Background

Indonesian Conservation Community WARSI is one of the oldest non-profit organizations in Indonesia addressing the issues of deforestation, triggered by the land conversion and clearing out rainforest for palm oil plantations or livestock grazing. WARSI in Indonesia helps local communities get forestry licenses for their land, so they have the legal rights to
it and can prevent it from being cut down. WARSI also provides capacity building and training so communities can sustainably manage and keep track of their forests.

Supporting local communities in acquiring the right to their land is a method that has proven successful in reducing deforestation. WARSI has a long track record of successfully helping local communities access forestry licenses to protect and manage their lands. They are also a long-standing partner of the Rainforest Foundation Norway, one of the world's leading NGOs engaged in rainforest protection. Our support enables them to create new projects and protect over 40,000 hectares through community land tenure in
6 villages, as well as to increase the capacity of local communities to manage their forests.

PROGRESS

The key achievements from the project to date include successful expansion of the work to 4 villages in 2022 and further extended assistance to 6 villages in 2023. The villages' forestry licenses cover over 40,000 hectares of forest, containing up to 70 million tonnes of CO2. By reducing deforestation in the area, 200,000 tonnes of CO2 could be avoided every year, with a long-term effect of the project in the millions of tonnes of CO2. Long term measurements of the effect of the program on deforestation are planned to be undertaken.

Additionally, CTF support enabled WARSI to increase its organizational capacity and presence on the ground from 4 staff members to 11. WARSI managed to advance its work with data collection, necessary to establish village boundaries, which is a first step for the legal recognition, as well as the village information system necessary for forest management plans. The project has trained local villagers who enter and maintain data online in the village information system.

In a recent landmark development, Warsi has successfully established a collaboration agreement with the Malinau Regency Government. An essential step that will simplify cooperation with local government and implementation of various field activities and initiatives.

Several field activities were focused on trust building with communities. This helped strengthen local community engagement and ownership, where they actively contribute with ideas on project development and implementation. Their work is widely acknowledged, getting recognition in the local media, as a successful example of a sustainable social forestry model. WARSI also looks at ways to diversify their income sources, introducing tree adoption programs to the general public.

The continued support will lead to further engagement with more villages and protection of valuable rainforests, as well as empowering local communities to adopt sustainable social forestry model.