The Ministry of Forestry endorsement moves GREEN for Riau one step closer to an ART-TREES roadmap and high-integrity forest carbon finance.
PEKANBARU, Riau, 7 September 2026 — The Government of Riau today marked a major step in its GREEN for Riau Initiative, advancing its preparations to pursue implementation under the REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES), administered by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), at jurisdictional scale.
It formally received an endorsement letter from the Ministry of Forestry to support its ambitions. Riau is now on a pioneering path to become the first Indonesian province to implement ART-TREES, setting a practical benchmark for other provinces and supporting Indonesia’s wider development of a high-integrity forest carbon market. The Ministry’s support forms part of broader efforts to advance technical and institutional readiness, safeguards, and governance in line with national policy.
“This is a significant milestone for Riau,” said S.F. Hariyanto, Acting Governor of Riau. “Our ambition is to protect forests and peatlands while creating real opportunities for communities. By building one transparent provincial system, we aim to ensure that climate finance rewards measurable results, upholds strong safeguards and supports the people whose stewardship makes those results possible.”
Over 7–8 September, a connected series of engagements brings together provincial and national authorities, the United Nations, development partners, UK and Norwegian Embassy officials, communities, technical experts and potential buyers. These engagements combine high-level dialogue, technical consultations, a community site visit and a meeting with market participants. Together, these activities examine the foundations needed to strengthen jurisdictional REDD+ and open access to various results-based finance and carbon market schemes, in line with national policy and applicable standard requirements. This includes developing a provincial-scale Forest Reference Emission Level (FREL) consistent with the national FREL and national MRV system, social and environmental safeguards, an equitable benefit-sharing mechanism, and clear rules for nesting projects and community-led action within one jurisdictional accounting framework. A draft Operational Guidance Note for Riau’s jurisdictional REDD+ nesting and accounting framework will be presented and consulted on during these events.
"Riau's efforts to strengthen its readiness for jurisdictional REDD+ are commendable. However, environmental and social integrity must be a foundation from the outset. This includes a reference level and MRV system consistent with the national framework, robust social and environmental safeguards, and clear benefit-sharing," said Haruni Krisnawati, Expert Staff to the Minister for Climate Change, Ministry of Forestry. "Riau's experience can offer an important lesson for other provinces developing credible jurisdictional REDD+ as they consider high-integrity pathways in Indonesia.”
This work is also aligned with Indonesia's National Action Plan on Gender Mainstreaming and Social Inclusion in Climate Change (RAN-GPI). "Women are not only recipients of climate impacts, but also agents and leaders of change. Green development must ensure that women and vulnerable groups are engaged, heard, protected, and able to benefit," said Arifatul Choiri Fauzi, Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection of the Republic of Indonesia.
This readiness milestone comes during Sumatra's dry season, when the risk of forest and peatland fires and associated haze is particularly high. These seasonal risks underscore why protecting standing forests and peatland—and shifting from emergency response toward sustained prevention, restoring water governance, rewetting degraded peatland ecosystems and improving land and water management—are central to reducing Riau’s long-term fire and emissions risks.
“Protecting these forests is about far more than carbon; it is about water, public health, and long-term resilience for the people of Riau,” said Gita Sabharwal, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Indonesia. “That is why Riau’s approach matters: it shows how climate ambition, forest protection, community well-being, and investment can reinforce one another, while helping Indonesia set a global standard for high-integrity jurisdictional forest action.”
The GREEN for Riau Initiative is supported by the UN-REDD Programme through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with funding from the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The initiative has supported technical dialogue, institutional coordination and early analytical work on reference levels, safeguards and nesting, with the aim of translating international integrity requirements and Indonesian policy into an operational provincial approach.
“This marks a major milestone for Riau and other ART-TREES pilot provinces. It demonstrates how climate ambition can be translated into results,” said Peter Rajadiston, Minister-Counsellor (Development) at the British Embassy Jakarta.
The UK is proud to support Indonesia and Riau to advance sustainable development and deliver our shared priorities under the UK-Indonesia Strategic Partnership on Climate, Energy and Nature. Riau has the opportunity to demonstrate how robust peatland emissions accounting and effective nesting can align private sector projects within a credible jurisdictional framework. This is essential for ensuring integrity, boosting investor confidence, supporting premium pricing for high-quality credits, and attracting long-term private investment into forests and local communities."
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Notes to editors
- Riau’s pathway remains subject to completion and validation of technical requirements, stakeholder consultation, and the applicable ART-TREES registration, validation and verification processes.
- GREEN for Riau is a provincial initiative supported through the UN-REDD Programme, with funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, to strengthen Riau’s readiness for high-integrity jurisdictional REDD+ and forest carbon finance.
- ART-TREES provides requirements for quantifying, monitoring, reporting and verifying jurisdictional REDD+ emission reductions and removals, alongside environmental and social safeguards. Riau’s participation and any future issuance remain subject to the standard’s applicable processes and decisions.
- “Nesting” refers to the alignment of carbon accounting and claims across jurisdictional, project and community scales so that mitigation outcomes are transparently reconciled and not double counted. The draft Riau REDD+ Nesting and Accounting Framework is an internal proposal for discussion and validation. Its provisions should not be described as final policy until formally adopted by the competent authorities. The draft proposes a common provincial accounting architecture designed to reconcile jurisdictional, project, concession and community-level mitigation outcomes, helping ensure that each emission reduction or removal is accounted for once. It also sets out possible pathways for direct project crediting, jurisdictional crediting with community benefit-sharing, and provincial government-led crediting.
- Riau contains extensive forests and about 4.9 million hectares of peatland, making the province important to Indonesia’s climate and land-use goals. The emerging framework aims to align with Indonesia’s FOLU Net Sink 2030 ambition and the development of Carbon Economic Value in the forestry sector. Nesting arrangements are needed to maintain consistency in accounting while reducing the risk of overlapping claims among programmes operating at different scales.
- Event: From Readiness to Market: GREEN for Riau’s Jurisdictional ART-TREES Journey, Pekanbaru, Riau, 7–8 September 2026. The series of events includes a high-level discussion on transparent and inclusive REDD+ implementation; a public consultation on Riau’s Forest Reference Emission Level; a field visit to the Imbo Putui Customary Forest; technical meetings on benefit-sharing and the draft nesting guidance; and a dialogue with potential buyers on demand, priorities and integrity criteria. Together, the sessions are intended to identify remaining requirements, strengthen stakeholder ownership and align Riau’s future supply of high-integrity forest carbon credits with market expectations.
