Realizing Sustainability: An Analysis of Agroforestry Policy Coherence in Indonesia in the Forestry, Agriculture, and Environment Sectors

Indonesia, which has the third most tropical forests in the world, is at the forefront of finding and fighting for a balance between climate change and food security. Agroforestry is a land use practice that has great potential to carry out this nature-based role, but its maximum benefits can be limited by uncoordinated policies in the forestry, agriculture, and environmental sectors. This paper examines policy inconsistencies and suggests structural improvements for sustainable governance. Analyzing nine key regulations (1999-2021) using the Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD) framework, content analysis, and coherence matrix, complemented by empirical deforestation trend analysis, reveals significant vertical, horizontal, and internal misalignments. Critical findings include the absence of a clear agroforestry definition in regulations and lack of cooperation between forestry and agricultural sectors, particularly between Forestry Law No. 41/1999 and Agriculture Law No. 22/2019. This authority overlap complicates bureaucracy, obscures law, and perpetuates deforestation, hindering agroforestry's contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 2, 13, and 15. The study contributes to literature by applying a policy coherence approach to agroforestry governance, shifting focus from previously emphasized technical and economic aspects to governance integration, while linking policy incoherence directly to tangible deforestation outcomes. This research has significance not only for Indonesia, but also for other countries facing similar governance challenges, as it offers a methodological framework for policy coherence analysis that can be applied to other contexts. The report emphasizes that regulatory harmonization and inter-ministerial institutional cooperation are essential to enhance agroforestry's contribution to sustainable development. The study proposes the implementation of integrated strategies to strengthen environmental sustainability, food security, and resilience to climate change by ensuring policy alignment and institutional reforms.