Community-Focused Investments to Address Deforestation and Forest Degradation

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With assistance from the Forest Investment Program (FIP) under Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the project will provide a $17 million grant to the Government of Indonesia to address institutional, technical, and capacity-related barriers for REDD+ implementation in West Kalimantan, one of the top five provinces contributing to GHG emissions with a mean deforestation rate of 132,500 ha per year.The project forms a part of Indonesia''s forest investment plan and will complement projects by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC). The project will promote inclusive growth and environmental sustainability by investing in community-focused REDD+ activities (e.g., community-based land use planning, community-led forest monitoring and forest fire management, community-assisted forest regeneration and maintenance, community-based eco-tourism) in selected districts and/or forest management units (FMUs) to address deforestation drivers such as illegal logging, forest conversion to agriculture, and uncontrolled fires. The project will strengthen capacity of district and provincial governments in West Kalimantan, provide policy support to harmonize sub-national policies for carbon stock enhancement with national policies, and establish non-monetary incentives, safeguard systems and equitable and gender-responsive benefit sharing arrangementsThe project will build on lessons from other REDD+ initiatives by the government and development partners such as Norway, Australia, Germany, Japan, and USA, and establish a sound base for performance-based REDD+ payments. By promoting sustainable forest management, the project will not only reduce GHG emissions and enhance carbon stocks but also provide livelihood co-benefits such as poverty reduction, improved quality of life for forest communities, protection of indigenous peoples' tenure rights, and enhanced conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.