21
CONSERVATION CONCESSIONS IN INDONESIA: AN INVESTIGATION OF THEIR POTENTIAL
CONTENTS
1. ABSTRACT 2
2. INTRODUCTION 3
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
7 4. STUDY METHODS AND APPROACH
15 5. RESULTS
20 6. DISCUSSION AND RECCOMENDATIONS
35 7. CONCLUSION:
NEXT STEPS
49 8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
51 Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of the following in the preparation of this dissertation:
1. Dr. Adrian Martin for his advice and literature recommendations. 2. Dominic Holdsworth for his proof reading and sharing the results of his own
study on conservation concessions. 3. All my interviewees for their time, assistance, literature recommendations and
suggestions for further interview contacts and research possibilities.
22
ABSTRACT
Conservation concessions are a recent development in the tropics: concession sellers protect natural ecosystems in exchange for a steady stream of structured
compensation from conservationists and other investors. Conservation concessions are now under active consideration by several NGOs in Indonesia. The potential for
their further implementation in Indonesia is the central subject of this paper. Five core issues are critically examined: 1 competition with existing timber concessions
in Indonesian production forests, 2 Government of Indonesia and regulatory support, 3 monitoring systems, 4 local community involvement, and 5
standardising the conservation concession mechanism. The chosen methodology was to conduct a Literature Survey and Elite Interviews. The
interviews were conducted with 17 key informants, who represented the Forestry Department, international NGOs, national NGOs, academia, donor agencies, and
independent consultancies. The interviews covered the core issues mentioned above, while the Literature Survey focused on the history of conservation concessions and
the wider conservation context in Indonesia. From these studies, the author found: 1 that there are currently several
international NGOs who are, or will be, implementing conservation concessions in Indonesia; 2 that the Government of Indonesia, through a Declaration of the
Ministry of Forestry, has explicitly expressed support for the conservation concession mechanism, but that more substantial GOI support will be needed,; 3 that a
permanent ban on commercial logging remains difficult to realize; 4 that long-term engagement with local communities is perhaps the most important single issue and
that current practice still falls far short of the ideal; 5 that a new monitoring system is essential, involving all stakeholder group many different groups - NGOs, local and
central government, Forestry Department, local communities, and academia; 6 and that the standardisation of conservation concessions is both unnecessary and
undesirable, since the diversity of on-the-ground conditions requires that each concession agreement be uniquely tailored to each concession area.
23
1. INTRODUCTION