Indonesian Local Biodiversity Outlook: A Complementary Report on the Implementation of Global Biodiversity Targets

(Jakarta, June 29, 2026) Historically, the Local Biodiversity Outlook (LBO) was first produced in 2016 as a complementary publication to the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-4). It has since served as a primary resource detailing the actions and contributions of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in achieving the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The foundational report was the culmination of a collaborative effort between the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity, the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network, the Centres of Distinction on Indigenous and Local Knowledge, the Forest Peoples Programme, and the CBD Secretariat.

Operating at the forefront of mainstreaming rights-based conservation, the Working Group ICCAs Indonesia (WGII) has officially launched the drafting process for the Indonesian Local Biodiversity Outlook (LBO). This independent, community-driven report will critically examine the implementation of Indonesia’s commitments to protecting biodiversity. The launch concurrently marks the opening of a Call for Contribution, an open invitation extended to individuals and collectives, ranging from academics, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), practitioners, and journalists, to grassroots community facilitators across the archipelago, to partake in the LBO’s formulation.

The LBO is designed as a complementary report to the government’s official state reporting on the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF). Diverging from national reports, which predominantly center on macro-level policy achievements, the LBO embeds the localized perspectives of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. It seeks to document community-based conservation practices and provide an ethnographic evaluation of how these global commitments manifest, or fail to manifest, in grassroots realities.

Lasti Fardilla Noor, Knowledge Management Manager at WGII, articulated that the LBO’s formulation is intended to ensure that the values, lived experiences, and territorial protection practices embedded within IPLCs become an instrumental component of the global conservation epistemology.

“The Local Biodiversity Outlook is a vital bridge for the narratives of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. We are translating grassroots realities into credible, factual documentation that complements the national portrait, ensuring that the community’s contributions to achieving global biodiversity targets are scientifically recognized. We will submit this document through the official CBD platform. The LBO does not merely curate inspiring ethnographic accounts; it functions as a critical space for reflection and correction regarding policy implementation, particularly within the Indonesian context,” Lasti remarked.

The drafting of the LBO is rooted in the conviction that evaluating biodiversity commitments cannot rely solely on quantitative administrative metrics; it must holistically assess the socio-ecological impacts on communities whose very livelihoods are inextricably linked to natural cycles and environmental conditions. Consequently, the report centers the localized knowledge systems, empirical experiences, and customary practices of IPLCs as the primary epistemological framework for assessing the efficacy of KM-GBF implementation in Indonesia.

This urgency becomes glaringly apparent given the paradoxes contemporary conservation policies produce in the field. On one hand, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities routinely face systemic alienation and restricted access to their customary domains under the guise of the fortress conservation paradigm. According to participatory mapping conducted by the Indonesian Community Mapping Network (JKPP), a staggering 5,760,731.06 hectares of the people’s living spaces, encompassing Indigenous territories and community-managed areas, have been unilaterally claimed as state conservation areas since the enactment of Law No. 5 of 1990. Conversely, these very same forest landscapes are frequently burdened by extractive industry permits, driving deforestation, severe ecological degradation, and catastrophic biodiversity loss.

Through the Call for Contribution, WGII invites a diverse array of rightsholders and stakeholders; academics, researchers, CSOs, journalists, students, and regional community facilitators across Indonesia, to contribute via written analyses, empirical data provision, case studies, and the documentation of community-driven conservation practices. The synthesized contributions will form the empirical foundation of the Indonesian LBO, which will subsequently be presented to the CBD Secretariat, serving to amplify the voices of Indonesian civil society within global diplomatic arenas.

“In anticipation of CBD COP 17, we are cultivating expansive spaces for various actors, academics, NGOs, and especially Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, to narrate and document their lived practices. Through the LBO editorial board, localized field initiatives are synthesized into empirical evidence demonstrating that IPLCs are the inseparable, primary agents of conservation,” Lasti added.

Ultimately, WGII envisions the LBO as more than a supplementary document for international reporting mechanisms; it is an advocacy instrument designed to enrich the critical evaluation of conservation policies in Indonesia. By centering the perspectives and lived realities of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, the LBO endeavors to foster a framework of biodiversity governance that is more accountable, inclusive, and equitable.