Abstract
The National REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation-Plus) Strategy in Indonesia highlights the importance of local participation and the reform of land tenure in the success of forest conservation. National parks are a main target area for REDD+. National parks in Indonesia have been suffering from forest destruction and conflicts between governments and local communities. This study investigated: (1) the historical process of developing the REDD+ project in collaboration with multiple stakeholders including government authorities, local NGOs, and local people; (2) the social and economic impacts of the REDD+ project on local people; and (3) the local awareness of and motivations to participate in the REDD+ project in Meru Betiri National Park in Indonesia. Interviews of stakeholders including village leaders, NGO staff, and park staff were conducted to obtain an overview of the REDD+ project in the national park. Interviews with a questionnaire were also conducted among randomly selected heads of households who participated or did not participate in the REDD+ project and lived adjacent to the national park. Our analysis revealed that participants in the project obtained the right to use illegally harvested bared lands for intercropping while planting trees to recover forest ecosystems inside the national park. This opportunity could have contributed to a drastic increase in income, particularly for economically disadvantaged people, and to the recovery of forest ecosystems. Although local people did not fully recognize the meaning of REDD+ or carbon credits, they were enthusiastic to join in managing and patrolling forests because of their satisfaction with the income generated by the national park. However, the challenge is how both the recovery of forests and income generation from the project can be maintained in a situation of insufficient funding from donors and unsettled arguments about the benefit of sharing carbon credits with local people.
Highlights
IntroductionBecause deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries are among the major contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, and the loss of forest area has negative impacts on environmental services and on local livelihoods, this result-based REDD+ scheme is expected to promote a climate change mitigation measure that will deliver environmental and social benefits, from protection of biodiversity and preventing deforestation and forest degradation, to improvement of local livelihoods [2]
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation-Plus (REDD+), which is the latest global attempt to address the conservation of forests and sustainable forest management as well as the issues of deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, was internationally recognized in the Bali Action Plan at Thirteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP13)in 2007 [1]
Successful achievements and challenges of the REDD+ project are identified based on the research results: how the project could both conserve forest ecosystems through rehabilitation and improve local livelihoods through agroforestry, how carbon credits may function in the market, and how the benefits of carbon credits may be distributed
Summary
Because deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries are among the major contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, and the loss of forest area has negative impacts on environmental services and on local livelihoods, this result-based REDD+ scheme is expected to promote a climate change mitigation measure that will deliver environmental and social benefits, from protection of biodiversity and preventing deforestation and forest degradation, to improvement of local livelihoods [2] It may provide multiple benefits and promises a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved [3]. These safeguards imply that REDD+ is more than just a result-based financial scheme and pays more attention to forest-dependent people’s livelihoods, participation, and rights, including tenure security [7]
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