Climate Action Indonesia Project #41564

Support 13 villages to save the Bornean Rainforest

by Planet Indonesia

Project Report | Jul 24, 2024
From debt to financial security

By Adam Miller, Putri Damatashia, Novia Sagita | Technical team

Loan system run by the community

In the heart of Indonesia's lush landscapes, a narrative of resilience unfolds—a story where communities draw strength from their deep-rooted connection to nature. Here, Planet Indonesia's journey is a beacon of balance, where livelihoods flourish, health is safeguarded, and financial security takes root.

From debt to financial security

When families are in debt, they often have to turn to the forests and marine areas surrounding them to pay off creditors. Small-scale fishers and smallholder farmers in tropical countries are often financially excluded from banks and credit services, leading to spiraling debt cycles and environmental loss and degradation. Financial exclusion limits families' access to credit and financial services, forcing resource users to rely on sources of credit with high interest rates and unfavorable terms. Some are left with no choice but to sell off their land to companies and poach what wildlife remains.

Small-scale fishers and smallholder farmers are the key players in frontline resource management and conservation. Addressing core financial challenges requires strategies that promote sustainable livelihood strategies, access to affordable credit, and support for community conservation efforts that enhance resilience and reduce dependence on debt.

Planet Indonesia has documented this burden across nearly all our sites in Indonesia. The debt cycle–conservation nexus is complex and primarily is not addressed by the variety of socio-ecological programmatic approaches.

So what is the solution?: The Planet Indonesia Approach

We have integrated financial resilience groups into our community governance model since the very start. Our founding team had over 25 years of experience working with credit unions, microfinance institutions, and other financial product providers in Indonesia before creating our organization. This experience has created some simple but vastly essential differences between traditional financial inclusion models and our approach. Most notably its flexible design and the fact that it is community determined.

The impact has been well documented. In Novick et al. 2022, we found that illegal logging, poaching, and land clearing were negatively correlated with group assets, savings, and loans. The same study also found that many smallholder farmers in the Gunung Nyiut Nature Reserve felt the most significant change in their lives was the ability to save funds securely, locally, and quickly access start-up capital.

In Gunung Nyiut, women linked access to zero-interest loans as a major factor in improving community health. In times of need, communities could easily access funds to pay for unmet healthcare bills. In the same site, community members also linked improved access to financial services as a significant cause for reduced deforestation - explaining that their reduced dependency on unfavorable high-interest financial services leads to environmental exploitation.

With a firm belief in the potential of financial inclusion, we stand together with our community partners, stakeholders, and supporters to forge a path toward a more inclusive, resilient, and balanced future. A future where small-scale fishers and smallholder farmers are not burdened by debt cycles but empowered to safeguard their resources and contribute to the well-being of our planet.

Together, we can create a powerful ripple effect, transforming lives and landscapes, one resilient community at a time.

Famers in Gunung Nyuit

Links:

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Mar 26, 2024
Launching a new tool to measure Governance!

By Adam Miller and Paul Thung | Governance team

A few months ago, we discussed the concept of ‘community-led’ - what it means and why it’s crucial for making both people and landscapes thrive. But that’s just half the story. If local communities are to come together and shape their social, economic, and ecological futures, they need strong governance institutions: clear rules, norms, and decision-making processes.

Often, governments and larger organizations will use the lack of local institutional capacity as an argument to centralize control over natural resources. However, research suggests that local community institutions have a high potential for achieving conservation outcomes while also bolstering human well-being.

Here’s where Planet Indonesia steps in. We help communities set up governance institutions that we call “Conservation Cooperatives”, or “CCs” for short. We are constantly learning how best to provide this support. Reflecting on a decade of supporting CCs, one dilemma we have been grappling with more recently is: when do we step back? To be clear: stepping back doesn’t mean parting with (we couldn’t bear to say goodbye!). Rather, we’re looking to enter into lasting partnerships with CCs as independent institutions. So, we had to figure out what exactly CCs need support with, and when they can stand on their own.

We came up with a tool to track the development of community-led governance institutions as they evolve. We’re very excited to launch it as the tool gives CC leaders and us a point on the horizon to work towards. On top of that, it also enables us to evaluate program outcomes and impacts better.

Planet Indonesia’s ‘governance index’

While there exists a variety of high-quality tools for assessing community-led governance, many are very complex or theory-oriented. Seeking something more simple and practical, we mixed and matched aspects from existing frameworks, our knowledge of community-led conservation, and principles for community-led governance.

We finally landed on 25 indicators covering different aspects of governance, ranging from transparency to financial capacity, each featuring a straightforward yes/no question, and a description of acceptable supporting evidence. The percentage of indicators achieved translates into a “governance index” that categorizes CCs into four levels, from “basic” to “independent”. This index allows us to track and analyze how community institutions develop over time.

We designed the tool so it can be adapted to local contexts and aspirations. For example, indicator #25 on rules for profit distribution may not apply to a CC without business groups. In that case, we simply ‘silence’ such indicators to not reduce an institution’s overall score simply because an indicator isn’t relevant.

The Governance Index in action

For those still wondering what this is all about, let us show you some of the exciting analyses the Governance Index enables, using the results evaluation of CCs across the Gunung Nyiut landscape in 2023.

To start, it allows us to answer important questions.

Do the CCs Planet Indonesia supports evolve over time into stronger community governance bodies?
and Does improved governance help protect nature?

The preliminary analyses - that you can dive into more here - suggests that the answer to both these questions is yes! Communities and forests get stronger over time. For the PI team these are very encouraging results.

Looking ahead

The introduction of the “Governance Index” marks an important step for Planet Indonesia. These promising results, set the stage for further fine-tuning and application across all partner villages in the coming year. In time, we also hope that communities will find this tool valuable to look back and appreciate the progress they have made.

Links:

Presenting the "Governance Index": A new tool

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Nov 29, 2023
Land rights

By The communities of Gunung Naning | Stewards of the Forest

The forests of Gunung Naning

Hello,

GivingTuesday is here! For the next 24 hours, we’re raising funds for Indigenous communities in Indonesia to secure their forests and combat deforestation.

For today only GlobalGiving will match your donation! That means your gift, no matter the size, will be doubled!

And why should you give? Because When Indigenous peoples' and local communities' land rights are secured, forests stay standing, more carbon is stored combatting climate change, endangered wildlife is protected, and communities gain vital land security. Yet, so many communities still do not have the basic right to their ancestral home. This year, we are helping 5 communities secure rights to 68,650 acres, taking the total to 247,000 acres of community-stewarded and protected land.

In the Heart of Borneo, live many Dayak communities. For generations, the men and women living in the ancient forests of Gunung Naning nurtured a strong cultural and spiritual connection to the land and the wildlife there. Through traditional practices, they stewarded the land, until it was taken from them. Cut off from their land, excluded from their ancestral home, and conflict rising, the traditional management and stewardship broke down, and poverty rose, forests started to fall, and the people and wildlife suffered.

But now, these communities are taking back their land.

The process of securing tenure rights is burdensome; it requires specific legal knowledge and skills. Even if rights are secured, local Dayak communities are faced with challenges related to retaining their use rights by having to develop natural resource management plans, which almost always require external assistance. This is where Planet Indonesia comes in and your donation will help provide technical expertise, legal assistance, and the development of management plans so they can secure land rights, improve their livelihoods, and conserve their forest lands.

We have already helped 3 communities on their path, but we want to support 2 more communities in this critical area.
Our goal is to raise $10,000 this week for communities on their path to sustainable stewardship.

We are so thankful to have had your support,
Yours Gratefully,
The team at Planet Indonesia

Community organizing, gaining their land rights

Links:

Support the Stewards of the Forest

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