:: 30 March 2007

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In this issue

• Message from RUPES Project Office
• RUPES Sumberjaya at the Ministry of Forestry, Jakarta
• "Costing for Environmental Services: Implications to Policies" Forum
• Let's Protect Our Jungle Rubber Agroforest!
• Featured Link
• New Publication

Message from RUPES Project Office

RUPES Sumberjaya team recently presented its activities and achievements to the Ministry of Forestry in Jakarta, as part of its weekly seminar series. The team hopes that this will assist in gaining broader recognition of their activities and achievements and translate into positive policy for their projects. For those who are interested in learning more about the site and its activities, you can read the two briefs under New Publications. 

The Philippines National Technical Committee recently held a forum on the mainstreaming PES (or payment for environmental services) in the Philippines. The forum was largely attended by policy and decision makers and resulted in a report detailing the outcomes of the event. 

Also in this edition, readers can find out how the farmers of Bungo will maintain their jungle rubber in exchange for assistance from the RUPES Project team. 

Aunul Fauzi
RUPES Communication Specialist

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RUPES Sumberjaya at the Ministry of Forestry, Jakarta

A presentation was made by the RUPES Sumberjaya team at the Department of Forestry in Jakarta on 28 March 2007. Suyanto-the site leader-presented some findings from RUPES research activities called 'Exploring and Developing Reward Mechanisms in Watershed of Sumberjaya'.
He described how local farmer groups obtain the temporary 5 years community forestry permit and experiment on Rivercare to reward farmers based on the outcome (reducing sediment).

The participants-many of who were high ranking and senior officials at the Ministry of Forestry-showed appreciation for the work being conducted and acknowledged its importance. Mr Billy Hindra, the Director of Social Forestry of the Directorate General Land Rehabilitation and Social Forestry expected that RUPES Project could continue playing its important role in improving understanding and implementation of the environmental service reward mechanism in the region.

While the focus of the presentation was Hutan Tanaman Rakyat (HTR), it also alerted us to a less expensive, yet equally important scheme, Hutan Kemasyarakatan. Mr. Hindra added that with the new decree (PP 6), the central government is still working to draft simpler new HKm decree that will regulate the community forestry scheme and make sure that the interests of the poor are represented. For the groups whose permits had expired, they can continue working on their land, practising their effective agroforestry system while awaiting the new HKm degree. In the new HKm degree, a HKm permit will be given for 35 years, and it is not necessary to get areal designation (areal pencadangan) from the Ministry of Forestry.

Another participant expected the Lampung province to emerge as a key community forestry province that other Indonesian provinces Indonesia could learn from. Mrs Indriyani, the senior adviser to the Forestry Minister, commented that the ICRAF-RUPES presentation was very advantageous for the Ministry of Forestry and that it was relevant to the spirit of Pro Poor and Pro Environment program.

During the meeting, a farmer representative, Mr Edy Purwanto, also made a presentation on how farmers view community forestry. An extension officer from West Lampung forestry unit, Mr Rasna, presented his office's program in assisting farmers to obtain community forestry permits and in monitoring the implementation of community forestry. [Suyanto]. 

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"Costing for Environmental Services: Implications to Policies" Forum

A National Payment for Environmental Services (PES) Policy Forum on "Costing for Environmental Services: Implications to Policies" was held at Seameo-Innotech in Quezon City last March 9 2007. Attending were 107 participants from government agencies, international organizations, non-government organizations, and private firms. The event was spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and co-financed by the WWF-Philippines and RUPES.

Among the main outcomes were an inventory and analysis of various policies and laws in relation to payments for environmental services (PES), the identification of issues and concerns that may harness positive impacts both in terms of environmental and socio-economic outcomes; and proposed policy recommendations to make PES functional and to ensure it assists the poor. Policy agendas were identified for each environmental service. Among these were mechanisms for implementation and the need for monitoring by responsible agencies or institutions.

The event is one of the main activities of the PES Technical Committee (PES-TEC), which is currently developing a policy and advocacy agenda to ensure the implementation of PES in the Philippines, specifically targeting policy and decision makers. In this forum, the participants suggested the formalization of the PES-TEC. [Grace A. Villamor]

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Let's Protect Our Jungle Rubber Agroforest!

Communities from a number of sub-villages where the RUPES team has been working for the last 3 years have agreed to take common action to protect their jungle rubber agroforestry This rubber agroforestry system-also known for its rich biodiversity-covers some 3034 ha of old jungle rubber in three villages in Bungo District: Lubuk Beringin, Desa Buat, and Laman Panjang. This area is an important buffer zone in protecting the Kerinci Seblat National Park in Sumatra.  The agreement, which is due to be signed next week by representatives of the communities involved, covers a multitude of areas. In particular, the continuation of the

alley cropping planting method, avoiding the slash and burn land clearing method, enriching the jungle rubber agroforest with multifunctional trees, maintaining tree and bamboo cover along riparian and slope areas, prohibiting hunting wild animals within jungle rubber agroforest, only harvesting timber, bamboo, and rattan for own consumption, harvesting only ripe durian fruit, and applying fines for those catching fish in the prohibited area (lubuk larangan).

In exchange, RUPES Bungo has agreed to provide a reward to the communities for their efforts to protect their jungle rubber agroforest. The reward will be to technically and financially facilitate a number of development activities determined by the community themselves, such as: training to manage jungle rubber agroforest and to build small-scale hydropower.

A small committee of community representatives will be responsible for implementing the conservation agreement and monitoring the reward scheme. [Aunul Fauzi]

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