Indonesia's contested domains. Deforestation, rehabilitation and conservation-with-development in Central Kalimantan's tropical peatlands

Jewitt, Sarah; Nasir, Darmae; Page, Susan; Rieley, J. O.; Khanal, Kapil

doi:10.1505/146554814813484086

Cited by 20 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…Local communities are also highly reliant on timber and non-timber products for most of their livelihoods (Anshari et al, 2005;Suyanto et al, 2009;Jewitt et al, 2014). This may cause overexploitation, leading to the depletion and degradation of resources, which may push people deeper into poverty (Anshari et al, 2005).…”

Section: 215! Poverty Incidence and Traditional Farming Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aside from creating positive impacts to the hydrological, biological and geochemical properties, peatland restoration is expected to have positive implications in terms of socioeconomic improvement, notably to the local communities (Anshari et al, 2005;Chokkalingamet al, 2005;Jewitt et al, 2014).…”

Section: 544! Indicators For Measuring Socio-economic and Policy mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anshari et al, 2005;Chokkalingam et al, 2005;Chokkalingam et al, 2007;Jewitt, 2008;Suyanto et al, 2009;Jewitt et al, 2014 Income sources (increases in variety of sources of income) Anshari et al, 2005;van Beukering et al, 2008;Suyanto et al, 2009 Income structure composition (agriculture, nonagriculture, industry, public services) Anshari et al, 2005;van Beukering et al, 2008;Suyanto et al, 2009 Employment:…”

Section: 544! Indicators For Measuring Socio-economic and Policy mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These restoration initiatives have embodied various activities such as damming drainage channels Jaenicke et al, 2010;Ritzema et al, 2014;); revegetation of bare peatland through planting trees, seedling provision, and artificial seed dispersal promotion (Giesen, 2004;van Eijk & Leenman, 2004;Graham et al, 2007;van Eijk et al, 2009;Graham & Page, 2012;Graham & Page, 2014); and developing livelihood options for locals (Noor et al, 2005;Noor et al, 2007;Silvius & Diemont, 2007;Suyanto et al, 2009;Gillespie, 2012;Jewitt et al, 2014).…”

Section: 1! Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An assessment of the restoration efforts of degraded peatland in central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Dohong¹

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Indonesia's tropical peatlands are an ecosystem of global significance. They contain immense stores of carbon and play a key role in regional and global climate systems. They provide habitat for iconic species such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger, and they sustain the livelihoods of thousands of local people. Despite these values, Indonesia's peatland ecosystems have been subject to extensive deforestation and degradation during the past two decades. Recurrent peatland fires related to these land use activities have caused smoke pollution across the region, resulting in substantial public health issues and political controversy. More than 50% of the nation's 21 Mha of peatland can be considered as degraded. There is an urgent need to slow the rate of peatland degradation in Indonesia and to effectively restore the vast areas already damaged. A key consideration in this challenge is that tropical peatland restoration is an emerging field of scientific inquiry and little research has been published on the factors that constitute and influence successful restoration of tropical peatland ecosystems.This thesis addresses this gap in the broader ecosystem restoration literature by focusing on a case study of the so-called "Ex-Mega Rice Project" area of Central Kalimantan (an area previously subject to extensive degradation) and examining how successful peatland restoration can be achieved in Indonesia by: (1) reviewing the drivers of peatland degradation in the country in order to better understand the competing interests and broader socioecological context in which restoration activities need to be carried out; (2) studying previous restoration initiatives in Indonesia to better understand the restoration techniques used and the factors influencing their relative effectiveness; (3) analysing the specific tropical peatland restoration technique of "re-wetting" to better understand which elements of the technique best support effective restoration outcomes; (4) analysing the specific issue of illegal oil palm development on Indonesian peatland, including a consideration of what sorts of interventions are required to halt illegal oil palm development and control the associated recurrent fires that have been shown to substantially constrain the effectiveness of restoration initiatives; and (5) presenting an overarching conceptual framework of the factors that influence effective peatland restoration, which can be used by policy makers to devise restoration interventions that should have a greater probability of success.The drivers of peatland degradation in Indonesia can be categorised as direct and indirect. Direct drivers include logging, oil palm development and recurrent fires (mostly caused by large-and smallscale land use activities). Indirect drivers include climate change, the poverty and employment needs ii of local people, and the ineffective and sometimes perversely counter-productive land use governance systems.Techniques previously used to restore peatlands in Indonesia include rewetting through ...

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Section: 215! Poverty Incidence and Traditional Farming Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 544! Indicators For Measuring Socio-economic and Policy mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 544! Indicators For Measuring Socio-economic and Policy mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 1! Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An assessment of the restoration efforts of degraded peatland in central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Dohong¹

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“…Governance characteristics can also affect political will and ability to conduct conservation activities, and may impact on likelihood or costs of conservation activity success (Eklund et al, 2011). These nonmonetary considerations are of particular importance in the EMRP as governance and tenure has been hotly contested (Galudra et al, 2011), and as previous efforts have had varying success due to social complexities (Jewitt et al, 2014). However, future prospects for the EMRP may improve, as both Indonesian government and private industries increasingly move towards positive actions for forest and peatland conservation and management (Luttrell et al, 2014, Wakker, 2014.…”

Section: Incorporating Better Costs Opportunities Spatial and Tempomentioning

confidence: 99%

Trading carbon, biodiversity, and livelihoods: a landscape scale analysis of ecosystems services and trade-offs in land-use policy

Law¹

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Conservation and economic paradigms are shifting in recognition of the interdependencies among environmental, economic, and social systems. This shift is changing philosophies on why, where, and how we conserve nature. In this thesis I develop and apply novel approaches to plan for diverse objectives with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, and equitability of landscape management for multiple stakeholders.Forest carbon policy epitomises the challenges of interdependent environmental, economic, and social concerns. The ideals of REDD+ are inherently appealing, but in practice it presents a minefield of vagaries, unintended consequences, and trade-offs. Current forest-carbon policy fails to reflect the multiplicit social values of different management actions. As a solution, in chapter 2 I propose a policy framework that distinguishes distinct outcomes, promotes more effective incentives by better reflecting and leveraging from stakeholder values, and allows faster adaptation of policy to an uncertain future.Chapters 3-7 of my thesis develop a case study in a REDD+ priority region, the Ex-Mega Rice Project (EMRP) of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Restoration and development of the EMRP is of global interest due to substantial carbon emissions from degraded peatland, charismatic biodiversity, and a rapidly developing palm-oil industry. Understanding spatial distributions of environmental values is needed for their sustainable management. However, different stakeholders often perceive these values in different ways. In chapter 3, I explore the carbon, biodiversity, and development implications of seven proxies for carbon dynamics. I find above-ground biomass is not an adequate surrogate for emission dynamics, and current regulation limiting development on peatland may fail to incentivise peatland restoration. My results highlight that the most appropriate carbon proxy may not be the most accurate one, but rather the one that best incentivizes positive actions in suitable locations.REDD+ landscapes need to be managed for multiple social, economic, and environmental goals.In chapter 4 I quantify and map key policy-relevant ecosystem-service values, and evaluate the expected outcomes of four future land-use scenarios in the EMRP. I find that the prospective landuse plans will be considerable improvements on current land use, but identify several potential trade-offs. For example, oil-palm development may push smallholder agriculture into lowproductivity areas, and negatively impact biodiversity and carbon outcomes. This highlights that for effective, efficient, and equitable management these local-scale trade-offs will need to be carefully considered in future land-use planning for the EMRP.Estimating potential outcomes of different land-use policies can highlight where we may anticipate conflicts. Land-sharing and land-sparing strategies are embodied in agricultural and iii environmental policies currently applied in landscapes worldwide, and their relative benefits and shortcomings have rece...

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Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

et al. 2019

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Tropical forests and peatlands provide important ecological, climate and socio‐economic benefits from the local to the global scale. However, these ecosystems and their associated benefits are threatened by anthropogenic activities, including agricultural conversion, timber harvesting, peatland drainage and associated fire. Here, we identify key challenges, and provide potential solutions and future directions to meet forest and peatland conservation and restoration goals in Indonesia, with a particular focus on Kalimantan. Through a round‐table, dual‐language workshop discussion and literature evaluation, we recognized 59 political, economic, legal, social, logistical and research challenges, for which five key underlying factors were identified. These challenges relate to the 3Rs adopted by the Indonesian Peatland Restoration Agency (Rewetting, Revegetation and Revitalization), plus a fourth R that we suggest is essential to incorporate into (peatland) conservation planning: Reducing Fires. Our analysis suggests that (a) all challenges have potential for impact on activities under all 4Rs, and many are inter‐dependent and mutually reinforcing, implying that narrowly focused solutions are likely to carry a higher risk of failure; (b) addressing challenges relating to Rewetting and Reducing Fire is critical for achieving goals in all 4Rs, as is considering the local socio‐political situation and acquiring local government and community support; and (c) the suite of challenges faced, and thus conservation interventions required to address these, will be unique to each project, depending on its goals and prevailing local environmental, social and political conditions. With this in mind, we propose an eight‐step adaptive management framework, which could support projects in both Indonesia and other tropical areas to identify and overcome their specific conservation and restoration challenges. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Indonesia's contested domains. Deforestation, rehabilitation and conservation-with-development in Central Kalimantan's tropical peatlands

Cited by 20 publications

References 38 publications

An assessment of the restoration efforts of degraded peatland in central Kalimantan, Indonesia

An assessment of the restoration efforts of degraded peatland in central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Trading carbon, biodiversity, and livelihoods: a landscape scale analysis of ecosystems services and trade-offs in land-use policy

Tropical forest and peatland conservation in Indonesia: Challenges and directions

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