatened because there is insufficient water available for agriculture purposes due to catchment degradation, especially in the upper parts of the watersheds. At the same time, Indonesia’s new government focused its national development programs on food security for the next five years. For these reasons Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency believes that it is timely to develop a national policy on Integrated Water Conservation Management (IWCM). To provide the rationale and suggested content for such a national policy, this paper has been prepared based onfocused group discussions with relevant interests at the national and regional levels. To obtain specific input from regional stakeholders, workshops were held in Medan, Yogyakarta, Banjarmasin, Nusa Tenggara Barat and Makassar as well as line agencies based in the state capital of Jakarta from October 2014 to March 2015. At the landscape level, the formulation of national policy on IWCM was based on integrated watershed management analysis as water resources within a specific watershed are integrated into other resources within an ecosystem. This action research recommends the following: a) integrating the IWCM into the regular regional development activities, b) encouraging local agreements on water resource conservation including local adat communities, c) formulating attractive economic incentives in implementing IWCM programs, d) using corporate social responsibility and payment for environment services funding to boost water resource conservation program at village level, and e) involving actively women in the IWCM programs. Considering that socio-cultural aspects are also playing an important role in the IWCM, a national-level of institutional arrangement on IWCM will also be proposed. Keywords: IWCM; food security; green and blue water; watershed; institutional arrangement; Indonesia

A National Policy on Indonesia’s Integrated Water Resource Conservation Management

“…The multi-stakeholder discussion series, which was conducted in five major Indonesian cities, reached the conclusion that other problems included institutional coordination and synchronization (local, regional, and central), as well as integration of water resource conservation programs (this research is consistent with that of Barbosa et al, 2017). Furthermore, an integrated national policy is proposed (Asdak & Munawir, 2017) to reduce the gap between policies and programs for the conservation of water resources. The following are the adopted water policies that were modified and combined with the local culture in Indonesia.…”

“…For the reasons listed below (Asdak & Munawir, 2017;Asdak, 2015;Ackermann, 2012;Hardy & Koontz, 2010;Lenton and Muller, 2009;Bressers and Kuks, 2004), the following IWCM challenges remain prevalent in many countries, including Indonesia: • Due to disturbed upstream watersheds, there is concern for food security as there is insufficient water available for agriculture. • High rates of erosion at many catchments and sedimentation in major rivers are causing a threat to water resource infrastructure and having an impact on the economy.…”

“…This study uses these parameters to develop an IWCM approach for Indonesia: a. Stakeholder participation This participation is formed in a focused group discussion (FGD) with a penta-helix approach. A different perspective can be seen from this stage, and it is very useful to have a strong policy formulation that accommodates all of these points of view (Asdak & Munawir, 2017).…”

Assessment of Air Bengkulu (Indonesia) watershed based on agroecosystem landscape quality and sustainable land use plan

“…Many of Indonesia's watersheds were at the level of a degraded phase. The total critical of the watersheds in Indonesia had raised from 22 in 1984 to 58 in 2000 and in 2014 the deteriorated watershed had touched 108 (Asdak and Munawir, 2017) one of them is Air Bengkulu Watershed (Mase. 2020).…”