News – Others

In the context of the Indonesian G20 presidency, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), and the IKI projects Strategic Environmental Dialogues (SUD) and Climate and Biodiversity Hub Indonesia (CLARITY) closely cooperated.

To support the G20 Climate and Sustainability Working Group (CSWG), a study on “Stocktaking of Economic, Social, and Environmental Impacts of Sustainable Recovery” was commissioned by SUD on behalf of BMUV. In the Chair’s Summary of the G20 Joint Environment and Climate Ministers’ Meeting (JECMM), the study receives a special mention, and the opportunities for a green recovery are acknowledged. The Chair’s Summary was published in early September 2022.

As a side event to the JECMM, KLHK – with the support of SUD and CLARITY– hosted the launch event of the “G20 Partnership for Ocean-Based Action for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation” on September 1st, 2022. The event, which served as a kick-off to introduce the voluntary partnership and provided a platform for knowledge and information exchange, was well attended with 50 in-person and 100 online participants. The large participation allowed for a lively discussion on research and innovation on coastal resilience and protection, equal social development, the ocean’s increased sink capacity, and sustainable green-blue economies.

High-level participants included Siti Nurbaya Bakar (Indonesian Minister of Environment and Forestry) and Sakti Wahyu Trenggono (Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries) who opened the workshop via video, as well as representatives from the British, Indian, Brazilian, and German governments. Key speakers were Prof. Nathan Bindoff (Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC SROCC), Mr Victor Gustaaf Manoppo (Director General of Marine Spatial Management), Prof. Kouadio Affian (Advisor Board of UN Ocean Decade), Hide Sakaguchi (President of Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation), and Prof. William Cheung (Director of the Institute for Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia). The closing remarks were delivered by Laksmi Dhewanthi (Director General of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment and Forestry). After the workshop, the British, Brazilian, and Indian representatives expressed their interest in the partnership, especially in the context of the upcoming G20 Presidencies of India and Brazil.

As a next step, KLHK plans to present the ocean partnership at the UNFCCC COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh during side event to introduce the partnership to a broader audience. India, the upcoming G20 Presidency, has already expressed interest in continuing this initiative next year.

Contact person

Jonatan Steinig, Sonny Syahril and Winda Retna Sari — Advisor

Strategic Environmental Dialogues, and Climate & Biodiversity Indonesia

Key buzzwords

“Ocean-partnership”, “climate action”, “marine conservation”, “G20”, “Indonesia”

Food delivery and takeaway are on the rise – accompanied by growing amounts of single-use plastic waste. COVID-19 related restrictions for restaurants and cafés have further contributed to this trend. How to switch to reusable packaging to prevent waste and environmental pollution? A new guide gives ideas for businesses and recommendations for policymakers, based on examples from Asia and Europe. It was prepared by GIZ with support from the TUEWAS Innovation Fund and is now available. In addition, pilot activities to reduce plastic waste are currently on-going in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. Their experiences can be found here.

Food delivery and takeaway are on the rise in urban areas across Asia – a trend further amplified by the COVID-19 related physical distancing measures for restaurants, cafés and other dine-in gastronomy businesses. Typical orders of meals and drinks are accompanied by single-use plastic food containers, cups, cutlery, straws, sauce packages and bags.

The associated plastic waste often ends up at dumpsites and landfills, pollutes the air through open burning or is littered on streets and coastlines, congesting drainage systems or leaking into rivers and the ocean. Public policies in Asia and Europe increasingly pay attention to the issue and seek to reduce or phase out certain single-use plastic products.

Promoting reusable packaging has emerged as a key strategy in this context. If reused enough times, multi-use food and beverage containers, cutlery, straws and bags usually have lower environmental impacts along their life cycle than single-use materials. It can also contribute to savings in material costs for restaurants and takeaway vendors.

A new guide on how to promote reusable packaging, developed by GIZ, now outlines approaches and shows best practices. It gives ideas to businesses such restaurants, takeaway vendors, stores and online food delivery platforms. It also provides recommendations to policymakers. The guide was prepared by several GIZ projects with support of the TUEWAS Innovation Fund.

It is aligned with rapid business innovation that can be observed in the sector. Reuse network operators are emerging as start-up companies, which offer reusable packaging solutions across several restaurants and vendors, thereby facilitating take-back cycles. They innovate in terms of reusable packaging design (stable, stackable, washable, recyclable, etc.), business models (subscriptions by vendors and/or individuals), bring-back incentives(deposit-refund, IT-based solutions with smartphone applications), as well as publicity and partnerships (e.g. cooperation with food delivery platforms and local governments, interactive maps to find participating restaurants). They also promote hygiene standards and contribute to monitoring.

Policy innovations are also taking place. For instance, the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has made a voluntary agreement with food delivery platforms to reduce single-use plastics – contributing to the Thai Roadmap and Action Plan on plastics. The Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry has set requirements for food and beverage service businesses to plan, implement and report single-use plastic reduction as part of its Roadmap to Waste Reduction by Producers. The Chinese Opinions on Further Strengthening the Treatment of Plastic Pollution envisage greener logistics in food and express delivery and include intended bans for certain single-use plastics.

The European Union has banned certain single-use plastic items such as plates, straws, cutlery and Styrofoam food containers, in effect since July 2021. Germany bans single-use plastic carrier bags (15-50 microns) by January 2022 and introduced the obligation for takeaway and food delivery businesses to offer reusable options to customers at a price not more expensive than single-use – starting in January 2023. The ASEAN Regional Action Plan for Combating Marine Debris also includes measures to address single-use plastics.

In this context, several organisations implement pilot activities with support from GIZ’s “Rethinking Plastics” and “CAP SEA” projects and its commissioning parties, among them the German Government and the European Union. In Thailand, the Phuket Environmental Foundation is testing a “Take Pinto” campaign with around 15 restaurants and takeaway vendors to switch to reusable “pinto” boxes. It also includes a community-based delivery application, developed by a team of Chulalongkorn University to improve the conditions for drivers and restaurants. The Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation supports with its “Wala Usik” project 11 restaurants, food stalls, eateries and sari-sari stores in Bacolod and Talisay Cities with advice on single-use plastic alternatives and business development. It has also conducted a circular economy idea competition for start-ups across the country.

The Indonesian Plastic Bag Diet Movement works with traditional markets in Bandung and Banjarmasin cities to switch to reusable carrier bags. It reaches out to market traders and customers and develops approaches for behavioural change. In Malaysia, the start-up venture TAPAUWARE is undergoing an incubation phase for offering reusable packaging to restaurants and takeaway vendors in Shah Alam city. In China, the Shenzhen Universityteams up with the JD Company and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing to promote reusable boxes and bags in express delivery in Haikou City, Hainan Province.

Regional knowledge exchange and cooperation in addressing land-based solid waste leakage  in ASEAN, including the issue of single-use plastic waste will be fostered by GIZ’s “3RproMar (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment)” project,  and all relevant projects in the region that cover the issue are welcome to contribute. The international PREVENT Waste Alliance, whose secretariat is based at GIZ, has created a sub working group on reusable packaging with upcoming pilot activities. It also documents and analyses the experiences of various organisations and contributes to refining approaches for promoting reusable packaging.

Contact person:
Pascal Renaud and Lena Kampe, Advisors, Rethinking Plastics – Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter, renaud@giz.de, lena.kampe@giz.de

• Links:
  • Download link of Guide (we would add it later after final review of the layout)
  • Rethinking Plastics – Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter https://beatplasticpollution.eu/rethinking-plastics/
  • Collaborative Action for Single-Use Plastic Prevention in South-East Asia (CAP-SEA) https://www.thai-german-cooperation.info/en_US/the-collaborative-actions-for-single-use-plastic-prevention-in-south-east-asia-cap-sea/
  • China Integrated Waste Management NAMA https://www.iwm-nama.org/
  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment and Coral Reefs (3RproMar) https://2023.tuewas-asia.org/project/reduce-reuse-recycle-to-protect-the-marine-environment-and-coral-reefs/
  • PREVENT Waste Alliance https://prevent-waste.net/en
• Key buzzwords: plastic, marine litter, circular economy, waste, food delivery, COVID-19, green recovery, sustainable consumption and production

The Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem Services (FES; project duration: 2021-2023) is a follow-on module of the project Himachal Pradesh Forest Ecosystem Services (HP-FES; project duration: 2016-2020). GIZ India is implementing the FES project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand Forest Departments. The project supports the increased orientation of forest management towards FES with a focus on water availability at the partner states. This Technical Cooperation (TC) is an initiative for strengthening the paradigm shift in the forest developmental policies and procedures towards the FES and participatory forest management centric approach, so that forests are managed sustainably for the most important ecosystem services.

One of India’s most important ecoregions are the forest ecosystems of the Western Himalayas. They act as life support systems for millions of people residing in the uplands and lowlands of the Indo-Gangetic plains. The Himalayan forest ecosystems play a larger role in our survival, apart from being a timber source. In addition to a wide array of services critical for sustaining livelihoods, they also provide ecosystem services that enhance the supply of water that flows into streams and larger rivers. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the paradigm shift in the forest developmental policies and procedures that focus on FES and participatory forest management centric approach. The project goal is to strengthen the management of Forest Ecosystem Services (FES) with an emphasis on water availability in the Western Himalayas. It follows a holistic and landscape-related approach i.e., it considers different ecosystem services and extends beyond individual forest areas. It will also ensure the flow of other provisioning and ecologically sensitive tourism services focusing on water. This project is a step towards recognising that the services that emanate from the forest ecosystems are critical to the functioning of our life-support system and human welfare.

Project objective
To strengthen the management of forest ecosystem services with emphasis on water availability in the Western Himalayas.

Project core areas and broader interventions

Expected Outputs

Project Links and Documents

• Indo-German Biodiversity Programme (IGBP)
• Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystem in the Western Himalayas (HIMFES)
• Indo-German Biodiversity Programme Newsletter
• https://indo-germanbiodiversity.com/articles-details-38.html

Keywords

FES, Western Himalayas, Forest Management, Water

Contact Person

Dr. Sanjay Tomar – Senior Advisor and Team Leader (HIMFES)
Indo-German Biodiversity Programme (IGBP)
GIZ India