Key messages
A workshop in Ghana, opened with welcoming remarks by Abena Amedormey (CRS Country Representative) and Maxwell Amedia (World Vision Ghana), brought together participants for active engagement on land restoration. Phase 1 achievements included restoration of degraded lands across several countries through farmer-managed natural regeneration and agroforestry interventions. Success was driven by strong community engagement, local leadership, and partnerships, while challenges such as coordination complexities, climate variability, and capacity constraints informed adaptive approaches. Integration of traditional knowledge with scientific innovation promoted sustainable land use, laying the foundation for more strategic, inclusive, and scalable actions in Phase 2. Lessons learned emphasized the importance of engaging local farmers and communities from the outset and forging partnerships among governments, NGOs, and communities to build trust and ownership. Workshop objectives included building shared understanding of vision and theory of change, aligning partners through knowledge sharing, applying the “Six Conditions for System Change” framework, strengthening collaboration through defined roles and communication structures, and identifying next steps and timelines for community scoping and inception workshops at the country level.
One of the core outcomes of the “Delivering Nature-based Solution Outcomes by Addressing Policy, Institutional and Monitoring Gaps in Forest and Landscape Restoration” project is to implement gender-transformative, equitable and socially inclusive activities to support land restoration. This study, therefore, sought to find out whether the training has been applied and has led to tangible shifts in practice and attitudes at the household and community level.
Within discussions of land and resource rights, there is growing attention to women’s rights, mostly in terms of household and individual rights to private property. This leaves unanswered questions about whether and how women’s land rights can be secured under collective tenure, upon which billions of people worldwide depend. There is an important gap in conceptual tools, empirical understanding, and policy recommendations on this topic. To address this gap and lay the foundations for a sound body of empirical studies and appropriate policies, we develop a conceptual framework to improve understanding of women’s land rights under collective tenure. We discuss what secure tenure for women on collective lands would entail, then what factors would affect women’s tenure security. We give attention to particularities of rangelands, forests, and other types of collective lands as well as commonalities across types. A key theme that emerges is that for women to have secure tenure under collective tenure, the collective (group) itself must have tenure security and the women must have secure rights within this collective. The latter requires us to consider the governance structures, how men and women access and control land, and the extent to which women have voice and power within the collective. More consistent analyses of collective tenure systems using the conceptual framework presented in this paper can help to identify which action resources are important for groups to secure rights to collective lands, and for women to advocate for their rights within the group.
This manual is designed for project implementers, field staff, and community facilitators involved in land restoration initiatives. It can be used when working with community forest groups, farmer cooperatives, or other local organizations engaged in managing natural resources. You might use it as part of a restoration project to support communities in reflecting on gender roles, decision-making, and access to resources, or to promote more inclusive participation in restoration planning and implementation. The manual is most useful during the early stages of community engagement, but its tools and activities can also support ongoing reflection and learning throughout the project cycle.
In Indonesia, early Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects, established in the early 2010s, were required to self-fund through carbon credit sales or donor aid while supporting local livelihoods. This paper examines the impact of REDD+ projects on both agricultural and overall household incomes (i.e., from all economic activities, including agriculture). We hypothesize that the agricultural incomes of REDD+ participating households (or treated households) would decrease as REDD+ forbids forest clearance, but this loss would be offset by a subsequent rise in overall household income as REDD+ encourages income diversification. Additionally, we assess whether REDD+ implementation has an intra-community ‘spillover’ effect by comparing the incomes of households living in REDD+ villages but abstaining from participation, with those in non-REDD+ (control) villages. We evaluate two such projects in Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) using panel survey data from over 400 households, collected in 2010, 2014, and 2018. Our analysis employs panel difference-in-differences in matched samples. Overall, our results reveal a small, heterogeneous impact of REDD+ on household incomes. While we found no significant impact in East Kalimantan’s BFCP site, participation in Central Kalimantan’s KMP site led to a reduced agricultural income over the short term (2010-2014). However, we detected no improvement in overall household income, nor did we find this impact to be long-lasting. We also found no conclusive evidence of intra-community spillover effects. The short-term income shock observed at the KMP site, despite its small overall magnitude, indicates the need for strategies to support and safeguard household incomes against temporary disruptions associated with REDD+ implementation. Our research contributes to the broader discourse on REDD+ performance, echoing previous findings of its mixed and modest impact on local communities’ incomes globally.
Despite substantial investments to curb tropical deforestation, effective conservation incentives for Indigenous peoples and local communities is not well-defined and generally under-researched. This study assessed an incentive mechanism in Peru for Indigenous communities that protect enrolled forests to explore whether the stated program goals are actualized in programmatic elements like the requirements, monitoring, and assessment of prioritized outcomes. The research team worked with Indigenous partners to develop key questions regarding how the mechanism could better support their values of conservation and development. Data were sourced from interviews with implementation experts and participants in eight Indigenous communities, a review of programmatic documents, and an assessment of nationally aggregated community data. The results revealed challenges in program capacity, a lack of cultural awareness, and a reliance on capitalistic economic indicators that exclude other aspects of well-being important for Indigenous peoples. We find that the program’s success indicators do not adequately align with conservation or social realities on the ground and that enhanced indicators are needed to ensure success and avoid negative unintended consequences. We demonstrate that enhancing the assessment of governance, economics, engagement, and social inclusion can improve the design, implementation, and monitoring in this and similar programming. We conclude with generalizable recommendations for establishing requirements and monitoring in existing and future conservation incentive programs that target Indigenous communities.
Oil palm plantations can be a significant contributor to rural livelihoods in Indonesia. The government seeks to capitalize on this commodity and strengthen Indonesia’s position as the global leader in palm oil production by expanding plantation estates. As the land for new plantation investment in Kalimantan and Sumatra becomes scarce, plantation developers are looking east to acquire land in Papua Province. The rising interest in oil palm plantations in Papua presents potential opportunities but also poses challenges.
Drawing on research findings from Boven Digoel District, one of the key areas for oil palm expansion in Papua, this paper illustrates the dilemma of plantation development in the region by examining the social, economic and environmental impacts.
Plantation development in Boven Digoel District has opened up isolated areas, stimulated the development of infrastructure, generated employment and improved worker incomes. However, the indigenous communities’ reliance on forests for subsistence and their lack of familiarity with oil palm as a cash crop has proven to be a major barrier to effective engagement of the local population. In addition, the decision by the company not to implement an outgrower scheme has led to limited community involvement, rising tensions about land acquisition processes and resentment about low compensation payments.
The development of oil palm plantations has also resulted in deforestation and other negative environmental impacts, such as poor water quality, air pollution and soil erosion. Reducing environmental damage and creating better conditions for the productive engagement of local communities are major challenges for plantation investment in forested frontier regions such as Papua.
Anthropogenic activities such as logging and converting mangrove forests into plantations have degraded coastal ecosystems and reduced their ecological stability. Silvofishery is a restoration system that balances the ecological and economic functions of mangroves. In Marga Sungsang Village, South Sumatra, mangrove restoration was integrated with mud crab (Scylla spp.) cultivation through a crab silvofishery system. This study aimed to analyze the contribution of mangrove restoration with a mud crab silvofishery system to mud crab growth. The study was conducted from August 2024 to January 2025. Growth parameters included carapace length, width, and body weight. Analyses covered absolute growth and the correlation between carapace width and body weight. Results showed that in non-mangrove ponds, Scylla tranquebarica males exhibited negative allometry (prominent carapace width), while females showed positive allometry (prominent body weight). Scylla paramamosain showed negative allometry in both sexes. In contrast, in mangrove ponds, both species showed positive allometry for both sexes, indicating higher weight gain. These findings suggest that mangrove vegetation provides optimal habitat conditions by increasing nutrient availability, protecting crabs during molting, and improving substrate quality. The results not only demonstrate the bioecological relationship between mangrove vegetation and mangrove crab growth but also highlight the role of crab silvofishery systems in supporting food security, mitigating climate change, and conserving coastal ecosystems. These results align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically goal 2 (end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture), goal 13 (climate action), and goal 14 (life below water). Although informative, this study was limited by temporal observations conducted only at the start of seed stocking and at harvest. Further research with continuous monitoring and environmental parameter analysis is needed. The findings can support mangrove restoration policies that integrate vegetation recovery with sustainable community-based aquaculture and promote blue economy development.
Coastal communities in the Banyuasin District heavily rely on mangrove ecosystem services. However, unsustainable livelihood practices are driving mangroves into degradation. Our study aims to identify alternative livelihoods that can transform more sustainable mangrove businesses and practices. This will be achieved by co-developing a business model through participatory action research (PAR)in mangrove villages of Banyuasin. Our study revealed potential community-driven edu-ecotourism businesses in Sungsang and Marga Sungsang Village for further development. This business heavily relies on the natural authenticity of its mangrove, which amplifies the urgency to restore the degraded mangrove in the landscape. Thus, there is a high alignment of the business model canvas components with restoration activities such as the development of a mangrove seedling nursery, selling, and planting. This community-driven business is financially viable, according to the financial metrics, with a net present value (NPV) of IDR 180,148,622, a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.3, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 52.88%, and a payback period (PBP) of 1.7 years. The development of this business model can leverage sustainable livelihood opportunities and reconcile multiple interests while amplifying the urgency of restoring mangroves. The collaborative efforts among the community during this process serve as an exercise to build collective knowledge, strengthen social ties, and enhance trust and communication. This, in turn, leads to stronger collective action and social capital, which can sustain mangrove restoration beyond the project duration.