Land Donations and the Gift of Water. On Temple Landlordism and Irrigation Agriculture in Pre-Colonial Bali

The Batur Temple (Pura Ulun Danu Batur) in Kintamani is located at the geographic apex of a so-called ritual water hierarchy and has conventionally been described as a purely religious institution responsible for the coordination and distribution of the irrigation water. However, an analysis of historical palm leaf manuscripts reveals that the temple had a firm economic base with corresponding interests and that it was one of the most important land-owners in late pre-colonial Bali. The article therefore explores from a socio-political and economic perspective the implications of this form of temple landlordism and its combination with ritual water control, particularly for the peasants and the portion of their annual surplus that they were obliged to deliver to this temple

Correlations, Causes and the Logic of Obscuration: Donor Shaping of Dominant Narratives in Indonesia's Irrigation Development

This article analyses policy trends in Indonesian irrigation, particularly during the last five decades, from the perspective of dominant narratives, as authored, suggested and pushed by international donors. It argues that international donors' adherence to ‘deferred maintenance’ as the core element of irrigation policy problem framing does not match with farmers' and the irrigation agency staff perceptions and practices. The logic of obscuration and the discursive manoeuvers that maintain it are analysed. The article concludes that there is space for more profound conceptual contestation and for alternative actions pathways even within the ‘dominant paradigm’ to address management problems more effectively

The likely mechanism for implementing REDD policy in Tanzania

Kyoto: Think Global Act Local, Research Project Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.Till 2012, establishing new forest is the only eligible practice for forest carbon trading under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Management of natural forest is not credited at present. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) policy, is an alternative mechanism that is still discussed for the post 2012 regime. Under REDD, countries would, on a voluntary basis, aim to reduce the rate at which their forests are being lost, and receive compensation in proportion to the carbon emissions saved compared to a baseline reference scenario which represent the ‘without intervention’ case. The REDD policy is therefore likely to be undertaken nationally, the country deforestation baseline would be determined by depicting historical land use changes from satellite imagery and typical carbon stock data for different types of forests to calculate the changes in terms of tons of carbon. After developing national level reference scenarios for the entire country, a system of ‘nested baselines’ i.e. an interlocking set of baselines that covers the whole country and sums to the national baseline is needed. ‘Nested baselines’ are necessary to operationalize REDD internally for the different geographic regions and to account for different forest regimes e.g. national parks, forest reserves, community forests, and private forests. This system is needed in order to provide incentives to stakeholders who are responsible for reductions in carbon losses within the country. In line with the current forest policy, the government is urged to consider Participatory Forest Management (PFM) as part of their approach under REDD. The established village framework in the Tanzanian Government offers the opportunity for implementing the REDD policy nationally. This can be achieved through developing and implementing land use plan for each village. From the start of the project, monitoring is done to determine the standing stock in both protective forests and productive forests. For a village to be rewarded carbon credits at any accounting time there must be evidence of forest enhancement or reduced deforestation/degradation. Since there are no data on carbon stocks, studies on forest inventories using methodology such as that developed by the Kyoto: Think Global Act Local research project are recommended. Possible strategy for the scaling up of the participatory inventory methodology is to train villagers and their local supporting forest staff to carry-out forest inventories on their own in the entire country

The likely mechanism for implementing REDD policy in Tanzania

Kyoto: Think Global Act Local, Research Project Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.Till 2012, establishing new forest is the only eligible practice for forest carbon trading under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Management of natural forest is not credited at present. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) policy, is an alternative mechanism that is still discussed for the post 2012 regime. Under REDD, countries would, on a voluntary basis, aim to reduce the rate at which their forests are being lost, and receive compensation in proportion to the carbon emissions saved compared to a baseline reference scenario which represent the ‘without intervention’ case. The REDD policy is therefore likely to be undertaken nationally, the country deforestation baseline would be determined by depicting historical land use changes from satellite imagery and typical carbon stock data for different types of forests to calculate the changes in terms of tons of carbon. After developing national level reference scenarios for the entire country, a system of ‘nested baselines’ i.e. an interlocking set of baselines that covers the whole country and sums to the national baseline is needed. ‘Nested baselines’ are necessary to operationalize REDD internally for the different geographic regions and to account for different forest regimes e.g. national parks, forest reserves, community forests, and private forests. This system is needed in order to provide incentives to stakeholders who are responsible for reductions in carbon losses within the country. In line with the current forest policy, the government is urged to consider Participatory Forest Management (PFM) as part of their approach under REDD. The established village framework in the Tanzanian Government offers the opportunity for implementing the REDD policy nationally. This can be achieved through developing and implementing land use plan for each village. From the start of the project, monitoring is done to determine the standing stock in both protective forests and productive forests. For a village to be rewarded carbon credits at any accounting time there must be evidence of forest enhancement or reduced deforestation/degradation. Since there are no data on carbon stocks, studies on forest inventories using methodology such as that developed by the Kyoto: Think Global Act Local research project are recommended. Possible strategy for the scaling up of the participatory inventory methodology is to train villagers and their local supporting forest staff to carry-out forest inventories on their own in the entire country

Responding to Decentralisation in the Aftermath of the Bali Bombing

This article focuses on a local Balinese initiative, the ‘Traditional Village Committee Project’, in which local elites joined with village assemblies to take advantage of the new opportunities offered by Indonesia\u27s decentralisation programme. Through the initiative, traditional village units under leadership of the local prince responded to threats of radicalised politics and loss of tourism revenue. But beyond these responses to immediate political and economic threats, the project provided a venue for local factions to engage with broader discourses concerning environment, gender and democracy. These were soon framed as a ‘Balinese approach’ that cannot be dismissed as mere invented tradition. In all, the Balinese initiative illuminates decentralisation\u27s possibilities for a local empowerment