Tropenbos International Indonesia Programme

LANDSCAPE RESTORATION IN INDONESIA

Making Knowledge Work for Forest and People

The urgent need for a community-driven approach

Petrus Gunarso, PhD – TBI Indonesia and GPFLR

Outline

• Introduction

• Failure to perform SFM and Conservation

• Government and market driven restoration

• Global incentives for Forests Restoration

• Community initiative and community driven restoration of forests

• Expanding Community – driven Approach

• Conclusion

Introduction - 1

• We have large areas of degraded forest and land due to unsustainable management by large companies and small holders.

• The productivity of these forests and lands need to be restored.

• Restoring forests or rehabilitation is an important goal of the Ministry of Forestry in Indonesia.

Introduction 2

• Restoration of forests and lands is cross ministerial/ sectoral responsibility - not the sole responsibility of Ministry of Forestry

• Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Mining and Energy, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture.

• GOAL of MOF – Rehabilitation of 11.5 Million ha of forest up to 2030. This rehabilitation is expected to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as part of climate change mitigation

• At a landscape level – coordination among the ministries is clearly required. With the absence of on the ground or landscape level restoration, the role of community driven restoration becomes essential.

Failure to implement SFM and Conservation

• SFM has been introduced since the initial stage of forest management in Indonesia in the seventies

• SFM has become a target for ITTO, wherein, all forest management, including in Indonesia, will be sustainably managed by 2000

• Conservation target of 10% of all terrestrial and marine areas by 2020. Degradation and deforestation in the targeted areas continues to exist and in some places has intensified.

Government and Market Driven Restoration

• Forest rehabilitation has been implemented through government projects since the seventies with little success. In reality, the rate of deforestation and forest degradation exceeds the rate of rehabilitation.

• Government has started to invite community participation through KBR – Kebun Bibit Rakyat - Community Nursery, but this might be too little and too late.

• Companies have started with ‘intensive silviculture - SILIN’ – to overcome the failure of natural regeneration with local fast growing species. This is mainly at a research driven level of rehabilitation and regeneration.

• Market driven reforestation/rehabilitation due to a shortage of timber does not exist – but unsurprisingly, importation of steel and aluminum frames and cheap plywood from China has increased sharply.

Global incentives for Forest Restoration

• Climate change mitigation and adaptation –global discourse and intense negotiation

• REDD+ promises ‘compensation’ from Annex 1 countries for reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation – ‘a low hanging fruit’

• Green economy, green development, and green energy

• Global efforts for forest restoration – ecosystem restoration

Community initiative and community driven forest restoration

• MASBENI – principles and guidelines has been developed and a toolkits is being prepared

• Forum RE – facing challenging issues related to incentives and recognition as an important investment for the future of forestry in Indonesia

• This Conference – has attracted a large amount of interest from people who want to be involved and promoted the importance of restoration in Indonesia

• GPFLR – global movement to share learning on landscape restoration; promoting a multidisciplinary approach.

Expanding a Community-driven approach

• Partnership

– Government – Community

– Company – Community

– Community - Community

• Collaboration

– Need champions, transparency, ‘inclusive -keberpihakan’, togetherness, and innovation,

• “Gotong Royong”

– Togetherness in addressing the community’s burden

Why community-driven restoration is urgent?

• The problem is so enormous that government alone, withoutsupport from communities, will not be able to address it.

• Budget and field staff of the government working at the landscape level are limited

• If there is a budget – often implemented with a short term vision or short term project approach

• Focus of the government on rehabilitation/restoration is lacking – considered as a cost center

• Companies are under no pressure to do it – they set aside the budget but have no pressure to spent the money

Thank You