Tandan Kosong Kelapa Sawit (TKKS) merupakan sekitar 21% dari total limbah olahan kelapa sawit dan memiliki kandungan hara yang potensial untuk dimanfaatkan sebagai pupuk organik. Kendala utama pemanfaatannya adalah tingginya kandungan lignin, namun hal ini dapat diatasi melalui penggunaan mikrobakteri pengurai yang tepat. Teknologi pengolahan TKKS telah diujicobakan oleh petani dampingan Proyek SFITAL di tujuh desa dengan hasil yang menjanjikan.
Bagi pekebun sawit swadaya, kemitraan dengan perusahaan sangat diperlukan untuk memperkuat proses pengolahan dan pemanfaatan TKKS secara optimal. Hasil studi kelayakan usaha menunjukkan bahwa bisnis pupuk organik berbasis TKKS memiliki prospek ekonomi yang baik dengan simulasi usaha hingga 10 tahun, sekaligus mendukung pertanian berkelanjutan di Kabupaten Labuhanbatu Utara.
Tag: community development
Menuju pembangunan kelapa sawit berkelanjutan yang inklusif. Peran lembaga dalam libatkan gender dan generasi muda
Studi yang melibatkan informan dari 37 lembaga, termasuk pemerintah kabupaten, provinsi, pusat, lembaga pendidikan, penelitian, usaha, dan kelompok masyarakat, telah menemukan bahwa 12 lembaga telah mengakomodasi isu gender dan generasi muda dalam pengembangan agroforestri. Upaya tersebut umumnya hadir dalam bentuk kebijakan maupun program terkait agroforestri dan pengelolaan kawasan bernilai konservasi (KSB).
Namun, belum ada lembaga yang secara khusus mengintegrasikan isu gender dan generasi muda dalam kebijakan atau program yang berfokus pada agroforestri kelapa sawit. Kondisi ini menunjukkan adanya celah kebijakan sekaligus peluang strategis. Melalui koordinasi dan kolaborasi antarlembaga, pengembangan kebijakan atau program agroforestri kelapa sawit yang lebih inklusif dan berkeadilan dapat didorong untuk mendukung keberlanjutan pengelolaan lanskap.
Transformative Land Investment (TLI): An Introduction to the Approach and Tools
The Transformative Land Investment (TLI) programme provides a practical framework for improving the design, implementation, and governance of land-based investments in agriculture and forestry. Recognizing that investments often operate in landscapes characterized by social vulnerability, environmental sensitivity, and competing interests, TLI promotes continuous stakeholder engagement, evidence-based decision-making, and co-creation processes to generate more inclusive and sustainable outcomes. Through mechanisms such as Multi-Stakeholder Platforms, Communities of Practice, and Business Transformation Labs, the programme supports governments, investors, civil society organizations, and local communities in aligning business objectives with social inclusion, environmental stewardship, and good governance. By identifying shared priorities and fostering collaboration, TLI aims to build trust, reduce risks, and create long-term shared value.
Linking social movements: how international networks can better support community action about forests
International networks in community forestry face challenges in linking with local social movements. We examine four efforts of international networks to overcome these challenges and better link with local people in Peru, Brazil, India and Kenya. The examples demonstrate that the networks created effective links by making funds available for meetings and local data collection; providing international analyses that helped people understand their own situation better; sharing strategies for media, policy and letter campaigns; helping to disseminate information about local people’s priorities, providing independent assessments and building local people’s confidence. Efforts to improve communications technologies required a better understanding of local conditions. Networks will be more relevant to local movements to the extent that they are regularly active at the local level, can respond flexibly to local needs and small-scale events, and work with an array of national partners. The effectiveness of networks in carrying out these tasks may require a careful balance between linking to versus working at the local level.
Taita Taveta County Forest Value Chains Public–Private Partnership Strategy. Catalysing Sustainable Investment for Forest Landscape Restoration and Community Development
The Public–Private Partnership (PPP) Engagement and Marketing Strategy for Taita Taveta County provides a roadmap to attract private investment into forest-based enterprises. It operationalizes the County’s Forest and Landscape Restoration Plan (FOLAREP), aiming to restore biodiversity, improve livelihoods, and promote inclusive, nature-positive economic growth. The strategy prioritizes five forest value chains—beekeeping, tree nurseries, butterfly farming, herbal medicine, and ecotourism—identified as viable opportunities to scale restoration, generate sustainable jobs, and foster private sector engagement. Its three core purposes are: (1) establish a coherent framework for forest restoration PPPs, (2) enhance investment readiness and link producers, government, and investors, and (3) transform restoration opportunities into sustainable income sources. Despite challenges such as limited finance and weak value chain development, the strategy positions Taita Taveta to build a restoration economy rooted in enterprise and innovation.
Leveraging Multi-Stakeholder Platforms for Integrated Watershed Management to Enhance Food Security and Ecosystem Resilience [Learning note: Ethiopia country project]
The project team has applied an integrated approach which encompasses the engagement of several stakeholders who come up with diversified ideas and technologies as well as approaches. The RFS Ethiopia project has applied multistakeholder engagement approach to improve the income and enhance the livelihoods of the project target households and communities. Multiple stakeholders come up with their institutional plan to apply in the same landscape, community and households. The multi-stakeholder platform helped to ensure context specific approaches could be scaled and were appropriate to the land portions.
SWM Community Conservancy Project Newsletter, Issue 4 -September 2023 to February 2024
We are pleased to release the fourth issue of the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Community Conservancy (CC) Project newsletter covering the four countries where the CC model is being promoted within the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) landscape (Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Under the SWM Programme, this new Project, funded by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and co-funded by the European Union (EU), is now halfway through its implementation. We are working together with communities across the Kavango-Zambezi (KaZa) region in North-East Namibia, Northern Botswana, Southern Zambia and Northern Zimbabwe promoting the CC model to achieve coexistence between people, livestock and wildlife in this biodiversity-rich landscape. This includes several initiatives, such as building partnerships with the private sector, which redirect the flow of socio-economic benefits to local communities. This approach will also benefit conservation by reducing unsustainable hunting for wild meat and mitigating human-wildlife conflict. A strong network of CCs will enhance connectivity between habitats in the KaZa landscape and contribute to conservation efforts in this unique region. We are proud to be partnering with Wild Entrust Africa (WEA) in Botswana, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Namibia, the Peace Parks Foundation and Wild Entrust in Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as with the respective Governments, to enhance synergies between wildlife conservation and community well-being.
Landscape resilience in the Mediterranean: Translating solutions into policy and practice
Policy recommendations
- Coordinated and cross-sectoral action is urgently needed to improve landscape resilience in the Mediterranean, a highly climate-sensitive region facing droughts, wildfires and land degradation. This demands policy coherence and coordination across sectors and along geographical, administrative and governance scales.
- The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and related EU frameworks must explicitly address Mediterranean landscape challenges through result-based and locally adapted measures. In addition, non-EU countries could adapt from the CAP.
- Two-way EU–non-EU cooperation is essential to align governance, legislation and knowledge sharing for coherent and sustainable forest and landscape management. Knowledge sharing of climate challenge solutions from South to North needs particular emphasis.
- Digital innovation, strong extension services, and the empowerment of women, youth and local communities are key to scaling sustainable practices and adaptive management.
- Innovative and well-coordinated financing, including public–private partnerships and ecosystem service payments, is needed to secure long-term investment, improve access, reduce duplication and enhance the impact of landscape initiatives.
Making the implementation of the Multi-Forestry Business (MUK) policy work in Indonesia
Multi-forestry business (Multi Usaha Kehutanan. MUK) is Indonesia’s new paradigm for forest management, focusing on maximizing forest values and ensuring a sustainable production forest. MUK policy is a response to addressing the failures of production forest management. Consequently, all forest companies, including Ecosystem Restoration Concessions (ERC), are required to adopt the MUK paradigm. Ten of 16 ERC licenses officially implemented the MUK framework in 2021 through their approved Ten-Year Plan, designed to optimize revenues from valued commodities and potential forest utilizations. This paper examines the concept, opportunities, policy gaps, and challenges associated with implementing MUK in ERCs. The study employs a qualitative, ex-post, and inductive analysis approach combining quantitative E-survey and statistical analysis. The research reveals that MUK presents an opportunity for forest companies to develop their businesses based on the most profitable commodities and one-bundle rights, enhance forest productivity, protect biodiversity, resolve conflicts, and improve community livelihoods. We propose several measures to support the MUK policy and its challenges, such as creating a specific MUK policy tailored to the needs of ERCs, ensuring clear and clean concession areas, streamlining regulations, fostering a shift in the conduct of the bureaucracy, and reducing administrative burdens.
Actors, Access, Markets, and Values Involved in Oil Palm Expansion and Peatland Degradation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
Despite numerous government regulations aimed at protecting Indonesia’s peatlands and surrounding communities, the rapid conversion of peatlands to oil palm plantations, coupled with associated fires, continues to cause severe environmental degradation and health-threatening haze that extends to neighboring countries. This study examines the political ecology of oil palm expansion and peatland degradation in the Pelang Peat Landscape, Ketapang, West Kalimantan, focusing on the period 2000–2021. By integrating spatial analysis with qualitative methods—including active participation, in-depth interviews, group discussions, and document review—this research uncovers the dynamics of land-use change and access mechanisms. Findings reveal that oil palm expansion has resulted in significant ecological degradation, particularly in Peat Ecosystem Protection (FLEG) zones, driven by hybrid access mechanisms that combine regulation-based (legal and illegal) and structural-relational strategies, such as financial capital, political authority, identity, and informal land markets. The study also identifies “astroturfing oil palm plantations” as a strategy by large corporations posing as cooperatives to bypass regulations, exacerbating degradation. Expansion patterns are categorized into three forms—centered, spotted, and dispersed—each shaped by actor motivations and capacities. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the interplay between instrumental values (profit-driven motives) and relational values (sustainability and community well-being), which underscores broader tensions in peatland governance. Regulatory incongruence further complicates enforcement, allowing actors to exploit legal ambiguities, perpetuating the “legal, but illegal” and “illegal, but legal” phenomena. These findings underscore the urgent need for integrated governance approaches that address ecological, social, and policy challenges in peatland management.