Background

Governments across the Asia–Pacific region are increasingly prioritizing nature-based solutions (NBS) and carbon finance as strategic instruments to advance climate mitigation, sustainable development, and resilience. Blue carbon ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrasses, and tidal marshes, play a critical role in carbon sequestration and contribute to achieving global climate and biodiversity goals.

Despite growing policy interest, challenges remain in ensuring inclusive governance, equitable benefit-sharing, and effective participation of local communities and sub-national governments in blue carbon initiatives.

Objectives:

The regional learning event aims to strengthen policy coherence, institutional capacity, and cross-level coordination across the blue carbon value chain, with a specific focus on elevating the role of local governments and communities as key actors, rights-holders, and beneficiaries in blue carbon finance and implementation.

Specifically, the event will provide a platform for participants to mutually benefit from country experiences, learn from existing initiatives in Indonesia and in other countries where available, and explore potential approaches to scale. Emphasis will be on the practical approaches for designing and implementing blue carbon finance initiatives or mechanisms that empower community participation, ensure fair benefit-sharing, and strengthen local stewardship, while remaining credible, scalable, and aligned with national development and climate priorities.

The objectives of the event are as follows:

• Share lessons learned in planning, designing and/or implementing blue carbon finance projects in different countries, with a specific focus on the experiences of the host country, Indonesia.
• Discuss the opportunities and the difficulties encountered during design and implementation (some may be technical, while others may be policy-related).
• Exchange lessons learned on the governance arrangements around blue carbon finance, including countries’ efforts in terms of policies, planning processes, and local participation in blue carbon finance.
• Identify capacities required at different levels of governance (local, national, regional) for sustainable and inclusive blue carbon finance, based on Indonesia’s experience.
• Explore opportunities for building a regional network and a capacity development agenda for blue carbon.

Contact:

Lucya Yamin, Team Support Assistant, CDE

Email: l.yamin@cifor-icraf.org

Daniel Murdiyarso

Senior Associate • CIFOR-ICRAF

Biography

Daniel Murdiyarso, is currently a Senior Associate after serving Center for International Forestry Research – World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) for more than 22 years. Up until 31 December 2025 he held a position of Principal Scientist at the institute. His first degree in Forestry was obtained from Bogor Agricultural University (IPB University), Indonesia in 1977, and his PhD from the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK was awarded in 1985. Since 1997 he was a full Professor of Atmospheric Science at the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, IPB University until he retired in October 2025.

Dr Murdiyarso received several prestigious awards/prizes, including Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 2022; The Habibie Prize from the foundation of the 3rd  President of the Republic of Indonesia, 2020; The Sarwono Award, dedicated to the founder of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, in 2018; The Achmad Bakrie Award of Science Category for Scientific Achievement and Promotion on Science-Policy Dialogues, in 2010; and part of the Nobel Peace Prize Winning IPCC in 2007 as Convening Lead Author of IPCC Reports.

His research works are related to land-use change and biogeochemical cycles, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and wetland science. He has published more than 150 articles in high impact peer-reviewed journals with more than 30,000 citations, resulting in h-index of 79 in 2025. Among other tools he contributed to developing are (i) Protocol for the MRV of Carbon Stocks and GHG Emissions in Tropical Peatlands, (ii) Protocol for the MRV of Carbon Stocks and GHG Emissions in Mangrove Forests, (iii) Field and Laboratory Manual for Unsupported 210Pb Analyses. Dr Murdiyarso played key roles in the establishment of the International Tropical Peatland Center, and World Mangrove Center. He is the founder of Blue Carbon Deck, a Transformative Partnership Platform established at CIFOR-ICRAF.

He served the Government of Indonesia as Deputy Minister of Environment for 2 years, during which he was also the national focal point of the UNFCCC and CBD. Since 2002 Professor Murdiyarso has been a member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (AIPI) and elected as the President of AIPI in 2023 to take the office until 2028.