The environmental services (ES) discourse in Indonesia gained more attention after RUPES Project organized a national ES seminar in February 2004. Conducted at the office of Indonesian National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), the seminar was attended by ES practitioners from many parts of the country. At the end of the seminar, the participants agreed to form a national level network (named COMMITTEES) to enhance thinking and application of ES rewards schemes to protect the environment and improve the welfare of poor farmers in upstream areas. The COMMITTEES members are currently working hand in hand with a number of parties to pass a regulation on ES in Indonesia.

At the field level, a number of non-government organizations have tried to carry out some pilot projects of ES rewards schemes. LP3ES worked in Cidanau (Banten) and Brantas (East Java) in collaboration with WWF and Rekonvasi Bhumi – a local NGO in Banten. In West Lombok (NTB), WWF initiated an agreement between the local water users and upstream farmers at Mount Rinjani over water retribution to help protecting Rinjani watershed. In 2003, RUPES Project started to conduct action research projects in a number of sites in Indonesia: (1) Bungo (Jambi) to examine the possibility rubber eco-certification of rubber from smallholder farmers from their rubber agroforestry systems, (2) Singkarak (West Sumatra) on cooperation to manage the Singkarak Lake, and (3) Sumberjaya (Lampung) by applying community forestry (HKM) scheme and RiverCare program.

Today, ES in Indonesia finds an increasingly significant place at the national discourse as evidenced by the increasing number of collaborative programs in both pilot and implementation levels involving various stakeholders including the government (especially the Ministry of Forestry), local NGOs, national and international research and development agencies