Dr Riza Suarga, Chairman of the Indonesia Carbon Trade Association (IDCTA), has a long career in Indonesia’s forestry sector which began with work in a timber plantation. He crossed the fence, so to speak, in the 2000s after finishing his PhD thesis on illegal logging, converting former enemies at Greenpeace and WWF into allies along the way.

Today, alongside his position at the IDCTA where he works on communicating the needs of the carbon market to the government and vice versa, he’s also the President & CEO of Agraus Resources, a carbon investment firm.

I spoke to Dr Riza to get his thoughts on whether changes to carbon regulations are afoot, with the new Indonesian administration due to be sworn in later this year.

Here are some highlights:
- The new administration under the leadership of Prabowo Subianto, is likely to favour the voluntary carbon market to hit Indonesia's emissions targets, rather than a result-based payment scheme
- The lack of clarity as to how the presidential decree 98/2021 will be implemented is unavoidable as the regulators themselves are learning how to govern the nascent carbon market
- IDCTA is lobbying for the national registry to accept carbon credits issued by both international and domestic standards; buyers should have a choice
- On-ground sentiment is shifting in favour of conservation: most forestry companies in Indonesia prefer to participate in the carbon market, rather than the timber market
- Doubt on the integrity of deforestation avoidance carbon credits is having a perverse effect on conservation

Read the writeup of the interview on Medium.

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