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:: 25 August 2006 |
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In this issue
In the past, we usually sent you a brief email notifying updates on RUPES activities or other relevant news put on RUPES website. We also published and printed RUPES Newsletter containing news and stories from RUPES sites and other relevant sources. Now, we have decided to publish an E-News to better inform you recent activities carried out at all project levels in a more attractive and timely manner. Operational pro-poor environmental service reward schemes are the target of RUPES. This year, RUPES Sumberjaya team has successfully achieved this target. Building on the Negotiation Support System activities, the team facilitated the processes leading to the awarding of 18 new Community Forestry permits affecting 5,283 farmers and covering 11,633 hectares of the watershed area in Sumberjaya. A comprehensive impact study on this community forestry permits is now being finalized by ICRAF in collaboration with Michigan State University and the International Food Policy Research Institute. Meanwhile, RUPES Bakun team through the Bakun Indigenous Tribe Organization is providing some technical assistance in the formulation of the Bakun Integrated Watershed Development and Management Plan. From RUPES perspective, this is a big step toward further reward negotiations for the watershed functions provided to the hydroelectric companies operating in the area. As RUPES has successfully developing a series of tools in assessing environmental services worthy of reward, namely RHA (Rapid Hydrological Appraisal) and RABA (Rapid Agrobiodiversity Appraisal), partners have showed their interests in applying the tools for their sites. RUPES was invited to conduct a training on Rapid Hydrological Appraisal and to provide further technical assistances to the Equitable Payments for Watershed Services Project coordinated by WWF-CARE Indonesia. RUPES is also a member of the project's advisory board.Beria
Leimona (l.beria@cgiar.org) Community Forestry Permits (HKm) Awarding Ceremony
RUPES programme considers land tenure security as a reward for environmental services. Since 2004, RUPES Sumberjaya team has been working in collaboration with the local government forestry agency to facilitate farmer groups in applying for HKm permits. In particular, we have been helping them to prepare maps and proposals. With these permits in hand, farmers can now feel secure to continue farming activities on the forest land. In return, they are planting trees on their farms and helping to protect the remaining forests from illegal logging. During four military supported government campaigns between 1991 and 1996, made with an aim to ‘restore watershed functions’, Sumberjaya farmers were evicted from the state land where they had been farming. Their coffee farms were burnt (often just before harvest) and their income and livelihoods destroyed from one day to the next. Later, it was realized that this legal insecurity has not stimulated optimal land management and there was a clear lose-lose situation for the evicted farmers and the Forestry Department respectively. The forested area, which was envisaged to increase and improve, only continued to decline and deteriorate. A recent impact study carried out in Sumberjaya under BASIS (Broadening Access and Strengthening Input Market Systems) project – a collaboration research between ICRAF, MSU (Michigan State University) and IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) - found that Hkm increases land tenure security, increases land value, reduces a corruption, increases income and equity, promotes tree planting/agroforestry, promotes soil and water conservation, and protects remaining natural forest. [Suyanto and Aunul Fauzi]Bakun Integrated Watershed Development and Management Plan A joint resolution endorsing the formulation of an Integrated Watershed Development and Management Plan for the Bakun Ancestral Domain was prepared with the assistance of RUPES Technical Advisory Group and BIWDMP Technical Working Group. Among the highlights of the resolution are the urgency and importance of having a comprehensive watershed development management plan, integrating RUPES concept for development and management of watershed as a unique strategy, and establishing a venue for different stakeholders to complement with projects and programs geared toward the maintenance, protection and sustainability of watershed.
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In Indonesia, the project aims to improve watershed management through incentive schemes at Kapuas Hulu and Atambua as well as by building the capacity of village institutions in planning and implementation of development programmes. One of the initial project activities is conducting a hydrological assessment at the two sites. RUPES Programme was invited to provide Rapid Hydrological Appraisal (RHA) training for the EWPS project staff from the two sites. Held in Mataram, Lombok, the training was carried out from 24 - 27 July 2006, and also involved participants from the Rinjani site – WWF facilitated project. The training was aimed at providing the participants with (i) knowledge on the concepts of environmental service and reward mechanisms including examples of existing rewards for environmental services and (ii) knowledge on tools for conducting scoping a study to explore existing environmental service issues in a particular watershed. Specifically, presentations were given on hydrological assessment and local ecological knowledge, which are fundamental concepts in RUPES and RHA. Some RUPES games helped to kick off active discussion among the participants. The training also included a half day site visit to a spring, that is tapped by the local government drinking water company to sell to the city. In general, the training was well received. For many participants, the training provided new insights on issues related to watershed hydrological functions. Issues related to policy development as the basis for implementing environmental service rewards were of great interest to the participants. The participants learned a lot regarding on policy issues from a discussion with the established ‘BESTARI’ – an independent body initiating a rewarding scheme in Lombok. During the training the participants also successfully developed an action plan for conducting Rapid Hydrological Appraisal in each of Atambua, Kapuas Hulu, and Rinjani sites. RUPES Program are looking forward to working with the EWPS project staff on the RHA implementation. [Betha Lusiana and Aunul Fauzi]. |
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