1

INDONESIA
AND REDD+:
MOVING BEYOND
CARBON TO
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT

INDONESIA AND
REDD+:
MOVING BEYOND
CARBON TO
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
By Yogita Lal

JAKARTA, Indonesia (November 2012).

Indonesia is using a U.N.-backed
climate mitigation scheme as
more than just a tool to decrease
greenhouse gas emissions from
deforestation: Its also seeking to
develop a multi-pronged plan to
improve forest governance and
alleviate poverty.
People living in or around forests
in the sprawling equatorial nation
number at around 49 million,
according to latest estimates. They
also constitute one of the countrys
largest groups of poor -- a quarter
of them living on less than $2 a day.
These communities use the forests
to get fuelwood, hunt and collect
medicinal plants, bark and other nontimber products for use at home or
sale at local markets.
When you want to protect forests,
you have to deal with the people
who live within these forests, said
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who heads
Indonesias taskforce for Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation, or REDD+.
Among other things, that means
giving local communities economic
incentives to actively help protect
the trees that remain.
That to me is moving beyond
carbon thats the essence of
REDD+, Mangkusubroto said.
REDD+ aims to financially reward
developing countries to preserve
their carbon-rich forests. The scheme
is a key element in Indonesias
efforts to achieve its commitment
to cut emissions by 26 percent from
2

business-as-usual levels and by up to 41

percent with outside assistance by 2020.
The delay in large-scale funding
for REDD+ projects internationally
has seen many experts call for
governments to prioritise both actions
that build a foundation for REDD+,
and to implement no regrets policy
reforms, such as improving forest
governance, poverty alleviation and
law enforcement.

We are leaving the old paradigm of

having trees cut and getting revenues
from this, and entering a new era: the
trees will stand, and at the same time
revenues are received and peoples
welfare is improved, he said.
The old thinking has been with us for
40 years, [now we are developing]
this new way of thinking.

Tackling environmental crime

While internationally, REDD+ has
placed a heavy focus on the role of
forests in slowing climate change,
proponents in Indonesia have been
shifting their strategies towards
encouraging local communities to
protect their forests by providing
alternative livelihoods.
As such, REDD+ represents one
way for Indonesia to meet its goal
of sustainable growth with equity,
Mangkusubroto said.

One of the reasons that the rate of

deforestation and forest degradation
is high in Indonesia is because the
illegal felling of trees often carries
no consequences, said Mas Achmad
Santosa, chief of the REDD+
taskforces legal review and law
enforcement working group.
Santosa and his colleagues are trying
to improve coordination between
different enforcement agencies in

the forestry sector. They are reviewing

existing legislation and ensuring the
proper legal arsenals are used whenever
crackdowns on violators occur.
This means applying different
regulations, including money
laundering, anti-corruption or
plantation laws, simultaneously
when investigating environmental
crimes or forestry-related violations,
said Santosa, adding that the
REDD+ taskforce is providing legal
assistance and trainings to various law
enforcement agencies on this issue.
They are also investigating several
cases to showcase how to implement
such a method.
Santosa cited the example of the recent
Rawa Tripa peat swamp case in Aceh
province, where there were reports a
deep peat area was being converted
into palm oil plantation, despite existing
regulations banning such a practice.
3

claims of overlapping licenses.

An investigation by the Ministry of
Environment pointed to violations of
several environmental laws, including
the illegal the use of fire to clear land, he
said. Ministry of Forestry was using the
protection/conservation law, looking
at how orangutans were killed during
clearing.
The Governor of Aceh was
encouraged to use his administrative
powers to revoke the permit, Santosa
said. Governor Zaini Abdullah revoked
the permit to convert around 1,600
hectares of Rawa Tripas peat swamps
in late September.
With the REDD+ taskforces mandate
ending this year, the law enforcement
division is also working to develop the
one roof enforcement system, where
related government agencies work
together to tackle environmental
crimes using various regulations.

The Problem with Licenses

Our regents seem to have the

authority to give out any license
for forested areas, he said, adding
usually they have not been told
when a license has been issued in a
particular area.
We calculated an estimated 2,500
licenses that did not comply with rules.
Although a Minister had not issued a
permit to borrow or use land for mining
activities, or rights to release land for
plantation purposes, land is being used
for those very reasons.
Investigations into 44 separate
cases involving illegal or overlapping
licenses had already begun, he said.

VILLAGERS MANAGE
INDONESIAS OLD
FLAMING HABITS
WITH THE HELP OF
REDD+

Moving forward with REDD+

To ensure that progress initiated by
the taskforce continues to advance,
a permanent national REDD+ agency
will be launched by early next year,
said Mangkusubroto.

Another step that REDD+ is hoping

to take is to encourage the review
of existing licenses. The taskforce
has signed an agreement with the
government in Central Kalimantan
province to review licenses in three
districts as a trial, said Santosa.

This agency will be independent and

will report directly to the president.
It will have authority and a set of
powers to implement, coordinate
and synchronise matters. Otherwise,
things will end up very weak, he said.

The Ministry of Forestrys Investigations

chief, Raffles Brotestes Panjaitan, said
his division had its hands full with

Having a national agency like this is

a prerequisite to ensure that we reach
both Indonesias environmental and

VILLAGERS MANAGE INDONESIAS FIERY

HABITS WITH THE HELP OF REDD+
By Yogita Lal

PALANGKA RAYA, Indonesia

(November 2012). Equipped with
firemen uniforms, water hoses, a
pump and axes, rice farmers in
Garantung village on Indonesias
part of Borneo seem more like a
professional fire-fighting squad than
field hands. But every year - after
torching old paddies to make way
for their next harvests - they brace
for the mighty blazes to spiral out
of control, spreading, at times, to
nearby forests.
Slash-and-burn techniques have been
part of rice growing traditions for
generations in Garantung in Central
Kalimantan province, and experts say
thats unlikely to change without strict
legal enforcement or clear economic
incentives to use other methods or
start growing other crops instead.
The even bigger problem for the
village, is that it harbours a large area
of peatland, which becomes dry and
catches fire easily when it has been
drained for the paddy fields.
Within minutes, the landscape can be
transformed into an inferno.
6

Every year, the burning of degraded

peatlands in Indonesia especially in
the provinces in the islands of Borneo
and Sumatra -- generates a thick, dark
haze that blankets parts of Malaysia
and Singapore causing air pollution to
reach dangerously high levels.
And because greenhouse gas
emissions from the conversion
of peatland forests are up to 50
percent to 100 percent higher than
those from the deforestation of
normal rainforests, there are also
important implications for Indonesias
participation in Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and forest
Degradation, or REDD+.
The U.N.-backed scheme seeks
to channel funds to forest-rich
developing countries that agree not
to cut down trees.
Its a key part of global efforts to
slow climate change.
Daryo, a resident of Garantung, said
he doesnt see things changing in his
village any time soon.

3
Even when harvests are expected
to be bad, perhaps not even worth
the investment, farmers burn the
remnants of rice stalks to try to
encourage new sprouts to emerge.

have been used to provide villagers

with high-quality fire equipment and
protective gear as well as supporting
the week-long training of a number
of villagers.

Daryo says he is among only a handful

of other farmers who have started
planting five to 10 rubber trees -which requires the clearing of land only
once a decade, compared to annually
for rice -- on their lands instead.

They are taught how to put out fires

quickly, particularly when it comes
to peatlands, which naturally acts as
sponges, which can no longer retain
water when they are repeatedly burned.

Its a promising venture, he says,

noting the trees can be tapped
almost every day, and the sap sold to
buy daily necessities.
But most of the farmers are reluctant
to switch away from rice.
They need to see that it works on a
larger scale before they follow doing
what I am doing, Daryo said, adding
he no longer has to burn at all.
Others agree, its going to be an
uphill battle.
For experts, the starting point is
helping them put out fires.
For now, some of the funds for a
REDD+ scheme in Central Kalimantan
8

INDONESIA TO
CONSOLIDATE LAND
USE LICENSING INTO
SINGLE MAP

However complete and however

great the equipment is, if there is no
genuine will by the people, it will be
far more difficult to convince them
not to use fire, said Supardi, who is
the head of the sub-district Maliku,
which includes Garantung village.
Abetnego Tarigan, an environmental
activist and chief of the Indonesian Forum
for the Environment (Walhi), agrees.
If they dont have a good incentive to
change, they wont, he said.
The argument falls to a single word:
practicality, he said. Unless smoke
haze triggered from those fires
significantly and directly affects their
daily lives, neither people on the
ground, nor corporations will stop
using fires to slash and burn.
9

INDONESIA TO CONSOLIDATE LAND USE

LICENSING INTO SINGLE MAP
By Yogita Lal

JAKARTA, Indonesia (November

2012). Indonesia is one step closer
to improved forest governance, with
plans for a single all-encompassing
map that will consolidate information
from different government agencies
about land-use licenses.

The new law added to the

overlapping claims brought by
various maps that were already used
by different government agencies.
At present, there are many maps
floating around at many levels of
government agencies.

In 1999, the government passed a

regional autonomy law that provided
the legal basis for the transfer of
power to award licenses to develop
many sectors, including mining and
plantations, from central authorities to
those at the district and provincial level.

We decided that there is no way

we can develop this country by
having this more than one version
of a [forest and ecosystem] map,
explained Kuntoro Mangkusubroto,
Head of Indonesias REDD+ Taskforce.

10

The Indonesian REDD+ Taskforces

One Map Initiative (OMI) will use one
standard and be accessible by all
government departments and the
general public through one online
database.
It is scheduled to be released by the end
of next year and will be free of charge.
The creation of the map may also
have important implications for
Indonesias implementation of
the UN-backed scheme Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and

forest Degradation (REDD+), which

will see funds channeled from
developed to developing countries to
keep their trees standing. Numerous
REDD+ initiatives have started in the
country and a national strategy was
launched earlier this year.
REDD+ is a long-term scheme
and it will be difficult to implement
in Indonesia without clear tenure
boundaries so that benefits can
be shared equitably to the rightful
owners of the land and, equally,
to determine who is liable for
11

the delivery of carbon, said Daju

Resosudarmo, a scientist with the
Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR).
Several experts believe the OMI is
a crucial requirement to avoid the
thousands of overlapping land claims
occurring across the nation, many of
which have triggered violent conflict.
According to Abdon Nababan of
the Indigenous Peoples Alliance
of the Archipelago (AMAN), the
development of land within forested
regions has often ignored the rights of
indigenous communities in Indonesia.
Since Indonesias Forestry Law was
enacted in 1967, the government has
made claims over swathes of land and
proceeded to grant concessions to
developers who managed land, he
said. This has led to the displacement
of many indigenous people.
Although the forestry law does
recognise customary land, [it is] still
[considered] state land, he said,

12

and indigenous people are left with

the burden of trying to prove the
land is theirs.
Furthermore, the absence of a
consolidated map has seen many
regional authorities such as a governor
or district chief abusing their powers
to issue permits granting rights to use
forested land to concession holders,
said Nirarta Samadhi, head of the
working group on forest licenses
moratorium monitoring at Indonesias
REDD+ Taskforce.
To issue such a permit, a regent
would require a map. And this map
could be sketched by anyone as long
as it is somewhat compatible with
the one issued by the Coordinating
Agency for Surveys and Mapping,
Samadhi said.
[Under] the One Map Initiativethe
position of the regent will cease to be
appealing, because they will no longer
[be able] to profit from practices
linked to mapping and licensing.

4
INDONESIAS REDD+
PILOT PROVINCE:
HOW IS IT FARING
TWO YEARS ON?

13

INDONESIAS REDD+ PILOT PROVINCE:

HOW IS IT FARING TWO YEARS ON?
By Yogita Lal

PALANGKA RAYA, Indonesia

(November 2012). When Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono selected Central
Kalimantan as the pilot province for
his countrys Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and forest
Degradation (REDD+) program, it was
widely hoped some of the regions
grave environmental issues -- such
as large expanses of threatened
peatlands and high forest conversion
rates -- would be addressed.
Two years on, it seems many
of the same challenges remain,
prompting some policy makers
and conservationists to name the
province a matter of priority for the
Indonesian government.
Central Kalimantan and Riau were
the two provinces in the sprawling
tropical nation at risk of releasing
vast amounts of greenhouse gas
emissions into the atmosphere
due to their large number of deep,
carbon-rich peatlands, said Daniel
Murdiyarso, senior scientist with the
Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR).
If the government is trying to reduce
emissions by 26 percent, it needs to
include peatlands in REDD+, said
Murdiyarso, referring to President
Yudhoyonos target for 2020.
Central Kalimantan covers around
15 million hectares of land, of which
70 percent is still forested and rich
in biodiversity. The region has seen
consistent economic growth over
the last decade, however much of
this has come from unsustainable
expansion of the agriculture and
mining sectors.
For many of these reasons, Central
Kalimantan was chosen to lead
Indonesias trials of the UN-backed
climate mitigation scheme REDD+,
which sees funds channelled from
developed to developing countries to
keep their trees standing. Forest fires
and peat decomposition are the largest
drivers of emissions in the province.
Indonesias development of a
REDD+ pilot province is stipulated
under their partnership with the

14

Norwegian government through

a Letter of Intent signed in May
2010. Under the agreement, Norway
will provide Indonesia up to USD1
billion in performance-linked funds
for reducing deforestation and
forest degradation. This is tied to
Indonesias wider aim to deliver low
carbon development and contribute
to global action to reduce carbon
emissions by committing to a
26 percent emissions cut from
business-as-usual levels and by up
to 41 percent with outside assistance
by 2020, while attaining 7 percent
economic growth.

Kalimantans peatlands more

important than many think
Indonesias more than 20 million
hectares of peat swamp forests
have been neglected for decades,
considered nothing more than
wasteland and grossly undervalued,
according to Murdiyarso.
Forested peatlands contain
something like 200 tons of carbon
above ground, but the amount of
carbon below ground is five times
higher due to accumulation over
thousands of years, he said.
Central Kalimantan is still suffering
from the continuing impacts of the
failed Mega Rice project, which in
the 1990s aimed to turn more than
one million hectares of peat swamp
forest into rice paddies in an effort
to alleviate Indonesias growing food
shortage. The government invested
in constructing drainage canals and
removing trees of large swaths of
peatlands as part of the project.
In 2011, it placed a two-year
moratorium on new logging permits
for primary forest and peatlands, as
part of the wider efforts to reduce
emissions from deforestation.
However, a CIFOR analysis conducted
earlier this year showed that permits
have already been issued for almost
5 million hectares of carbon-rich
peatland that were previously thought
to be covered by the moratorium.

15

5
As the primary authority, the
government needs to work out an
arrangement with all those holding
forest concessions to manage
peatlands better, Murdiyarso said.
Despite the many challenges, Central
Kalimantans current governor,
Agustin Teras Narang has high hopes
for the provinces peatlands.
My target is [to] convert a million
hectares [of destroyed peatlands]
into its initial proper functions,
whether it is linked to forestry,
agriculture, farming or fisheries.

The ongoing problem of

Kalimantans extractive industries
Central Kalimantan is renowned as
the primary producer of green gold,
Teras said.
From the 1970s through to the
1980s, there were 120 production
forest concessions. Now, there are
55, he said, suggesting that the
fewer companies operating would
clear less forested areas as well.
Overlapping forest concessions between
central and provincial level authorities and
between different sectors have also seen
16

many violent clashes occur between

customary land holders and logging and
mining concession licensors.
Teras acknowledged these problems,
stating that he wished district heads
were more responsible in their
decision-making.
But this is not the case. Do you
know that there is a district here that
has issued over 230 mining permits?
And thats only one.
To address these problems, the
REDD+ Taskforce and the Central
Kalimantan government have been
reviewing existing logging licenses
within selected districts, and have
been exploring the legal options for
honouring the rights of indigenous
people. One such step forward is the
One Map Initiative (OMI), which aims
to consolidate land use licensing by
different government departments
and indigenous communities onto a
single all-encompassing map.

MAPPING
INDONESIAS
FUTURE:
INTEGRATING
INDIGENOUS CLAIMS
TO LAND

In light of the many challenges

ahead, Teras has a clear message for
the future leaders of the REDD+ pilot
province.
Whoever leads Central Kalimantan
in the future should not think that
they can use this land for [their own
interests], he said.
17

MAPPING
INDONESIAS
FUTURE:
INTEGRATING
INDIGENOUS
CLAIMS TO LAND
By Yogita Lal

PALANGKA RAYA, Indonesia

(November 2012). Dressed in a red
batik shirt and carrying a symbolic
long wooden dagger, Dayak leader
Lewis K.D.R. prepares for a sacred
ritual performed for centuries to tell
the forest spirits that villagers want
to use the land to build houses, farm,
and to start planting.
A priest, sitting on a tree stump
next to Lewis, chants prayers and
mantras and scatters rice to the
ground. Farmers and other villagers
run over and bend down so a few of
the grains can land on their heads
-- a traditional blessing to ward off
dangers and bad omens.
We will never destroy the
environment, because this is where
we live and survive, Lewis said,
explaining that the rice represents

18

the presence of humans and is used

to communicate to those the naked
eye cant see.
We want to preserve it so we can
hand it down to the next generation.
Indonesia is one of the most heavily
forested countries in the world,
but trees are being cut down at an
alarming rate for logging and mining
and to make way for pulp, paper and,
palm oil plantations.
Many concessions have been
awarded on land and in forests
where Dayaks and other indigenous
peoples have lived for generations,
sometimes sparking bloody conflicts
-- a problem exacerbated because
no comprehensive maps outlining
customary lands exist.

Thats starting to change, thanks in

part to Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD+), a U.N.-backed scheme
aimed at slowing climate change.
Armed with mapping tools, GPSs,
compasses and other equipment,
indigenous groups have got a big
boost on funding and technical support
from REDD+ on work that started
15 years ago to reach some kind of
agreement on customary land borders.
Today, everywhere across Indonesia,
there are tremendous overlapping
claims over land, said Abdon
Nababan, Secretary General of the
Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the
Archipelago (AMAN), noting that
the troubles started nearly four
decades ago with the passage of the
Forestry Law, when the government
19

started claiming huge swathes

of land and converting them for
timber concessions.
If by chance oil and gas are
discovered on the indigenous lands,
then mining permits are issued.
The idea behind REDD+ is simple:
offer financial incentives to countries
that sequester carbon or avoid
deforestation, compensate them
for lost opportunities, and suspend
payments if they dont follow through
on their promises.
But while numerous initiatives have
started in Indonesia, some in Dayak
lands, success hinges in part on how the
customary land rights issue is settled.

in place on carbon tenure the

question of who has the rights to
the land is key. Subsequently, who is
going to be liable if Indonesias carbon
emissions reduction is not fulfilled?
Indigenous communities under AMAN
are covering the bulk of the mappingproject costs, and facilitators have
provided them with the equipment
and the necessary training.
The hope is that these maps will
eventually be integrated into the
REDD+ One Map Initiative (OMI)
-- a single, all-encompassing map
of Indonesia that aims to contain all
relevant information linked to forest
licensing and land use claims.

How will we determine who has the

rights to the carbon in the forest? asked
Daju Resosudarmo, scientist with the
Center for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR), whose work on REDD+ has
recently also been published in the
book Analysing REDD+.

The process of having this map is to

[invite] public participation .. so they
can make corrections, adjustments,
changes and reviews, said Kuntoro
Mangkusubroto, Chairman of
Indonesias REDD+ Taskforce, adding
that these joint-efforts increase the
likelihood of fair and accurate borders.

Who is going to get the financial

benefits from trading carbon? she
asked, noting that with no regulations

It is Nababans hope that, by the end

of the year, at least 5 million hectares
of indigenous lands will be mapped.

20

6
REDD+ FUNDS BRING
NEW BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES
TO INDONESIAN
VILLAGES

21

REDD+ FUNDS
BRING NEW
BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES
TO INDONESIAN
VILLAGES
By Yogita Lal

PALANGKA RAYA, Indonesia

(November 2012). Indonesias villagers
are benefiting from funds provided
by an international forest-preserving
scheme by cultivating mushrooms
instead of relying on unsustainable
slash-and-burn land clearing
techniques, and re-learning the nearlost art of rattan mat weaving.
The people here feel that the
government does not help them,
said Supardi, the chief of Manteran II,
a small village in Central Kalimantan
province that has benefited from
funding provided by Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Deforestation (REDD+) to
support alternative livelihoods.
Which is why were so grateful for
REDD+. Finally, there has been some
reaction to our [economic] situation.
The U.N.-backed program, which
is aimed at helping slow climate
change, financially rewards forestrich countries for keeping their
trees standing. The scheme is a
key element in Indonesias efforts
to achieve its commitment to cut
emissions by 26 percent from
business-as-usual levels and 41
percent with outside assistance
by 2020. More than 40 REDD+
initiatives have started in the
country, including in the pilot
province of Central Kalimantan.
While REDD+ has placed a heavy focus
on the role of forests in slowing climate
change due to their large storage of
carbon, Daju Resosudarmo, a scientist
with the Center for International
Forestry Research (CIFOR), explains
that one way to ensure that the
environment is protected, is to look

22

after the livelihoods and the well-being

of communities.
Conservation and poverty alleviation
is an integral part of REDD+s
success, she said.
The idea is, when presented better
income opportunities, communities
are more likely to voluntarily adopt
improved farming strategies and
techniques that are compatible with
environmental protection.
One such project, supported by
Indonesias REDD+ taskforce and the
National Program for Community
Empowerment (PNPM), has been
training villagers in Manteran II to
cultivate oyster mushrooms a nontimber forest product that is widespread
in many temperate and subtropical
forests throughout the world.
Previously, all the farmers in the

village relied on cutting and burning

forests or woodlands to create fields
for farming. We want to move away
from this, Supardi said. We are
going to focus on mushrooms that
can be [economically] productive
within months.

The mushrooms can potentially make

a bundle for growers. In Pulang Pisau
regency alone, oyster mushrooms
have been fetching up to 30,000
rupiah (USD3) per kilogram. In some
of the bigger cities, they can get
40,000 rupiah a kilogram.

Oyster mushrooms, a delectable treat

packed with B complex vitamins
and free of fat and cholesterol, are
relatively easy to grow indoors on
sawdust blocks. A resident there
had developed a successful oyster
mushroom business, prompting the
villagers to ask for REDD+ funds so
they could start similar businesses.

The villagers are in the process of

building a structure to house the
oyster mushrooms, which they will
collectively plant and maintain. There
will be 36 people in the first batch of
training, which is slated to start in a
few weeks.

Re-learning lost crafts

Residents want to know how to do
this. We require training and practice
on how to grow mushrooms, Supardi
said. People have different financial
abilities and this is why we looked for
funding and training resources.

Over a couple of hours drive away

from Manteran II is the village of
Henda, where scores of women are
receiving a different kind of training.

23

Thanks to a REDD+ initiative, which

provides costs for trainings and
initial capital, the housewives of
Henda are re-learning the traditional
Dayak tribal craft of rattan weaving,
which many feared was in danger of
becoming a lost art.
Due to modernity, women have
forgotten the crafts that were part of
our ancestors tradition, said Rina,
a local villager who is part of the
programs facilitation team.
Rattan has been cultivated in
Kalimantan for more than 100 years,
however, over the past two decades,
government policies designed to
encourage the domestic rattan
processing industry have sharply
depressed demand and prices.

Some 30 women in Henda village

have received training on how to
process and weave the mats with the
patterns distinctly of Dayak heritage.
They now meet twice weekly to work
together from skinning the rattans
they harvested, splintering them
into sections, and weaving them
into mats. In the future, they will also
have sessions on how to market the
mats, said Rina. Each colored mat,
which takes a week to make, is sold
for about 500,000 rupiah, while the
plain ones can bring in up to 350,000
rupiah apiece.
We want this [program] to
continue because it also adds to our
economy, Rina said.

7
INDONESIA USES
ACEH PEAT SWAMPS
AS LEARNING
GROUNDS
FOR FOREST
GOVERNANCE

24

25

INDONESIA USES ACEH PEAT

SWAMPS AS LEARNING GROUNDS
FOR FOREST GOVERNANCE
By Olivia Rondonuwu

RAWA TRIPA, Indonesia (November

2012). Indonesia plans to use Rawa
Tripa in its westernmost province of
Aceh, where the country had a recent
victory in peatlands protection, as
learning grounds to improve forests
governance and legal enforcement
through license review.

of a ban to convert deep peat areas

by setting fires in its swamps. The
Indonesian task force that coordinates
efforts to reduce emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation
(REDD+), reached out to related
government institutions, which took
swift actions.

Rawa Tripa captured headlines early

this year when local environmental
NGOs reported a suspected breach

Within nine months, activities on

the ground have been stopped and
suspects identified. A court decision

26

recommended that Acehs governor

revoke an improper license previously
awarded to oil palm companies to
convert 1,605 hectares of land inside
Rawa Tripa.
There we saw a company destroying
the nature... (The company) violated
regulations, said Zaini Abdullah, the
newly inaugurated Governor of Aceh who
stripped the license in late September.
The protection and rehabilitation of
peatlands, which store multiple times
the amount of carbon as mineral soils,
is key to Indonesias efforts to reduce
emissions by 26 percent from businessas-usual levels by 2020. Deforestation
and land use change, including in
peatlands, contribute around 80
percent of the countrys total emissions.

The government is now using the

case in Rawa Tripa to try to improve
collaboration between official bodies
at the national, provincial and district
level, said Nirarta Samadhi, head of
the working group on moratorium
monitoring at the REDD+ taskforce.
It is also being used to develop a
mechanism to review licenses to
convert forests that are suspected
of having been acquired through an
improper process, said Samadhi.
The REDD+ task force has also
suggested using various laws,
including agriculture, forestry,
environmental, anti-corruption
and tax regulations, to investigate
suspected violations, said Mas
Achmad Santosa, head of the REDD+
27

task forces legal review and law

enforcement working group.
Thats what happened in Rawa Tripa.
Everything was black, burnt down,
said Sudariyono, deputy minister for
law compliance at the Ministry of
the Environment, describing what he
saw when he visited the area earlier
this year. The ministrys investigation
suggested deliberate burning, a
practice that violates environmental
laws, he said.
The Ministry of Forestry has started a
probe on suspicion that some critically
endangered Sumatran orangutans
died in the fires, said Raffles Panjaitan,
the ministrys director for forest
investigation and protection.
He added, however, the government
does not have enough money or the
human resources to investigate the
many suspected violations of forestry
and conservation laws in the country.
He hopes some of the funds from REDD+
can be used to improve law enforcement.
As for the status of legal review,
one province has already started
going over existing licenses: Central
Kalimantan, which was appointed as
a pilot province for REDD+.
The provincial government is looking
at potential violations in three of its
districts, said Santosa.

28

Managing peatlands
The government is also planning to
use Rawa Tripa to develop policies
and incentives to better manage
peatlands, whether in areas that
were protected or already under
concessions to be converted.
Rawa Tripa is a manageable size,
said Samadhi. We would be able
to quickly generate approaches to
better manage peatland areas.
The management of peatlands under
concessions is critical to ensure
minimal emissions get released
into the atmosphere, said Daniel
Murdiyarso, a senior scientist at the
Center for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR). Half of more than
20 million hectares of peatlands in
Indonesia have been licensed to be
converted into pulp wood or oil palm
plantations, he said.
In case the peatland is already
converted, a strong measure to
control fire and water table is
needed, he said.
The REDD+ task force has
commissioned studies on peat
characteristics, social and economic
impacts on local communities, and
on biodiversity in Rawa Tripa. The
results are expected to show the way
to better peat swamp protection
and management, which can be
replicated in other areas in Indonesia,
said Samadhi.

8
HOW BAD IS IT?
POLICYMAKERS
NEED MORE
INFORMATION
ABOUT PEATLAND
EMISSIONS

29

HOW BAD IS IT?

POLICYMAKERS
NEED MORE
INFORMATION
ABOUT
PEATLAND
EMISSIONS
By Olivia Rondonuwu

30

JAKARTA, Indonesia (November

2012). Governments looking for
ways to help slow climate change
should reduce the rate of peatland
conversion until researchers can
gather concrete, scientific data on
the amount of carbon being pumped
into the atmosphere, leading
scientists say.
This will help them understand why
protection of these rich, watery
ecosystems is so important, said
Daniel Murdiyarso of the Center
for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR), who is working with
31

colleagues to develop a globallyaccepted methodology to measure

wetlands emissions.
Peatlands, which store up to a third
of global soil carbon, were for many
years considered marginal lands.
Studies in the 1970s focused on
how best to convert them in ways
that were income-generating. In
Indonesia, this resulted in the Mega
Rice Project -- the cultivation of over
a million hectares of peatlands on
Borneo island in the 90s.
More recently, these carbon-rich
lands have been cleared to plant
palm oil used to make everything
from soap and lipstick to cleanburning fuel and for pulp wood
and timber.
Indonesia, which has more peatlands
than any other country in the world,
loses in average 2 percent every year,
said Murdiyarso.
Research about the amount of
emissions being released in the
process, the senior CIFOR scientist
said, is especially important as
the world works to slow climate
change by Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation.
A recent study by CIFOR and
partners said 89 out of 99 tropical
countries taking part in the U.N.backed scheme, more commonly
referred to as REDD+, do not yet
have the capacity to fulfill the
monitoring requirements.
And a few, including Brazil and
Kenya, didnt realize until recently
they even had peatlands.
In Indonesia, many areas lack even
basic data on these ecosystems.
Rawa Tripa, in westernmost Aceh
province, is part of the Gunung
Leuser Ecosystem, the only place
in the world where orangutans,
tigers, rhinos and elephants still
exist side-by-side in the wild. It got
international attention last year after
environmental NGOs reported a
suspected breach of a ban to turn its
rich, peatland into sprawling palm oil
plantations, largely through burning.

32

When officials, academics, and nongovernmental groups sat together

in June to discuss how to save Rawa
Tripa, big questions popped up:
How deep is the peat? How much
carbon is inside. And how rich is the
biodiversity?
We needed to move to save Tripa,
but in that forum we realised that we
didnt have enough information about
it, said Nirarta Samadhi, who heads
the working group on moratorium
monitoring at the countrys REDD+
Taskforce.
He and others asked local and
national government agencies to help
put a quick stop to the destruction
and while commissioning studies on
Rawa Tripas peat characteristics,
social and economic conditions, and
its biodiversity.
Information gathered will be used
to experiment on ways to save
peatlands that have been partly lost
or degraded.
Studies by CIFOR say around 80
percent of Indonesias emission, or
about two billion tonnes, is from
the removal of biomass and land
use change from peatlands, making
them the lowest hanging fruit as
the country tries to meet goals to
cut emissions by 26 percent from
business-as-usual levels by 2020.
Murdiyarso said of the more than
20 million hectares of peatlands
in Indonesia, about half have been
licensed for concessions to be
converted into pulp wood or oil palm
plantations. The problem then is, not
only how to preserve peat swamps
that have not yet been licensed, he
said, but how to find ways to properly
manage those that have.

9
EXCHANGING
FORESTS WITH
DEGRADED LANDS:
A CHALLENGE FOR
INDONESIA

We want to show how and why

peatlands are important, he said,
that means finding out exactly how
rich they are in carbon and the
various benefits to that. But more
than that, peatlands are unique
ecosystems and the only habitat
where species like orangutans,
Arwana, and jelutung (Dyera
costulata) can live.

33

EXCHANGING
FORESTS WITH
DEGRADED LANDS:
A CHALLENGE FOR
INDONESIA
By Olivia Rondonuwu

JAKARTA, Indonesia (November

2012). Its being touted as a way to
reduce deforestation in Indonesia:
Give investors who have already been
issued permits to convert forests and
peatlands into plantations degraded
land instead. Still, the country has a
long way to go before this is possible,
including figuring out what incentives
are needed to make these land swaps
a reality.
The assets of the forests, for one, are
often used to fund the operations
of palm oil or pulp and paper
plantations. Lack of clarity about land
rights issues is also likely to make
investors nervous.
Another big stumbling block is
that government institutions
including the land agency, the
ministry of forestry, and the ministry
of agriculture have different
definitions for degraded land, said
Nirarta Samadhi, who is helping the

34

country coordinate efforts to reduce

emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation (REDD+).
Until thats reconciled, it wont be
possible to draw up a comprehensive
map and database for degraded
lands, which would pave the way for
these exchanges.
A half-century ago, more than
three-quarters of the sprawling
archipelagic nation of 240 million
people was blanketed in plush
tropical rainforest. But in the rush
to supply the world with logs, pulp
and paper and more recently palm
oil, half of those trees have been
cleared, making it one of the biggest
contributors to climate change.
Though President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono has pledged to cut
greenhouse gas emissions by 26
percent from business-as-usual by
2020, Indonesia also has to increase
food production and export to keep
up with an economy that is growing
at 6.2 percent last quarter, making
it the fastest among G-20 countries
after China.
The President believes in the benefits
of the land swap scheme.
New policies and incentives will be
on the table for those who would
turn unproductive grasslands into
high-yielding and productive assets,

35

10
Yudhoyono told business leaders in
Jakarta in April last year.
The success of this program is
critical to our success in pursuing a
green economy.
But its an uphill battle.
More than half of the 22 million
hectares of land slated by the
Ministry of Forestry for plantations
is forested, according to the Center
for International Forestry Researchs
study Reducing Forestry Emissions
in Indonesia, which warned its a
plan that could result in huge carbon
deficits for decades to come.
Developing plantations on degraded
lands is critical, the 2010 study said,
pointing as well to the need for
accurate spatial planning data.
Most of Indonesias greenhouse gas
emissions come from land use change,
particularly from deforestation and
clearing of peatlands. This prompted
Indonesia to try REDD+, a global
scheme that aims to slow climate
change by compensating developing
countries that protect their forests.
36

But while the land swap proposal is

being heavily promoted, degraded
lands are likely to be less attractive to
timber and oil palm investors because
there are no forest assets to liquidate
to fund plantation operations,
said authors in CIFORs study on
Indonesias forestry emissions.

LOSS OF PEAT
FORESTS CHANGES
LIVES, NOT JUST
CLIMATE

Incentives for land swaps and

plantation mosaics must be introduced
and Implemented, they said.
Abetnego Tarigan, the national
executive director of environmental
group Walhi, warned that many areas
that may be earmarked as degraded
lands have already permits on them.
With this uncertainty, companies that
hold concessions with forests would
not agree to do the land swap.
Another option is to encourage
companies with permits to develop
plantations on forested areas to change
their concession into a conservation
license, said Samadhi. This is a business
that will still generate income through
selling carbon credits to the voluntary
markets and conserve the forests at the
same time, he said.

37

LOSS OF PEAT FORESTS CHANGES LIVES,

NOT JUST CLIMATE
By Olivia Rondonuwu

RAWA TRIPA, Indonesia (November

2012). Before the heavy machinery
started clearing the forests and
splitting apart peat swamps to
make way for palm oil plantations
in western Indonesia, honey was a
lucrative source of income and it
was easy to find catfish, fruits and
medicinal herbs, residents say.
But today, fishermen from Rawa Tripa
in Aceh have to travel far downstream,
sometimes to the mouth of the river,
to net even 5 kilograms of the lele
lokan; fish a week compared to the
30 to 40 kilograms they were pulling
out every day just a few decades
ago, said Suratman, who lives in the
northern part of the peat swamp.

38

With trees disappearing, villagers have

little reprieve from the equatorial sun,
leaving clean drinking water in short
supply. Others have noticed a loss of
diversity among plant species and say
bees have nowhere to build their hives.
As policy makers across the globe search
for ways to slow climate change, much
of the focus has been on deforestation,
which is responsible for more
greenhouse gas emissions than cars,
trucks, planes and ferries combined.
Peatlands -- once considered marginal
land because of a lack of knowledge
started getting attention after research
found that these swamps contain one
third of all soil carbon worldwide.

39

But Daniel Murdiyarso, a senior scientist

with the Center for International
Forestry Research, is quick to say its
not just about carbon
Peatlands, he said, offer a lot of
services to the community.
Satellite imagery taking one year ago of
the Rawa Tripa area shows only 13,000
hectares of forests remaining from a
total of 60,000 hectares two decades
ago, according to a report from the
Sustainable Ecosystem Foundation
(YEL), with the heaviest destruction
occurring in the last five or six years.
Its a situation that is repeating
itself all over Southeast Asia, which
according to a recent CIFOR study is
losing more than 100,000 hectares
of peat swamp forests every year to
make way for palm oil, pulpwood and
other plantations.

While this has created new jobs, local

communities are starting to understand that
reduced forest cover has stripped them of
other, once-reliable sources of income.
Thats true elsewhere, as well.

40

On average, forest income constitutes

more than one-fifth of total household
income among rural poor globally,
while environmental income (forest
and non-forest) makes up more than a
quarter, according to a study by CIFOR
conducted under the banner of Poverty
Environment Network.
Around 8,000 households were
surveyed in 25 countries.
Everything will die if Rawa Tripa
(peat forest) is no longer here, except
for working on palm oil plantation we
wont have other options, said Tengku
Syamsuri, the village chief of Ladang
Baru, who wants the government to
find ways to reverse the trend before
its too late.
There may not be a great deal of economic
value in the fish, plants and trees, but at least
we could count on them.

11
AS FORESTS
DISAPPEAR,
ORANGUTANS CLING
ON IN DIMINISHING
PEAT SWAMPS

41

AS FORESTS
DISAPPEAR,
ORANGUTANS
CLING ON IN
DIMINISHING
PEAT SWAMPS

RAWA TRIPA, Indonesia (November

2012). A little patch of forest, two
hectares in size, looks lonely in the
vast expanse of oil palm plantations
that surround it. But from a short
distance, forestry police spot four
new orangutan nests high up in
the trees - proof that the critically
endangered great apes still live in the
Rawa Tripa peat swamp in Indonesias
western province of Aceh.

By Olivia Rondonuwu

Forests are fragmented here.

This means, when there is an
immediate threat, like a fire, the
animals have no place to escape, said
Indrianto, who lives near Tripa and
works to save orangutans there.
They have to cross kilometer-uponkilometer of open plantation where they
risk being shot by humans, who see them
as pests to reach a bigger forest.

42

Orangutans, the only great apes

in Asia, can only be found on the
islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
There are only around 6,600 Pongo
abelii (the Sumatran kind with goldenhued hair) estimated to be left. The
Borneo species, or Pongo pygmaeus,
is also on a decline, with only between
45,000 to 69,000 remaining.
One of the biggest threats they face
is conversion of peat swamps using
fire, as happened recently in Rawa
Tripa, said Sri Suci Utami Atmoko,
a primatologist from Indonesias
National University.
The apes prefer these rich, watery
ecosystems because they provide
more food than the forests on mineral
soil. When there is fire, its mostly
the bigger and stronger males that
survive. The females, who by nature

stick close to their home, get burned,

said Atmoko.
Because they only give birth five
times on average over the course of
their lives, the survival of the species
rests heavily on them.
Forest conversion and fire will only
speed up their extinction, Atmoko said.
Environmentalists and experts have
called on climate change negotiators
to ensure that conservation of
biodiversity, including the iconic
orangutans, is required as a cobenefit from Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and forest
Degradation (REDD+). The global
forest carbon scheme aims to
compensate developing countries for
keeping trees standing.

43

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A 2009 study from the Center for

International Forestry Research
(CIFOR) found that the conservation
impact of payment from reduced
emissions from deforestation would
be more effective if the payments
were extended to all carbon-rich
tropical forests, including peat
swamps not just protected areas.
Reduced forest cover offers less
food for orangutans, forcing them to
venture outside to eat the leafy tips of
oil palm trees - where they, again, risk
coming into contact with humans.
Another big threat is the market
for baby orangutans as pet in
both Indonesia and Malaysia. Cute
and cuddly when they are small,
they fetch around 2 million rupiah
(USD210) each, said Indrianto, who
conducted a survey in Aceh.
A mother orangutan will protect its
baby at all costs, and poachers must
beat or shoot the mother to death
to take the baby away, said Linda
44

Yuliani, a scientist at CIFOR who is

conducting a research on Bornean
orangutans around Danau Sentarum
wetlands in West Kalimantan.
Scientists estimate that between two
to eight orangutans are killed for one
baby orangutan being traded.
Atmoko called for the government
and businesses to work together to
raise the chance for orangutans to
survive. One option would be for
firms to set aside an area in each
forest concession to remain unlogged
and combine several to make a bigger
forest for the primates.
There is much more to learn from
orangutans, said Atmoko.
We are curious to know how they
range the forest, adapt with old age,
whether they could manage forest
encroachment and how.
We cannot know any of this if the
orangutans are extinct, she said.

45

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank everyone helping with the production of these
multimedia packages, with special thanks to:
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Ministry of Forestry
Ministry of Environment
Government of Central Kalimantan Province
Government of Aceh Province
Government of Nagan Raya District
Wali Nanggroe Aceh
REDD+ Joint Secretariat (Sekber REDD+), Central Kalimantan
REDD+ Regional Council, Central Kalimantan
Garantung village, Central Kalimantan
Henda village, Central Kalimantan
Manteran II village, Central Kalimantan
Dayak Traditional Council, Central Kalimantan
Grand Council of Hindu Kaharingan, Central Kalimantan
Government of Nagan Raya District, Aceh
Nagan Raya District Forestry Agency, Aceh
Nagan Raya Police, Aceh
Darul Makmur Subdistrict Police, Aceh
Ladang Baru village, Aceh
The Presidential Palaces Press Bureau
The National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM)
The Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN)
Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari (YEL)
WALHI
Coalition to Save Rawa Tripa
PT Borneo Productions International
PT Rimba Makmur Utama
Telapak
46