Abstract
The United States Agency for International Development?s Build Indonesia to Take Care of Nature for Sustainability (BIJAK) project was designed to strengthen the Government of Indonesia?s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through improved forest and conservation area management, and to reduce biodiversity loss by protecting key species. The US$19.6 million project was implemented by Chemonics International Inc. from late 2016 through June 2021, with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Partnership for Government Reform included as subcontractors.
BIJAK?s forest and conservation area management work produced a range of useful work, including digitized conservation area zoning maps and a set of tools to better manage conservation partnerships. Under its species protection work, BIJAK?s assistance helped Indonesia gain the technical capacity required to generate and use scientific evidence to ensure that trading in shark products will not be detrimental to population sustainability.
An additional area of focus was on building constituencies for conservation. This work involved communications outreach campaigns in support of national parks, conservation of the helmeted hornbill, and efforts to encourage bird keepers to choose captive-bred songbirds instead of wild- caught songbirds.