Indonesia

[Kalimantan]    [Papua]    [Sumatra]

Sumatra

The MLA approach was adapted and applied to fast-wood plantation (or Hutan Tanaman Industri (HTI)) areas in Sumatra, Indonesia. These areas are usually logged-over forests and grasslands before they are converted to fast-wood plantations. A small team of three people (one CIFOR researcher and two master students) carried out the survey, with the objective to determine the variety of resources that local people are obtaining from the HTI areas before planting, where they are obtained and how important they are for them.

Team members carrying out a PDM excercise with villagers

The results showed that local people are annually obtaining over 300 products from HTI concession areas near to them, providing construction materials, medicines and food as well as some products that can be sold in the local markets. These results were critical in showing the HTI companies in Sumatra, that what they might consider to be 'worthless' or 'empty' land, is in fact an important source of livelihood for local people. This may help them to better understand the reasons why people may resist the change in land use to that of a monoculture tree plantation.

In addition to the MLA methods used elsewhere, our team associated a monetary value to the products obtained from the areas, using the market price where possible or associating a 'substitute product' price; the resulting values ranged from $350 to $730 US/ha/year depending on the diversity and abundance of products, the size of the villages and proximity to the markets. As plantation companies are offering Company-Community agreements to local communities who are claiming rights in the HTI concession areas, this calculated amount of money could be used as a rough guideline for offers of compensation for the specific locations assessed.

One of the plantation companies already showed a high interest in applying the MLA approach to additional target areas. Some of its field staff participated in a PDM exercise, together with the students, to 'learn by doing' how to apply this method in the future. We feel that the real value of the MLA application lies in the future adoption of this tool by the plantation companies who can use these 'easy to apply' and cheap methods to better understand people's needs and to better define C-C agreements, taking into account the importance of each specific area to be included in the agreements.

A document with the complete set of results and some relevant recommendations for the HTI plantation companies in Indonesia can be downloaded.