Tag: local government

REDD+ safeguards in Indonesia: Lessons from East Kalimantan

Summary

  • In 2015, East Kalimantan was selected as the pilot Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) province in Indonesia. This required government agencies to comply with the World Bank’s safeguards standards, which go beyond most reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) countries’ legal and policy frameworks for community rights.
  • In the context of the FCPF initiative, East Kalimantan has issued regulations, published formal documents (Indigenous Peoples framework and benefit sharing plan), and implemented a regional regulation for a feedback and grievance redress mechanism integrated with the National Public Service Complaint Management System (SP4N LAPOR!).
  • Customary rules and sanctions are used to regulate resource management and tenure arrangements at the community level, but the resolution of tenurial conflicts falls under government authority. A history of conflicts between communities and private companies has led to wide acceptance of the Social Forestry programme.
  • Research participants perceived free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to be the least challenging aspect of safeguards to comply with. This was due to the familiarity many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with communities have with FPIC. Challenges remain regarding the clarity of FPIC processes, and ensuring the participation of all communities that will be impacted by FCPF activities, and women in those communities.
  • Research participants perceived the benefit sharing mechanism to be the most challenging aspect related to community engagement in the FCPF initiative. Incentives derived from results-based payments will be managed by the Environmental Fund Management Agency, and an intermediary organization has been developed to disburse incentives.

Jurisdictional Approaches for Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia

CIFOR-ICRAF and partners are conducting research to increase the readiness of selected palm oil producing regions to implement jurisdictional programmes (JPs) for sustainable palm oil through a participatory, multistakeholder and gender-inclusive approach by using lessons learned from JPs carried out by CIFOR-ICRAF and other parties.

Challenges and opportunities for achieving Sustainable Development Goals through restoration of Indonesia’s mangroves

Indonesia, the most mangrove-rich nation in the world, has proposed the most globally ambitious mangrove rehabilitation target (600,000 ha) of any nation, to be achieved by 2024 to support multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1–3, 6, 13 and 14). Yet, mangrove restoration and rehabilitation across the world have often suffered low success rates and been applied at small scales. Here, we identify 193,367 ha (estimated costs at US$0.29–1.74 billion) that have the potential to align with the national mangrove rehabilitation programme. Despite being only 30% of the national target, our robust assessment considered biogeomorphology, 20 years of land-use and land-cover change and state forest land status, all key factors moderating mangrove restoration success which have often been neglected in Indonesia. Increasing subnational government representation in mangrove governance as well as improving monitoring and evaluation will increase the likelihood of achieving the mangrove rehabilitation targets and reduce risks of failure. Rehabilitating and conserving mangroves in Indonesia could benefit 74 million coastal people and can potentially contribute to the national land-sector emissions reduction of up to 16%.

Social Forestry in Indonesia: Fragmented Values, Progress, Contradictions, and Opportunities

Social Forestry in Indonesia is mostly understood as a government driven program, as a means to improve forest management, empower local people and improve their wellbeing. Over time the form and structure of the program has evolved into the current five schemes, linked to agrarian and land tenure reform. Meanwhile, local and indigenous peoples have managed forests according to their own values and traditions. This chapter will discuss how these different interests and values shaped social forestry in practice. We show how different actors and institutions collaborate in different ways and adjusted the rigid government program according to local situation and needs, and what issues and challenges emerged. We use the concept of ‘social value” on what people consider important, worthwhile and desirable that forms the basis of cultural norms or rules of behavior. We then discuss briefly the issues related to evaluation, as rules for implementation and the actual implementation are based on different values.

Challenges to smallholder forestry policy reform on a postindustrial logging frontier: lessons from the Amazon estuary

In 2013, policy makers from the Brazilian state of Amapá launched regulatory reforms intended to streamline options to formalize smallholder forest management. This paper reviews that policy reform process and analyses observations from local stakeholders to identify lessons for the promotion of smallholder forestry. In 2014, 2017 and 2021, interviews were conducted with family timber producers and sawmill operators in floodplain communities and regional timber buyers to evaluate the impact of the policy reform on their operations. Interviews with policy makers sought to understand the rationale behind the reform and how the process played out. Although the reform efforts were well intentioned, results illustrate how bureaucratic inertia and complexity obstructed efforts to simplify policy and how policy did not address smallholder needs. While the reforms did not have the intended effect, the case offers lessons for future policy reform efforts.

Policymaker perceptions of COVID-19 impacts, opportunities and challenges for sustainable wildlife farm management in Vietnam

This paper uses Vietnam – where overexploitation of wildlife resources is a major threat to biodiversity conservation – as a case study to examine how government officials perceive the impacts of COVID-19 on wildlife farming, as well as the opportunities and challenges presented for sustainable wildlife management. Findings show Vietnamese government officials perceive COVID-19 to have had mixed impacts on wildlife conservation policies and practice. While the pandemic strengthened the legal framework on wildlife conservation, implementation and outcomes have been poor, as existing policies are unclear, contradictory, and poorly enforced. Our paper also shows policymakers in Vietnam are not in favor of banning wildlife trade. As our paper documents the immediate impacts of the pandemic on wildlife farming, more research is necessary to analyse longer-term impacts.

Old World and New World collision: Historic land grabs and the contemporary recovery of Indigenous land management practices in the western USA

This introduction to the chapters on community forestry in North America summarises the often-traumatic post-Columbian interactions between Native Americans and waves of immigrants mainly from Europe. The Indigenous land management, mostly by controlled ground fire set in small patches, enables annual harvests of multiple goods and services from the forest. This ‘light touch’ management is sensitive to local ecologies and reduces the risk of catastrophic fires, which have been exacerbated by a century of government attempts to stop all forest fires.

The role of social forestry in achieving NDC targets: Study cases of Lampung and DI Yogyakarta

Social Forestry (SF) in Indonesia has emerged as a keystone strategy for Sustainable Forest Management. By allocating 12.7 million ha of forest to be managed by local communities, the government has set in motion an ambitious plan for SF to reduce poverty, empower local people, and improve forest conditions. More recently, SF is framed for its opportunity to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study focused on examining the contribution of SF to the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) goals in Yogyakarta and Lampung. By analyzing spatial data of SF areas and land cover changes using ArcView 10.8, the study assessed the carbon stock potential in SF areas. Carbon stock calculations were based on the 2022 National Forest Reference Level (FRL) for the periods before and after SF implementation. The finding of the study indicated that the carbon stock of SF areas in Yogyakarta and Lampung ranged from 9,214,381 to 9,923,420 ton CO2eq prior to SF, while the current carbon stock ranges from 8,703,489 to 9,393,706 ton CO2eq, representing a decrease (around 5.4%) rather than an increase. Overall, the changes in carbon stock were relatively small and localized, and the magnitude of the increase was insufficient to offset the overall decrease. To achieve the objectives of SF, such as meeting emission targets and achieving sustainable land use, it is crucial to carefully manage forest edges and fragmented forests, as they can contribute to carbon stock losses. Additionally, further studies and research are needed to improve the accuracy of carbon stock calculations, particularly for non-forest categories, which have higher uncertainty in the reference levels.

Is the formalization of collective tenure rights in the Peruvian Amazon supporting sustainable Indigenous livelihoods? Findings from comparative research in San Martín and Ucayali regions

Key findings

  • The titling of Comunidades Nativas (Native Communities) alone is not enough to ensure Indigenous Peoples’ access to sustainable livelihoods in the Peruvian Amazon.
  • Lack of income options, combined with restrictive legal frameworks for resource use under the Comunidad model, led to unsustainable land and resource use.
  • In seeking to access cash incomes, Comunidades often entered into exploitative relationships with smallholder migrant farmers and timber companies.
  • Regulations for resource use and the Comunidad’s governance framework do not reflect local livelihoods and leadership practices; interviewees highlighted that this created challenges related to livelihoods, conflicts, participation and representation in communal governance.
  • A transition from a punitive to an enabling role for government agencies – including investing to develop both the institutional and technical capacities of Comunidades – is essential to support more sustainable livelihoods.

Bridging science and policy: Lessons learned from FTA support for the development of the Vietnam Forestry Development Strategy 2021–2030, with vision to 2050

Key messages

  • Bridging science and policy requires a good understanding of interests and working style, trust and long-term partnerships between policymakers and scientists.
  • Research needs to be demand driven to be more relevant for use by policymakers. Identifying the right partners, times and places, and delivering research products based on their interests and in a timely manner will also increase the possibility of narrowing gaps between policymakers and scientists.
  • Providing easy-to-understand and accessible communication products that are well- tailored to policymakers’ preferences and needs is the key to scientific knowledge transfer.
  • Programme impacts can be sustained by providing capacity building for national stakeholders, supporting national partners in securing funding to continue implementing activities after FTA ends, and collaborating with large-scale projects to uptake and replicate findings.
  • Recognizing and acknowledging the politics embedded in decision-making processes, empowering civil society to hold the state accountable in creating transformative coalitions for change, and maintaining scientists’ roles as independent knowledge brokers also play important roles in bridging science and policy.

Resilient Landscapes is powered by CIFOR-ICRAF. Our mission is to connect private and public actors in co-beneficial landscapes; provide evidence-based business cases for nature-based solutions and green economy investments; leverage and de-risk performance-driven investments with combined financial, social and environmental returns.

2024 All rights reserved    Privacy notice