Oil palm smallholder yields and incomes constrained by harvesting practices and type of smallholder management in Indonesia

The oil palm industry in Indonesia faces several challenges in its bid to adopt more sustainable practices. These challenges include finding ways to increase smallholder palm oil production and to promote benefit sharing with local communities. However, factors that influence oil palm yield and income among oil palm smallholdings are poorly known. We surveyed 379 households in 15 villages in Sumatra, Indonesia, to identify factors controlling smallholder yield and income. We found that decreasing monthly harvesting rotation of oil palm smallholdings decreases oil palm yield, whereby once-a-month harvesting resulted in the lowest annual fresh fruit bunch yields (14.82t/ha). We also found that independent smallholder households receive lower gross monthly incomes compared to scheme and managed smallholder households, whereby independent smallholders received the lowest gross monthly income from oil palm cultivation (2.17 million Indonesian rupiah). Our results provide quantitative evidence that harvesting rotation and type of smallholder management are important constraints on oil palm yields and incomes of smallholders

Implikasi Biaya dan Manfaat Pelaksanaan Svlk terhadap Sektor Perkayuan Skala Kecil

Pada tahun 2009, Pemerintah Indonesia menetapkan kewajiban pemenuhan standar SVLK (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu) atas produk kayu bagi USAha perkayuan untuk menjamin legalitas penuh produk kayu. Ketentuan tersebut dimaksudkan untuk menghapuskan keraguan terhadap legalitas kayu Indonesia yang diperdagangkan di pasar Internasional. SVLK juga dirancang sebagai dasar kesepakatan sukarela (VPA) antara Uni Eropa dengan Indonesia. Pada September 2013, VPA ditandatangi dan SVLK secara resmi menjadi landasan perdagangan produk kayu bagi kedua belah pihak. Namun dalam pelaksanaanya, terdapat masalah serius. Bagi pelaku USAha di sektor perkayuan skala besar, memenuhi ketentuan standar SLVK mungkin tidak menjadi masalah, namun bagi pelaku USAha di sektor perkayuan skala kecil, banyak pertanyaan muncul terkait kemampuannya mengadopsi standar tersebut. Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji implementasi SVLK dan implikasi biaya dan manfaatnya terhadap sektor perkayuan skala kecil. Sebagai studi kasus, data biaya dan manfaat diperoleh melalui wawancara dan observasi lapangan. Hasil studi menyimpulkan pelaksanaan SVLK menimbulkan tambahan biaya yang signifikan bagi sektor perkayuan skala kecil, namun sektor perkayuan skala kecil tidak memperoleh manfaat, baik dalam hal akses pasar maupun premium harga. Hasil studi merekomendasikan Kementerian Kehutanan dan instansi lain terkait perlu menyederhanakan ketentuan-ketentuan SVLK dan mengantisipasi potensi penurunan daya saing ekspor sektor perkayuan skala kecil akibat tambahan biaya SVLK

Biodiversity Conservation in the REDD

Deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics is a major source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The tropics also harbour more than half the world's threatened species, raising the possibility that reducing GHG emissions by curtailing tropical deforestation could provide substantial co-benefits for biodiversity conservation. Here we explore the potential for such co-benefits in Indonesia, a leading source of GHG emissions from land cover and land use change, and among the most species-rich countries in the world. We show that focal ecosystems for interventions to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia do not coincide with areas supporting the most species-rich communities or highest concentration of threatened species. We argue that inherent trade-offs among ecosystems in emission reduction potential, opportunity cost of foregone development and biodiversity values will require a regulatory framework to balance emission reduction interventions with biodiversity co-benefit targets. We discuss how such a regulatory framework might function, and caution that pursuing emission reduction strategies without such a framework may undermine, not enhance, long-term prospects for biodiversity conservation in the tropics

From new order to regional autonomy: shifting dynamics of illegal logging in Kalimantan, Indonesia

In recent years there has been a tendency to view the seemingly irremediable spread of "illegal" logging in Indonesia in isolation, or as a result of disassociated and premeditated criminal acts. This paper proposes a different view of the problem by discussing the changing dynamics of the "illegal" logging sector in the two districts of Berau, East Kalimantan and Kotawaringin Timur, Central Kalimantan. It suggests that "illegal" logging is not a simple case of criminality, but a complex economic and political system involving multiple stakeholders. Furthermore, "illegal" logging is not a stationary condition that can be effectively dealt with through coercive or repressive measures alone. Rather, it should be viewed as a dynamic and changing system deeply engrained in the realities of rural life in Indonesia. Regional autonomy has also created a supportive environment for the "illegal" logging trade and allowed it to gain resilience

Framing the food poverty question: Policy choices and livelihood consequences in Indonesia

Since 2008, amidst fears of vulnerabilities related to climate change, price volatility and global food shortages, an increasingly conflicted policy field has emerged in the global south. Competing policy narratives provide for rival policy orientations with respect to food policy, land rights, the environment and justice. This paper considers the implications of different choices associated with these rival concepts in one case – that of Indonesian Kalimantan. The paper shows how predominant framings of ‘food sovereignty’, ‘food self-sufficiency’ and ‘food security’ support scalar strategies that empower particular actors and agendas. While narratives focused on national food sovereignty support large-scale food estates in ways that fit a particular politics of food, they overlook the specific livelihood challenges facing rural populations and the problems of food poverty in marginal landscapes. Localist narratives of ‘food sovereignty’ focus on enhancing smallholder access and control over productive resources and diversification in ways that are better suited to the geography of production, but they are yet to address the political anxieties presented by food questions at the national level. If policy choices are to deal with the underlying issues, then the alternative values, guiding assumptions and scalar strategies encompassed by rival narratives need to be appraised and reconciled with the specific livelihood challenges of rural people and the need to secure an inclusive and equitable society in a changing global environmentThis research was undertaken under a Centre for International Forestry Research project funded by USAID (AID-486-G-12-00005) entitled ‘Implications of food estate development for national food security and local livelihoods’, ‘Emerging countries in transition to a green economy: Will it make a difference for forests and people?’ Follow up work was undertaken under an Australian Research Council discovery project entitled ”Household vulnerability, food security and the politics of social protection in Indonesia’. We are especially grateful to Peter Kanowski, Christine Padoch, Heru Komarudin and many people in West and East Kalimantan for their generous assistance. Thanks also to Nancy Peluso, Jane Dixon and an anonymous reviewer for their exceptionally insightful comments