The Context Of Redd In Indonesia

This country profile reviews the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia, sets out the institutional, political and economic environment within which REDD+ is being implemented in Indonesia, and documents the process of national REDD+ policy development during the period 2007 – early 2012. While Indonesia is committed at the national and international level to addressing climate change through the forestry sector, there are clearly contextual challenges that need to be addressed to create the enabling conditions for REDD+. Some of the major issues include inconsistent legal frameworks, sectoral focus, unclear tenure, consequences of decentralisation, and weak local governance. Despite these challenges, however, REDD+ opens up an opportunity for improvements in forest governance and, more broadly, in land use governance. More democratic political-economic processes in general, greater freedom of civil society and the press, and heightened awareness of environmental issues can help build support and solidify policies in this direction.

REDD+ is one of the leading near-term options for global climate change mitigation. More than 300 subnational REDD+ initiatives have been launched across the tropics, responding to both the call for demonstration activities in the Bali Action Plan and the market for voluntary carbon offset credits.

Key messages In Indonesia, early involvement and support for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has led to numerous achievements, but progress has been slower than anticipated. National and subnational REDD+ initiatives are susceptible to political turnover at each election cycle. To ensure its longevity, REDD+ needs to be embedded in national and regional laws, regulations, institutions and other state devices. REDD+ institutionalization in Indonesia has focused on technicalities rather than on directly addressing socioeconomic and political drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. The rate of deforestation has decelerated enough to result in two REDD+ payments. However, transformational change in the forestry and broader land-use sector has not progressed far enough. REDD+ is inherently multilevel and multisectoral. However, much information, action, knowledge exchange and decision making on REDD+ is concentrated within relatively few organizations. Transformational change requires that other stakeholders and sectors that impact forests get involved.

Despite carefully constructed conservation interventions, deforestation in Indonesia is not being stopped. This book identifies why large-scale international forest conservation has failed to reduce deforestation in Indonesia and considers why key stakeholders have not responded as expected to these conservation interventions. The book maps the history of deforestation in Indonesia in the context of global political economy, exploring the relationship between international trade, the interests and ideology behind global sustainability programmes and the failures of forest conservation in Indonesia. Global economic and political ideologies are shown to have profoundly shaped deforestation. The author argues that the same forces continue to prevent positive outcomes. Case study chapters analyse three major international programmes: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), the Norway-Indonesia bilateral partnership, and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Indonesia. The findings provide insight into the failures of global climate change policy and suggest how the book’s theoretical model can be used to analyse other complex environmental problems. The book is a useful reference for students of environmental science and policy, political theory, international relations, development and economics. It will also be of interest to forestry professionals and practitioners working in NGOs.

REDD+ must be transformational. REDD+ requires broad institutional and governance reforms, such as tenure, decentralisation, and corruption control. These reforms will enable departures from business as usual, and involve communities and forest users in making and implementing policies that a ect them. Policies must go beyond forestry. REDD+ strategies must include policies outside the forestry sector narrowly de ned, such as agriculture and energy, and better coordinate across sectors to deal with non-forest drivers of deforestation and degradation. Performance-based payments are key, yet limited. Payments based on performance directly incentivise and compensate forest owners and users. But schemes such as payments for environmental services (PES) depend on conditions, such as secure tenure, solid carbon data and transparent governance, that are often lacking and take time to change. This constraint reinforces the need for broad institutional and policy reforms. We must learn from the past. Many approaches to REDD+ now being considered are similar to previous e orts to conserve and better manage forests, often with limited success. Taking on board lessons learned from past experience will improve the prospects of REDD+ e ectiveness. National circumstances and uncertainty must be factored in. Di erent country contexts will create a variety of REDD+ models with di erent institutional and policy mixes. Uncertainties about the shape of the future global REDD+ system, national readiness and political consensus require  exibility and a phased approach to REDD+ implementation.

This enlightening book brings together the work of gender and forestry specialists from various backgrounds and fields of research and action to analyse global gender conditions as related to forests. Using a variety of methods and approaches, they build on a spectrum of theoretical perspectives to bring depth and breadth to the relevant issues and address timely and under-studied themes. Focusing particularly on tropical forests, the book presents both local case studies and global comparative studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as the US and Europe. The studies range from personal histories of elderly American women’s attitudes toward conservation, to a combined qualitative / quantitative international comparative study on REDD+, to a longitudinal examination of oil palm and gender roles over time in Kalimantan. Issues are examined across scales, from the household to the nation state and the global arena; and reach back to the past to inform present and future considerations. The collection will be of relevance to academics, researchers, policy makers and advocates with different levels of familiarity with gender issues in the field of forestry.