Arief Wijaya

Climate & Forests Senior Manager

Bio

Arief Wijaya is the Climate and Forests Senior Manager of WRI Indonesia, working mainly on Open Climate Network, NDC Partnership, Global Forest Watch, Forest Legality and Global Restoration Initiative. His work focuses on tropical forest landscapes and their impacts on climate change, drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, MRV REDD+, and national GHG accounting.

Prior to joining WRI, he worked at Thünen Institute of International Forestry and Forest Economics in Hamburg, Germany and focused on the analysis of drivers of deforestation/reforestation and spatial modeling of tropical landscape dynamics in the Philippines and Ecuador. Previously, he spent 4 years working at Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) based in Indonesia, and is responsible to integrate socio-economic and spatial data for analyzing drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru, Brazil, Cameroon and Zambia. He was also an observer of UN Climate negotiations, following the progress of REDD+ and climate change mitigation negotiations.

He holds a PhD in Geoinformatics from Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany and MSc in Natural Resources Management from International Institute of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) The Netherlands.

Apart from the work, he loves cooking and enjoys Asian culinary, listening music and watching movies.

Blog Posts

3 Things to Consider Before Moving Indonesia's Capital from Jakarta
by Tjokorda Nirarta "Koni" Samadhi, Arief Wijaya, Reidinar Juliane and Dean Affandi - August 07, 2019
Relocating the capital city could put immense pressure on new areas and might not remedy the flooding and gridlock affecting Jakarta.
Indonesia Is Reducing Deforestation, but Problem Areas Remain
by Arief Wijaya, Tjokorda Nirarta "Koni" Samadhi and Reidinar Juliane - July 24, 2019
While Indonesia is one of few countries actually reducing its deforestation, key provinces are still losing primary forests and peat.
Indonesia's Last Forest Frontier: 3 Facts to Know About Papua
by Muhamad Nafi Andriansyah, Rizky Firmansyah, Arief Wijaya and Josefhine Chitra - November 06, 2018
Papua and West Papua provinces contain some of the world's most biodiverse forests. Recent reforms have pulled forests back from peak tree cover loss in 2015. Here's how they can keep up the conservation while developing sustainably.
Indonesia's Deforestation Dropped 60 Percent in 2017, but There's More to Do
by Hidayah Hamzah, Reidinar Juliane, Tjokorda Nirarta "Koni" Samadhi and Arief Wijaya - August 14, 2018
Indonesia must build on recent reductions in tree cover loss and protections for peatlands. To get there, they'll need more international support, innovative schemes such as peatland restoration and continued monitoring.
3 Ways Governments Can Prevent Fake Data on Forests
by Hidayah Hamzah, Rizky Firmansyah, Arief Wijaya and Surahman Putra - December 05, 2017
Countries considering open data policies have to guard against falsification and misuse, but there are clear ways to avoid these problems.
ASEAN Countries Must Act Together to Confront Climate Change
by Arief Wijaya and Shira Idris - November 16, 2017
The devastating effects of sea level rise and extreme weather events have the potential to result in migration, humanitarian crises and international conflict. By collaborating on mitigation actions now, as a new report suggests, member nations of ASEAN can address these threats.
Balancing Development and Forest Protection in Papua
by Josefhine Chitra, Arief Wijaya and Rizky Firmansyah - October 15, 2017
In Indonesia's easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua, most people welcome the government's commitment to economic development, often in the form of oil palm expansion. But the impact of development can include irreparable deforestation and health crises. It's a delicate balancing act.
Drivers of Deforestation in Indonesia, Inside and Outside Concessions Areas
by Arief Wijaya, Reidinar Juliane, Rizky Firmansyah, Tjokorda Nirarta "Koni" Samadhi and Hidayah Hamzah - July 19, 2017
To help clarify heated debate over what drives deforestation in Indonesia, new analysis of Global Forest Watch data shows that most forest loss -- 55 percent -- occurs in legal concession areas, where some tree removal is allowed, but 45 percent happens outside these areas.
6 Years After Moratorium, Satellite Data Shows Indonesia’s Tropical Forests Remain Threatened
by Arief Wijaya, Reidinar Juliane, Rizky Firmansyah and Octavia Payne - May 24, 2017
Six years after Indonesia passed a forest moratorium aimed at slowing unsustainable agricultural expansion into primary forests and peatlands, tree cover loss remains high, according to the latest satellite data from the University of Maryland and Google, available now on Global Forest Watch.
After Record-Breaking Fires, Can Indonesia’s New Policies Turn Down the Heat?
by Arief Wijaya, Susan Minnemeyer, Reidinar Juliane, Octavia Payne and Andres Chamorro - September 19, 2016
The number of fires burning in Indonesia's forests is 75 percent lower this year than the same time in 2015. Weather and policy changes could be responsible.

External Publications

"A review of land-based greenhouse gas flux estimates in Indonesia."
By Austin Kemen, Harris Nancy, Wijaya Arief, Murdiyarso Daniel, Harvey Thomas, Stolle Fred, Kasibhatla Prasad.
Environmental Research Letters (2018): DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aab531.

"Carbon storage potential in degraded forests of Kalimantan, Indonesia."
By Ferraz António, Saatchi Sassan, Xu Liang, Hagen Stephen, Chave Jerome, Yu Yifan, Meyer Victoria, , Silva Carlos, Roswintiart Orbita, Samboko Ari, Sist Plinio, Walker Sara, Pearson Timothy, Wijaya Arief, Sullivan Franklin B., Rutishauser Ervan, Hoekman Dirk, Ganguly Sangram.
Environmental Research Letters 13 (2018): 095001 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aad782.

"A time for locally driven development in Papua and West Papua."
By Indrawan Mochamad, Sumule Agus, Wijaya Arief, Kapisa Noak, Wanggai Frans, Ahmad Mubariq, Mambai Benja V., Heatubun Charlie D..
Development in Practice (2019): 1-7 DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2019.1609907.

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Arief Wijaya

3 Things to Consider Before Moving Indonesia's Capital from Jakarta

Indonesia Is Reducing Deforestation, but Problem Areas Remain

Indonesia's Last Forest Frontier: 3 Facts to Know About Papua

Indonesia's Deforestation Dropped 60 Percent in 2017, but There's More to Do

3 Ways Governments Can Prevent Fake Data on Forests

ASEAN Countries Must Act Together to Confront Climate Change

Balancing Development and Forest Protection in Papua

Drivers of Deforestation in Indonesia, Inside and Outside Concessions Areas

6 Years After Moratorium, Satellite Data Shows Indonesia’s Tropical Forests Remain Threatened

After Record-Breaking Fires, Can Indonesia’s New Policies Turn Down the Heat?

How Can Indonesia Achieve Its Climate Change Mitigation Goal? An Analysis of Potential Emissions Reductions from Energy and Land-Use Policies

Indonesian Climate Policy and Data in CAIT Indonesia Climate Data Explorer (PINDAI)

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