How Can Social Safeguards of REDD+ Function Effectively Conserve Forests and Improve Local Livelihoods? A Case from Meru Betiri National Park, East Java, Indonesia

Kazuhiro Harada, Dede Prabowo, Arif Aliadi, Jun Ichihara and Hwan-Ok Ma
Additional contact information
Kazuhiro Harada: Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Department of Biosphere Resources Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya 4648601, Japan
Dede Prabowo: Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, United Nations University (UNU-IAS), Tokyo 1508925, Japan
Arif Aliadi: Lembaga Alam Tropika Indonesia (LATIN), Bogor 16115, Indonesia
Jun Ichihara: Technical Cooperation Project for Capacity Development for the National Focal Point on Climate Change to Enhance the Coordination and Evaluation of Climate Change Policies in Indonesia, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Jakarta 10340, Indonesia
Hwan-Ok Ma: International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), Yokohama 2200012, Japan

Land, 2015, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-21

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.

Keywords: REDD+; climate change mitigation; social safeguard; land use right; rehabilitation; communities’ participation; local awareness; national park; Indonesia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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