Key messages
The Jurisdictional Approach (JA) is an integrated landscape approach that is used within the administrative boundaries of the government. This approach can be used to encourage sustainable palm oil while promoting regional success in reducing deforestation. The project of scaling jurisdictional approaches in the Indonesian palm oil sector involves a multi-stakeholder, participatory, and gender-inclusive approach. JA can be integrated with Theory of Change (TOC) through workshops and focus group discussions to identify key issues at the regency level related to sustainable palm oil practices, especially regarding the implementation of Presidential Instruction Number 6 of 2019 concerning the National Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil Plantations. The objective of this paper is to examine the integration of TOC and JA in the preparation of a regional action plan for sustainable palm oil in Indonesia and to highlight the practical instances of how the integrated approaches enable significant promotion and generate meaningful collaboration between key players involved in advancing the preparation of a regional action plan for sustainable palm oil in Indonesia.
The integrated TOC and JA effectively heard the voices and interests of stakeholders in a participatory manner, understood the local context and issues, defined the problems to be addressed, formulated objectives, articulated the changes expected to be achieved, and established collaboration among different sectors to achieve sustainable palm oil practices at the jurisdictional level. TOC supports JA by articulating causal linkages between interventions and their desired effects and identifying three common types of theories of change: causal chain, dimensions of influence, and actor-centered theories.
This study focuses on the impacts of decentralisation on forests and estate crops in the original districts of Kampar and Indragiri Hulu, located in Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. The research was conducted during 2000, preceding the beginnings of decentralisation in January 2001, with a brief follow-up to March of that year. It was important to chart attitudes to decentralisation at provincial level, as well as examine the deconcentration of the regional office of the Jakarta-based Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops. The demands for fibre of the two immense pulp and paper companies (RAPP and Indah Kiat) was analysed on a province-wide basis. Both of the original districts were recently subdivided: Kampar became three, adding Rokan Hulu and Pelalawan, while Indragiri Hulu was halved to add Kuantan Singingi. The existence of these new entities, struggling to create separate infrastructure and administrations, has complicated the decentralisation process. Much of Indragiri Hulu is occupied by Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and its buffer zone, with many stakeholders and conflicts over illegal logging, while Kuantan Singingi has large areas under pulp plantations. Kampar and Rokan Hulu are dominated by oil palm, the plantations’ occupancy of the land being contested by local populations. Pelalawan still has natural timber, the swamp forests of the sparsely populated lower Kampar basin, but is also the headquarters of RAPP in the rapidly expanding centre of Pangkalan Kerinci. The study found that during 2000, the most serious impact on the forests was a result of political reformation and the economic crisis, with the Soeharto government’s rules being ignored and timber being cut for its quick return under conditions of high demand. Depressed rubber prices gave further impetus to forest clearing. After decentralisation, despite greatly increased available income in the districts, serious environmental and social problems remained to be tackled. While local pride was a positive outcome, signs of both xenophobia and a rush to develop at all costs were worrying aspects.
Summary
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.