West Kalimantan is a biodiversity-rich province in the Indonesian part of Borneo. In Kapuas Hulu district alone, there are two national parks with a great variety of flora and fauna, which include the Bornean Orangutan and other primate species.
Betung Kerihun, the largest park in the province, features montane (or cloud) rain forests and lowland forests. Danau Sentarum is a vast floodplain with seasonal lakes, freshwater swamp forest, and peat swamp forest. These areas in Kapuas Hulu were declared as biosphere reserves by UNESCO in 2018.
However, deforestation and forest degradation threaten the sustainability of these ecosystems and make West Kalimantan the fifth largest provincial contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia.
Investing in communities
To sustainably manage forests and reduce emissions in the province, Indonesia has embarked on a pilot project that focuses on community-based investments and activities, such as land use planning, forest monitoring and forest fire management, forest regeneration and maintenance, and ecotourism, in Kapuas Hulu and Sintang districts.
Supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with a $17-million grant from the Strategic Climate Fund, the project is expected to enhance not only the environmental benefits of ecosystems and but also improve the livelihood of 17 villages in these districts.
Key activities are in three areas: agroforestry (specifically coffee, agarwood, rubber, and other species as well as forest rehabilitation), community-based infrastructure and ecotourism facilities, and community livelihood interventions. These are expected to address deforestation drivers, such as illegal logging, forest conversion to agriculture, and uncontrolled fires.
After the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) last year, emergency cash assistance was also included in the project to provide a lifeline to those whose sources of income were disrupted by the pandemic.
To date, the project has provided clean water facilities, clean electricity (solar panels and micro-hydropower), and green school buildings. It is improving facilities to support community-based ecotourism at Sepandan and Bukit Tekenang tourism areas and at the Danau Sentarum and Betung Kerihun national parks.
Community development programs include training and the provision of equipment on beekeeping, freshwater fish aquaculture, home gardening, and handicrafts. There are also capacity-building activities for the green school program, using geographic information systems, gender empowerment, and forest fire management.
Cash advance program
A special assistance program was designed to protect the income of communities most affected by the pandemic. This provided for accelerated disbursement for field implementation of agroforestry activities and for increasing the role of the communities in labor-intensive activities.
The cash advance program started in April 2020 in Kapuas Hulu and Sintang districts with the first villages willing to enroll in the program. Cash advances were made through community-based forestry agreements (CBFA) for agroforestry contract payment. Between April and November 2020, 52 farmer groups have joined the program. About $442,000 was disbursed to cover 540 hectares of agroforestry.
Following its success, the cash advance program was extended to other labor-intensive activities for 2021 and 2022, including assisted natural regeneration and livelihood activities (home gardens, road rehabilitation, etc.). For 2021, and 2022 the program is expecting to reach a total contract amount of $1.1 million and more than $500,000 in advance payments.