LAUSR

The National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) of the Republic of Indonesia recently announced that 2017 was the most devastating year in terms of total number of disaster occurrences. It was the first time in 15 years that the total number of disasters reached 2317 events. Among the many types of disasters, the most deadly were landslides. According to BNPB, there were 438 landslide events that resulted in 95 deaths, 132 injuries, 43,416 who suffered and were displaced, and more than 1500 houses damaged. The condition does not appear to be declining. The Asia Pacific region is the most vulnerable region in the world to various hazards. In the future, this situation will be further aggravated by the negative impacts of climate change. The occurrence of deaths, casualties, and other losses was due to––among others––the unavailability of early warning systems, the carrying capacity constraints of nature that is becoming more vulnerable, and combined with limited community awareness by those that live in the precarious areas. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) has laid the foundation for improving community resilience, as affirmed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11 and 13. The fundamental role that science and technology can play both in preventing and in mitigating the consequences of landslides must be highlighted and taken into account in national and international agendas concerning natural hazard risks. Landslide risk reduction is both possible and feasible if the science and management technologies related to this type of hazard are properly applied. The contribution that the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) brings in this domain is most welcome and appropriate. The consortium is a coherent, global network, which harnesses landslide science and technology expertise for vulnerability reduction so as to contribute to making our settlements and communities safer. Competent entities in Indonesia have been associated with the ICL since its early days and participate in its many activities. The Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) of the Republic of Indonesia is an Agency of the Government of Indonesia in charge for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics whose mandate includes rainfall monitoring and forecasting, and the early warning of landslides and whose fundamental task is to contribute to the mitigation of rain-induced landslide disaster risks in Indonesia. As such, we support the ICL and we are committed to work closely with and within ICL in order to help achieve the objectives of the consortium. We recognize that through ICL, and through the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 for Global Promotion of Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk (SP2015), new opportunities have been and will be created for international cooperation and exchange in landslide science and technology. With this in mind, it is our intention to develop and enhance collaboration between BMKG and ICL. We feel that this collaboration can facilitate the strengthening of the agency’s contribution to landslide risk reduction in Indonesia, in Asia, and at the global level. To this end, we have established a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICL and BMKG in April 2018. The purpose of this MOU is to provide a framework of cooperation and to facilitate collaboration between our two Organizations, in areas of common interest. Through the MoU, both parties would mutually benefit and develop their cooperation in areas of common concern, for the benefit of landslide hazard-prone communities in Indonesia and worldwide. ICL and other landslide-related knowledge platforms do offer to all competent international and national organizations opportunities to continue to work for landslide disaster risk reduction as a contribution to the implementation of the three major global instruments that are the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We hope that a MoU between ICL and BMKG will pave the way and serve as an incentive for other national entities to follow suit and adopt similar arrangements with ICL. In this context, we welcome plans underway to organize the Fifth World Landslide Forum (WLF5) in Kyoto, Japan, to review SP2015 and to develop a wider and long-term global alliance working throughout and after SP2015. To realize the global alliance, we furthermore support the promotion of the Kyoto 2020 Commitment for Global Promotion of Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk (KC2020), the concept of which was endorsed at the Fourth World Landslide Forum held in Ljubljana in 2017. This commitment will hopefully feature the WLF5. We believe that its implementation must be an imperative in pursuing efforts to contribute to the assessment and mitigation of landslide disaster risk. It is hoped that it will mobilize new partnerships which draw together stakeholders from all levels of society, across different regions, sectors and disciplines, including governments and local governments in landslide prone areas, academic and scientific communities, NGOs, international organizations, and local communities, all of whom are concerned with landslide risk. Sustained cooperation and exchange between countries at a governmental level is needed if we are to promote in a sustainable way landslide risk reduction for resilience. Therefore, it is time to consider the timeliness and opportunity of having in place a platform or a mechanism at an intergovernmental level which would work to advise, strengthen, and support decisions and initiatives on landslide risk reduction. This mechanism will enhance synergetic and concerted efforts