REDD+, GHG Emission Reduction and Right of Indigenous Papuan

The provincial Governments of Papua and West Papua have been amongst the most active in Indonesia in preparing their REDD+ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions strategies and action plans, in response to the mandate from national bodies. The process confirmed that Papua region is of special importance in a REDD context because it is the largest remaining tropical forest in Indonesia, making up about 38% of all forests remaining in the country.

The provincial REDD strategies note that REDD+ Implementation should start with clarification of tenure issues. This reflects the conclusion of the National REDD+ strategy that weak tenure has contributed to the increase in forestry-related conflicts and that communities tend to be in a weak position in these conflicts. The documents also note that some 80% of customary villages are found within the 40 million hectares of state forest reserve in Papua and West Papua, and that the rate of un-planned degradation and deforestation is high in Papua, driven by small scale community farming and small scale logging. The documents from both Provinces also recognize FPIC, Customary community participation and the importance of a clear benefit sharing mechanism based on clear tenure rights as fundamental to the successful development of REDD in Papua.

Table 1. Distribution of local village on forests

No	Province	Villages	In/Around forests	%	Data sources
1	Papua	2,337	2,071	89	Papua Prov Spatial Plan 2011 – 2031
2	Papua Barat	1,205	718	60	West Papua Prov, Spatial Plan 2010 – 2030
	Total	3,510	2,789	79	Compilation all resources.

The documents conclude that REDD is an important opportunity for Papua to encourage and support communities to protect their forests. In addition to protecting and enhancing environmental services from forests, it would also provide social and economic benefits to the region and its people. Pre-conditions for successful implementation are, however, reliable and credible institutions, clarity of rights to carbon and mechanisms to monitor, report and verify the performance of REDD+ implementation. 

Both provinces have conducted a long process of analysis to provide benchmark information about deforestation and degradation as a part of the strategy process. Large scale plantations, forestry concessions and road construction are identified as the most significant drivers of degradation and deforestation. Papua province has shown that within conservation areas alone there are about 17,574 ha of deforested areas, and 45,114 ha of forest are degraded. The study concluded that the decentralization policy and associated creation of new districts is an important driver of forest loss and degradation in Papua. Creation of new districts increases the need for clearing land for housing or building, and road building.  In  addition, small scale traditional land cultivation is analyzed and found to be a significant contributor to forest cover changes. However some questions remain around the figures, as the methods used do not consider sequestration by new land uses, only the gross loss of carbon stock.

No	Source of Emission	West Papua			Papua
		Area (ha/year)	Net Emission CO2e/year	(%)	Area (ha/year)	Net Emission CO2e/year	(%)
1	Forest Degradation	25,332	4,372,892	89	25,679	11,705,487	24
2	Deforestation	2,516	554,953	11	181,77	36,112,229	73
3	Other Land Use Change	5	2,168	0.04	16,429	1,488,233	3
		27,855	4,930,014	100	223,880	49,305,951	100

The spatial plan is the main reference for development and investment, and is the plan which other Government plans refer to. It can therefore have a major effect on land use change. In terms of revision of the spatial plan to ensure the conservation of forest and carbon stocks, Papua Province is ahead of West Papua Province. The Ministry of Forestry through SK. 458/Menhut-II/2012 has agreed to changes in forest functions, and to the allocation of land to state and non-state forests, as proposed in the revised provincial spatial plan. Overall, the changes in the spatial plan have

• Increased the area of forest that is protected by 1,000,000 Ha, containing 500 million tonnes of carbon
• Increased the area of forest that should be sustainably managed by 3,914,000 Ha, containing 1,000 million tonnes of carbon. Within this category there is a very large shift from ‘production forest’ (decreased by 2.6 m Ha) to ‘limited production forest’ (increased by 4.7 m Ha), which reflects a greater emphasis on the sustainability of management for forest containing 800 million tonnes of carbon.
• Decreased the area of forest available for conversion to non-forest estate by 1.27 million hectares

Papua and West Papua Provinces play significant role in the overall picture of national emissions reductions, because 80% of emissions sources are from land use and land use change including forestry, agriculture and livestock. The rest are the combination of energy, transportation and waste. Both provinces have developed a reference level of emissions under a business as usual scenario. 

The provincial action plans propose similar pilots actions that would reduce emissions and which could be implemented, monitored and then measured and verified based on existing policies and regulations:

No	Protecting carbon Stock	Enhancing carbon stock
1	Reducing forest allocated for conversion in either Province or District Spatial Plans	Forest and land rehabilitation
2	Reducing annual logging allocation (Annual Allowable Cut)	Reclamation of the areas used for mining
3	Implementing reduced impact logging	Develop community based reforestation (tree plantation)
4	Reducing the intensity of opening of forest cover along main roads	City forest parks
5	Forests designation (Forest Management Units)	Improve the use of degraded land (low carbon stock area) for expansion of agricultural investment