The Strengthening Forest Area Planning and Management in Kalimantan (KalFor) is a project designed to back up the Government’s programme to maintain the remaining forests located outside state forest zones in Kalimantan by addressing sustainable management of forest, environment and ecosystem. Based on the authority to manage the forest, there are forests located within the stated forest zone which are known as ‘kawasan hutan’ and forests located outside the state forest area which are called Areal Penggunaan Lain (APL). By the definition, it means that APL is an area for non-forestry sector development such as for plantation, agriculture, settlement, infrastructures, etc.

Forests in APL are subject to be cleared due to the above mentioned non-forestry purposes. So far, the Government pays more attention on the ‘kawasan hutan’ than on the ‘forest in APL’. Since the unification of the environment and forest ministries into one ministry-the Ministry of Environment and Forestry-the Government changes its forestry development paradigm to provide wider intention to environment balance. The main rationale is that reforestation at ‘kawasan hutan’ is not cheap, spends a lot of time and energy with high level of failure. Therefore, maintaining the remaining forest at APL should be more effective to reduce deforestation and biodiversity loss, maintain carbon sequestration and provide better environment balance.

Indonesia has less experience in addressing forest management in the APL. The Strengthening Forest Area Planning and Management in Kalimantan (KalFor) project is specifically designed to maintain forest areas, including the biodiversity and ecosystem functions, of Kalimantan’s lowland and montane areas striving with the growth and development of the estate crop sector. The project aims to create significant global benefits related to biodiversity conservation, sustainable land use and mitigation of GHG emission, particularly in the Heart of Borneo (HoB). Systemic and institutional barriers to improved strategic plantations/commodities siting and plantation management will be addressed at the national, provincial and landscape levels.

What We Do:

The project will develop a framework for maintaining the forest, including its biodiversity and ecosystem functions, of Kalimantan’s lowland and montane areas to compete with the growth and development of the estate crop sector. The project is aimed at creating significant global benefits related to biodiversity conservation, sustainable land use and mitigation of GHG emission, particularly in the surrounding Hearth of Borneo (HoB). Systemic and institutional barriers to improved strategic plantations/commodities siting and plantation management will be addressed at the national, provincial and landscape levels.

The project implementation will include but not limited to institutional strengthening at all levels (community, local, district and national) and removal of fundamental barriers related to regulation and policy framework and capacity constraints, as well as awareness, communication and monitoring and evaluation. The projects are located in the three provinces of HoB, namely West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and East Kalimantan. Four districts in the three provinces have been selected as pilot districts: Sintang and Ketapang Districts of West Kalimantan, Kotawaringin Barat of Central Kalimantan, and Kutai Timur District of East Kalimantan. The pilot districts will be developed as the models or show-windows of the project. Lesson learnt from the project will be scaled up to input national policy and to be repeated nationwide.