Haze Crisis and Landscape Approach

Herry Purnomo

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club, Jakarta, 2 July 2014

Structure

• Fires and haze

• The stakeholders

• Socio-economic drivers

• Policy and governance

• Ways forward: Landscape approach

Fires and Haze On 21 June 2013: atmospheric pollution levels reached record high in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia due to haze from fires in Sumatra

Gaveau et al. 2014

Gaveau et al. 2014

• The fires in Riau were not an accident.

Gaveau et al. 2014

Rainfall deficit in May and June 2013

uly ug ept ct ov ec an eb ar pr ay une

• An estimated 163,336 ha (including 137,044 ha, or 84% on peat) burned

Gaveau et al. 2014

• 52% of total burned area was within concessions, but 60% of this (50,248 ha; or 31% of total burned area) was occupied by smallholders

• 48% of total burned areas was outside concessions (production forest)

Gaveau et al. 2014

A typical Industrial planted forest concession

Gaveau et al. 2014

Verchot, 2014

• The 2013 fires are part of the process that converts forests to agricultural plantations.

• Large-scale paper-pulp plantation companies say they are “the victim” in the haze crisis.

• Small-scale community groups say the same, complain of being scapegoated and pushed aside.

• Power imbalance among local communities, government and commercial companies.

Stakeholders

• There is a lack of capacity to fight the fires

• Different agencies within government show disagreement over responsibility over fires

• Fires and haze: consequences of the battle among indigenous population vs. migrants vs. large companies (Al Azhar, Lembaga Adat Melayu Riau, 2014)

• Lack of appropriate education of decision makers, the general public, and the private sector

• Poverty and Greed – The palm oil business is

lucrative

– Poor people to be ‘mobilized’ by the rich to set fire

– Fire is used as a way to claim land tenure

– Fire is a way to do business

Socio-economic drivers

Insights from 23 subnational initiatives in six countries

• Tenure is a fundamental challenge

• Disadvantageous economics of REDD+

• Other interventions will be the primary means to reduce GHG emissions reduction

Learning from Global REDD+ pilots

Sunderlin et al. 2014

There are numerous policies with respect to fires, but little enforcement or monitoring

Policy and Governance

Law 41 (1999) on Forestry

Government Regulation 4 (2001) on Forest and Land Fires

Local News

• Integrate research into policy making and actions

• More research needed to address gaps in knowledge and especially on governance at different levels

• Pay more attention to markets

• Need to pull evidence together

• Law enforcement is main governance problem

• Towards landscape approach

Ways Forward

What is Landscape approach?

Holmgren, 2013

• Landscape = “A place with governance in place”

• A place: A landscape is a geographical area that can be of any size — from very small to very large.

• with governance in place: There exists institution(s) that will consider options for the landscape and set priorities.

Landscape objectives and indicators

Hypothetical Landscape

Forest core

Forest

edge

Agricultural

mosaic land

Agro-

forrest

Small-scale

forests

Vertical

commodity value

chains

Horizontal

pressure

Market

How to do Landscape Approach?

• Defining landscape objective(s)

• Synergizing various interests under that objective(s): REDD+, Fire and haze prevention, timber logging, certification, eco-tourism, green economy

• With adaptive collaborative management • Learning process

• Action research (reflection-planning-action-monitoring)

• Modeling (soft and hard)

• KPH (Forest Management Unit) is a place for landscape approach

Speech for Rio+21 Summit

We know the problems

We know the solutions

We must act now! SBY@cifor, 2012

Thank You Herry Purnomo

• Scientist at Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) • Professor at Bogor Agricultural University (IPB)