?They lie to us,? said a frustrated farmer as researchers trekked tropical forests in Jambi Province in Sumatra, Indonesia. ?Those people neither care about the nature nor our livelihoods.? He described the forest encroachment activities a logging company has been doing there since the last decade. The company had killed alligators to clear paths to the woods, and put a ?Beware of alligators. Keep out!? sign. Clearly, they want no one to witness their illegal logging deeds.

Such discovery occurred during a United Nations REDD+ (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation & Degradation) field work to conduct Total Economic Valuation (TEV) study as part of understanding villagers? dependency on the environment to support life. It indicated that a significant 75% of their household cash and non-cash income came from ecosystem products and services (Sukhdev, 2013). These products include timber, fruits, and animals for food, while services include water purification, biodiversity, flood prevention, and wind protection.

Since 1990s, many TEV studies have been done throughout Indonesia. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) found US$ 34.3 million market value to 1.8 million-hectare Leuser Mountain, while United States Aid for Indonesia (USAID) concluded US$ 1 million yearly value in Bukit Baka-Raya National Park in Kalimantan. Assuming present IDR-USD conversion rate, West Java?s Tangkuban Perahu Mountain has a US$ 83 billion timber and tourism potential value for the next three decades. Combined with its forest products and ecosystem services values, these are the ?real price? of the mountain?s ecosystem, as well as ?real cost? that could be invested to conserve it (Nunens, 2004).

This is closely-linked with a fact by Greenpeace, that Indonesia received the Guinness World Record as world?s fastest deforestation country, with 300 football field-sized forests gone each hour for palm oil. It is one of – if not the – key challenge in realizing greener Indonesian economy. According to Gusti Muhammad Hatta, the former Indonesian Environment Minister, our definition of green economy is a development paradigm in which resources efficiency, sustainable consumption and production pattern, and internalization of the externalities come together.

Such extraction of forest and tourism activities may impact to ecological disequilibrium, leading to economic impacts if negative externalities (exclusion of environmental cost to production expenses) propel market failure and supply-demand imbalance. To suffice a sustainable economy, there should be an independent organization to conduct ecosystem TEV research and conferences, then build relationships with consumer and financial markets (Carroll, 2009).