ASFN ANNUAL MEETINGPALAWANJune 2016

CIFOR’S CONTRIBUTION TO ASFCC:EVIDENCE, CAPACITY BUILDING AND ENGAGEMENT

CIFOR’S CONTRIBUTION TO ASFCC

Swidden systems as a form of social forestry. CIFOR is undertaking research on swidden systems and livelihoods to understand their relevance for REDD+, and how swidden communities can participate meaningfully in, and benefit from REDD+.

Provide solid evidence on social forestry systems and its contributions to ASEAN countries’ social, economic, and ecologic objectives in response to climate change.

Generate new knowledge and understanding of social forestry, food security and climate change.

Share knowledge and contribute to capacity building in ASEAN.

APPROACH AND METHODS• Generating knowledge and understanding of forest and fallow

management, food and livelihood security and climate change in swidden systems by – Providing a deeper understanding of how existing horizontal and vertical social

networks can serve to enhance opportunities and diminish obstacles for forest communities to participate meaningfully in and benefit from REDD+ and/or PES

– Providing analysis of how the forest management systems of shifting cultivators contribute to local people's livelihoods, food security and their implications for carbon trajectories in the landscape

– Providing a deeper understanding of the migration and multi-locality of swidden households and communities and how their existing social networks influence information and resource exchange, and implications for REDD+

• through social network analyses, land use change and carbon stock mapping, livelihood assessments, policy network analysis of adaptation and mitigation

THINKING beyond the canopy

INDONESIA

A Review of Traditional Social Forestry in Indonesia: What constitutes as “Success”?

Waty et al. (2016), in prep

Social forestry is a continuum of diverse practices

Traditional SF practices: - Practiced mainly for livelihoods- Dynamic, evolves in response to various social,

political, ecological, and economic changes.- Not formally recognized- Well integrated into local cultural/customary

structure

Formal SF practices:- Exogenous initiated/

supported - Limited evolution due to

policy constraints- Formally recognized- Uniform

A literature review focused on traditional SF practices* in Indonesia:- What constitutes as a successful SF (measures of success)? - What factors are associated with successful SF in Indonesia?

* Examples include tembawang, tomawakng (W. Kalimantan), kaleka, pangale (C. Kalimantan), simpuwn (E.Kalimantan), Borong Simenanggama (S.Sulawesi), kaliwu (W. Sumba), huma (Java), parak (W. Sumatera), empus (Aceh)

MEASURING ‘SUCCESS’

Social forestry: the management of forests by local communities to achieve various environmental, social and livelihood goals, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security, nutrition and livelihood support.

A traditional SF is considered successful when it achieves a ‘fair’ combination environment, social and livelihood outcomes (Wollenberg, 1998; Pagdee, 2006).

Challenges in measuring traditional SF success: Complicated and dynamics nature of the practices. Difficult to decide the fair proportion combination of those

three outcomes to make it as a ‘success’ SF practice.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

• Out of 50 reviewed cases of traditional social forestry practices in Indonesia, more than half (60%) mentioned all three environment, social and livelihood outcomes.

• The most mentioned outcomes of local forest management is Livelihood (discussed in 100% cases), followed by Environment (86%) and Social/culture (64%)

• Factors considered as influencing the success of SF (in order of most frequently discussed ≥20%): role in meeting subsistence needs (82%), as source of cash income (74%), representing social-cultural value (60%), providing ecosystem services (58%), capitalization of traditional knowledge/practice (50%), act as investment/safety net in time of crises (24%), existence of customary rules (28%), requiring low inputs/maintenance (22%), and clear ownership (20%).

THE FUTURE OF TRADITIONAL SF SYSTEMS?

Changing/ disappearing with policy and market drivers: commercialization of a forest product, desire to increase land productivity, and allocation as concessions for logging, mining and cash crop expansion.

Formal recognition is not perceived as an important success factor, but in face of rapid change, formal recognition is considered as a strategy to maintain the practice and multidimensional outcomes of traditional SF systems.

Formalizing traditional SF systems into Indonesia’s SF schemes can work best when the formal scheme reconsiders forest land classification to include traditional SF systems and is flexible enough to accommodate the diversity of traditional SF arrangements.

Research gap: most studies reviewed measure outcomes qualitatively and are not directly comparable. ASFN leaders could put in place a collaborative process for identifying suitable indicators for measuring the success of SF (and hence, of SF policies), data collection and analysis.

LAO PDR

Objectives, Ownership and Engagement in Lao PDR’s REDD+ Policy Landscape

Cole et al. 2016, in prep

LAO PDR FOREST POLICY CONTEXT REDD+ is engaging long-term forestry objectives to conserve

and increase forest cover, with NPAs and forest allocation and zoning as key tools

Economic development and growth in Lao PDR is heavily reliant on natural resources (especially hydro, extractive industries, land concessions) – while rural development is geared towards promoting commercial agriculture and reducing swidden (often in proximity to NPAs)

Shifting institutional mandates – two ministries responsible for Lao PDR’s forests, while powerful actors/industries circumvent regulations

REDD+ projects and organisations generally plug into existing contestation over resource access, use versus conservation

Study examines the perspectives and discourses on REDD+ across different stakeholders to gauge challenges and opportunities in its implementation

Organization category Number of orgs

Analytical category

State organizations 17 [GoL]: Government of Laos – includes state agencies at central, provincial and district levels

Foreign/multinational business

2[PS]: Private Sector – includes domestic and foreign origin companiesDomestic business 2

International non-governmental organizations

4

[IO]: International Organization – includes country offices and provincial site offices

Inter-government organizations

2

Foreign government agency 6National research institutes 1 [LNG]: Lao Non-Government – includes unions,

industry and national research bodiesOther 4Total 38

METHODS• Analysis of actor perceptions in Lao PDR’s REDD+ policy landscape in

2013-14• Purposive sample, semi-structured interviews supported by

Department of Forestry (MAF) and Faculty of Forestry (NUoL)

INDICATIVE FINDINGSLimited national ownership resulting from externally designed solutions:

“Sadly a lot of government officials still think that it is your project, it is your process, it’s not my process.” [GoL8]

Internationally-driven projects often focused in NPAs, follow long-standing policy objectives:

“We undertake the poverty reduction, shifting cultivation stabilization initiatives, [REDD+ is] still the old job but with a new concept.” [IO4]

Broad spectrum of interests/goals among other actors, including elite interests beyond policy debate

“There are strong interest groups [with] economical interests in logging, which are very well connected of course, and which is difficult to bring under control by, by national organizations that [are] supposed to enforce and implement the laws and decrees.” [PS4]

CONCLUSIONREDD+ approaches in Lao PDR could be more effective in addressing deforestation via: • Stronger national ownership through more inclusive planning• Moving beyond the discourse on deforestation drivers (e.g.

swidden farming in proximity to NPAs): “One of the things about working in Laos is that you have to work with the Laos government and essentially support their mission, with a view to supporting any initiative in so far as it overlaps with what we think is important.” [IO9]

• Engagement of powerful actors absent from debate, especially resource-based/extractive industries, powerful provincial level actors“Perhaps one of the failings about how REDD is being rolled out here in Laos right now is that all of these actors that work in the REDD space have essentially no contact with any of those [organizations].” [IO6]

VIETNAM

The Politics of Swidden at Different Levels of Governance: A case study of Son La and Nghe An

provinces

Pham et al. (2016), submitted to journal

RATIONALE AND METHODS USED

• Swidden, a long-held agriculture practice in Vietnam, is considered as one of the major drivers of deforestation and degradation.

• This study examines how swidden is seen by diverse actors at different levels of government.

• The varied discourses and perspectives on swidden shape their implementation of policies relating to land, forests and swidden.

• Uses the 4I framework (Brockhaus and Angelsen 2012) in the discourse analyses: Institutions, Interests, Ideas, Information

Case studies: Son La province and Nghe An province, Vietnam• Legal review on national

government policies and measures on swidden and forest conservation

• Semi-structured interviews (22) with key informants at national, provincial, district and commune levels

• Focus groups discussions (6) in 2 villages

• Household surveys (88) in 2 villages of each province

• Consultative and feedback workshops (5) at national, provincial and village-levels

ACTORS’ PERCEPTIONS ON SWIDDEN

National level: swidden is considered as a major driver of deforestation and forest degradation and needs to be eliminated

Provincial level: persistence of swidden is considered as a failure of political performance, thus no data is collected

District level: swidden is allowed at the margins as one way to maintain national security at border areas

Commune and village level: allows swidden to harmonize interests of different groups and avoid protest of ethnic groups to government

Household level: swidden as a normal practice for food security

IMPLICATIONS

Swidden is a political issue with different interpretations and conflicting perspectives at different levels of governments stakeholders.

By focusing on swidden, the other major drivers of deforestation are not addressed in policy.

Politics of control and power might exacerbate environmental degradation in constraining managed adaptations of swidden systems.

The “invisibility” of swidden farmers in design and implementation of policies that generate local benefits, such as PES and REDD+, exacerbates inequity and potentially negative behavior spillovers.

PES and REDD+ policies may be misinformed due to inaccurate (or lack of) information on the extent of swidden, the actors engaged in the practice and the potential contribution of swidden landscapes to the policies’ objectives.

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING 2015-16

Contributed knowledge and information to REDD+ decision makers and practitioners across SEA, responded to demand for REDD+ research results in countries (e.g. REDD+ benefit sharing training, SNV/Laos)

Partnerships developed with: Laos: National University of Laos – scholarships provided to 3

MSc students, and REDD+ Office for research-to-policy uptake Indonesia: Universiti Tanjungpura, West Kalimantan –

internships provided to 2 students Vietnam: Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences – team of 4

VAFS researchers engaged with field work, analyses and research-to-policy uptake

Methods training on Focus Group Discussion techniques held in Indonesia, 19-23 October 2015; and on Survey techniques held in Laos, 15-19 February 2016

PhD student, National University of Singapore, working on migration and land use patterns along development corridors in Laos

KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND COMMUNICATION 2015-16

Presentation at 16th ASOF conference (“Forests and the Climate Change Agenda Beyond 2015”), Yogjakarta, August 2015

Presentation of research results at the World Forestry Congress, Durban, Sept 2015

Contributions at ASFCC partner learning events: ICRAF-led working group on community forestry in Vietnam, RECOFTC training on gender and climate change, ASFN Executive study tour

Website http://www.cifor.org/asfcc/ launched in 2014: Project publications have 963 downloads: Pham, T.T. et al. 2014.

Integration of adaptation and mitigation in climate change and forest policies in Indonesia and Vietnam Forests (528).

Project technical reports: 324 downloads. Publication dissemination: distributed 1,231 research publications

in 2014, and 1,021 research publications in 2015. 17 CIFOR ASFCC presentations on Slideshare: 9,339 views.

RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE GENERATION, 2015-16

Continued analysis of how existing horizontal and vertical social networks can affect local community participation in REDD+ or PES.

Three papers submitted to journal: 1) Governance in Swidden and REDD+ in Vietnam by Moeliono et al (accepted in Human Ecology).; 2) Interventions and information exchange in swidden communities of West Kalimantan: Lessons for designing REDD+ by Kallio et al. (accepted in International Forestry Review); 3) The Politics of Swidden by Pham et al. (submitted to Land Use Policy)

Literature review of migration and remittances within rural landscapes of SE Asia, “Reworking the Land” published as CIFOR working paper (Cole et al.)

Land use and carbon mapping of swidden landscapes across all ASFCC sites, undergoing peer review to be published as CIFOR working paper (Anandadas et al.)

Ongoing analyses: Review of customary social forestry practices in Indonesia, and comparative analyses of social forestry policies in Indonesia and Vietnam

ACTIVITIES PLANNED FOR 2016

Policy development and capacity building Support through intense backstopping and capacity

building of partners in field research (Focus Group Discussions, household and social network surveys) and data analyses

Support ASFN country partners and ASFN focal points: Support Laos REDD+ Office in designing research on

REDD+, benefit sharing and social forestry; Respond to requests from Vietnam MARD (MOU signed in

April 2016) and Community Forestry Working Group; Sharing knowledge with Mr. Wiratno, newly appointed

Director of Social Forestry and his office in Indonesia

ACTIVITIES PLANNED FOR 2016

Knowledge sharing and communication Produce country-specific briefs on social forestry based on

research results and in national language Contribute to ASEAN, ASFN and ASFCC partner learning

events and hold country-level knowledge sharing Seminar on Social forestry and REDD+ to be held (e.g. with

NUOL in Laos, elsewhere as requested) Panel session “Policies, Governance and Economics at the

Intersection between REDD+ and Swidden in Southeast Asia” at IUFRO conference in Beijing, China in October 2016

ACTIVITIES PLANNED FOR 2016Research and knowledge generation Fieldwork on track in all countries: Field data collection,

data management, joint analyses, knowledge sharing (through committed partnerships)

Support country and partner specific research through demand driven and flexible research design: Indonesia (West Kalimantan): changing governance

in swidden-forest landscapes, economics of land use change, and assessments of migration and remittances.

Laos (Huaphan): assessments of migration and remittances, and use of biodiversity (NTFPs) in swidden-forest landscapes.

Vietnam (Son La and Nghe An): assessments of migration and remittances, and forest incentive programs (PFES, REDD+).

CIFOR-ASFCC PHASE 2 TEAMCIFORChristine PadochGrace WongMaria BrockhausMoira MoelionoPham Thu ThuyIndah WatyCynthia MaharaniShintia ArwidaLe Ngoc DungRobert Cole, PhD student, NUS

Collaborators:University of BerneKyoto University

Lao partners:Dept of Forestry – REDD+ OfficeNational University of Laos –

Faculty of Forestry; Faculty of Social Science

Indonesia partners:Universiti Tanjungpura, Faculty of

Forestry

Vietnam partners:Vietnam Academy of Forest

SciencesDistrict forestry officers, village

and commune leaders in Nghe An and Son La

THANK YOU!

For more information: http://www.cifor.org/asfcc/