Anticipating Environmental Change in Development Planning for the Archipelago of Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is an archipelagic country comprised of seventeen thousand islands in an expansive marine area in the tropics. Thousands of mountains and hills, both on land and under the sea, are a geological consequence of being located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.” Being situated here has meant that different parts of the country are periodically subjected to disasters, including earthquakes and tsunamis. As a result, the more than 200 million people now inhabiting both the large and very small islands in the region have developed strategies to survive by anticipating and adapting to changing local conditions. Throughout its history Indonesia has lived with environmental hazards and disasters—great losses were suffered not only by the poor and those living in remote areas but also by the relatively wealthy who live in major cities. Since the 1980s, development policies of the country began to incorporate environmental issues, and the environmental impact of infrastructural development programs began to be examined carefully before implementation. Development considerations should include anticipation of the impacts of both tsunamis as well as climate change. In the past, planning for environmental impacts was separate from development planning. Recently, however, Indonesia’s National Development Planning Institution started integrating all sectors into a single National Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation. This paper elaborates the changing awareness of environmental issues, outlines development problems, and recommends further improvements to reflect the complex changes already occurring in ocean-island settlements in this archipelagic region.