In February 2010, USAID published a community-based research study, or stocktaking, to identify enabling conditions that engendered successful forest management. As a knowledge management tool, stocktaking starts with impacts and then works backwards to a) identify the barriers that were overcome to achieve those impacts, and b) identify the specific actions taken to break down the barriers.

This stocktaking, was conducted at three sites in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Kalimantan is one of several Indonesian provinces where many communities rely on forest resources in addition to agriculture for their subsistence. West Kalimantan was selected for this stocktaking activity because a variety of sites are known to exemplify extremely successful NRM practices. The three sites studied reflected successful, sustainable community-based forest management (CBFM), defined as the use of forest that meets or exceeds conservation objectives while maintaining livelihoods, or sustainable human-nature interaction.

The report analyzes these three successful communities by defining their socio-ecological approaches and the underlying factors of each community such as:

The study also looked at financial opportunities and economic leverage for CBFM in these communities, identifying several potential opportunities for communities to benefit from funding through various programs related to climate change mitigation - through regulated carbon markets, such as emission trading or Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM), and voluntary carbon markets, such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

In the context of mitigating climate change, forests play a role in capturing and storing vast amounts of carbon. Therefore, restoring forests, planting new forests, reducing deforestation or forest degradation, and implementing sustainable forest management will reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the forest not only retains carbon but also supports local communities (indigenous people) and livelihoods through provision of many products, as well as performing ecosystem services such as the provision of water resources and wildlife habitat. Consequently, local communities can receive financial rewards for engaging in activities that preserve the forest, thereby compensating them for a portion of income lost from forest exploitation. As Indonesia generates a significant share of the world's carbon emissions from forest loss (more than four times the volume of emissions from energy consumption in Indonesia based data from World Resource Institute), it could potentially access a large share of the forest emission reduction market (potentially $2 billion per year). 

Various financial incentives for climate change initiatives and other activities such as Payment for Environment Services are available to communities to assist them in maintaining their current CBFM practices and incentivize them to continue these efforts.  

In Indonesia, PES for watershed management has advanced over the last five years whereas REDD is still in the pilot phase. It is possible that, through PES, the communities who are good stewards of the land will be recognized and compensated for practicing conservation activities that lead to protecting water sources. Socializing this concept and setting up schemes such as PES takes coordination and long-term commitment. At the time of the field work for this study (Spring 2009), communities did not have enough access to information needed to pursue financial incentives. Although minimal credit was available in two of the study sites, it could be better utilized in the future for business development.

The stocktaking exercise was conducted by analyzing similarities in the factors leading to successful CBFM practices across the study sites. The success factors are categorized in terms of spatial management; social, economic, and natural resources subsystems; and climate change. The recommendations for how to scale-up these activities were developed as "minimum enabling conditions" or "minimum enabling tools" that other sites should have to sustain and strengthen successful CBFM. The identified success factors and recommendations included:

It is important to prepare inventories of local assets - particularly natural resources and environmental services. It is even more important, however, to build on existing values and sustainable management activities by enhancing what is already working well.

Financial Incentives in Climate Change Context- success factors/scaling up

The findings suggest that there are several - perhaps many - examples of community-based forest management that are not only ecologically sustainable but which also contribute significantly to people's economic and social well-being. The challenge is now to discuss these findings with a broader audience of people that can influence the way in which policy makers, local authorities and implementing agencies perceive the value of forest and forest lands in the development of the country. To help achieve this goal, the team has established the Community-based Forest Management in Indonesia Community of Practice on FRAMEweb, where NRM practitioners can access and discuss the research finding and recommendations.

Take a look at the on-going discussionfeatured below and participate now or read the entire report in the Take a Look section!

Here are some of the issues FRAMEweb members are talking about:

Indonesia Stocktaking - How has lack of clear forest governance policies led to the success or failure of community-based forest management?


Biogas - I need more information on economic production of biogas for rural communities as a way of replacing the cooking wood and the forest dependency.

Do a scientific calculation of the possible stocks of bio mass available (truly available) look at what the competition is for those stocks in terms of animal food, manure, housing materials and very importantly the labor times for collection of materials to feed the digester. Generally it takes larger stocks than one suspects and getting things that are rich enough to feed the digestion process is important. Temperature and humidity are important to getting the digestion/fermentation going and keep it going. Dry straw, grass stalks and dry leaves are not optimal.

Management and technical talent to provide oversight need to be considered. It may look simple to us but it is a lot harder for a villager to get what they need to keep things going so be realistic about how much TA costs will be to get it going sustainably.Click here to contribute to the discussion or read the 15 responses.

ICT/ Climate Change - How could Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) be used to help communities better adapt to climate change?

ICT has a big development in African countries, specially because the GPRS technology development. GSM, SMS, GPRS mobile TV and mobile Internet is now a way to inform people about multiple topics like peace, weather alerts and to provide and collect information about risk and environmental impact. Also the possibility to contact people all around the world and to have answers and support is a big change. Sites like Infospring and Frameweb, that can be accessed in Africa, as well than in the Americas, Asia and the rest of the world are providing information and help.Click here to learn more about ICT for Development and contribute.

Do you have a question or comment you want to post on FRAMEweb?

Sign-in, click on a Community Topic or Partner Page and click on the Ask icon.

Need help, send us an e-mailand we will walk you through it!

Expand your knowledge on community-based forest management with these diverse resources.

Community-Based Forest Management In Kalimantan, Indonesia: A Stocktaking of Lessons Learned
The goal of this stocktaking was to identify enabling conditions that engendered successful forest management in different locations in order to inform a process that would establish a set of principles for sound forest management. The stocktaking reviewed earlier work and examined three sites where different ecological, economic, and socio-cultural conditions prevail and distinct systems of forest governance are in place. The intention was to isolate the factors that have led to success across a broad array of ecological and socio-cultural conditions. This process and the discussions following the study also provided visibility that has attracted the attention of government, donors, and other parties that are in a position to influence forest management practices in Indonesia. Click here to read the full report and participate in the related discussions.


Forests for the people, indigenous communities (Masyarakat Adat) or cooperatives? Plural perspectives in the policy debate or community forestry in Indonesia
This book chapter highlights the current debate over the future of Indonesia' s forests. The national government of Indonesia controls over 70% of Indonesia' s land. Over a third of this area is classified as production forest. Utilization rights to over 90% of production forests were ceded to private industries with the backing of district, provincial government and the military. Forests rich in biodiversity were established as protected areas with accompanying restrictions on access and use. These forest-zoning policies transferred forest rights from the poor to a small urban elite and effectively marginalized communities. The fall of Soeharto has provided the opportunity to address forest policy reform, which currently focuses upon three issues: (1) rights and access, (2) distribution of resources, and (3) regulation and management. Two competing arguments dominate the policy debate: the first calls for the recognition and return to customary rights over forests as a necessary precondition to reform. Click here to read this chapter.

Agroforestry for sustainable development: Policy lessons from Central America and Panama
This 1994 working paper was developed under the USAID-funded Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Training project (EPAT/MUCIA). It is conceived as an instrument to guide efforts to introduce sustainability concepts to development projects that concern social forestry, watershed management, and conservation. The author highlights policy related lessons from eleven social forestry programs from five Central American countries, with the hope that these examples will reduce the isolation of policy makers from field issues. Social forestry is presented as an alternative to large scale planting and strictly protected forests. A framework of seven factors for gauging the contribution of a project to sustainable development in a given area is presented and it is used to evaluate the eleven example projects. Click here to read the full report.

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