4 November 2014: In an attempt to improve data on forests in Indonesia, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) partnered on a project to support bottom-up spatial planning.

The project, covering West Kalimantan and Central Moluccas, Indonesia, revealed that forests in the province cover an area almost double what was previously estimated. Key to the project, according to CIFOR, was a multi-disciplinary approach bringing together experts in conservation, land use planning, tenure and governance through a participatory prospective analysis (PPA).

In addition to creating finer scale land cover maps, through engaging local communities, the project identified a number of issues including illegal clearing of peat swamp forests, difficultly in gaining formal recognition of tenure and use rights, and corruption within some levels of government.

The project, titled ‘Collaborative land-use planning and sustainable institutional arrangement for strengthening land tenure, forest and community rights in Indonesia’ (CoLUPSIA), was carried out between 2010 and 2014. CIFOR is part of the CGIAR Consortium. [CIFOR Blog Post] [CoLUPSIA Website]