Ecoregional Assessment of Biological Diversity in East Kalimantan

East Kalimantan Ecoregional Assessment: Chapter 3 – Portfolio Results & Assessment Summary
F. Current Conservation Strategies and Priority Portfolio Areas
In order to reduce or eliminate threats to the portfolio of conservation sites, it is essential to
understand the nature of those threats; the key players involved in making those threats worse
or better; and to recognize opportunities to engage multiple partners to change the course of
those threatening activities. This can be accomplished by developing a suite of concurrent
and complementary conservation strategies.
In the case of conservation of the portfolio of sites in East Kalimantan, the best strategies will
be those that balance the need for human prosperity with the ecological integrity of the
system and species targets. The challenge of protecting large functional landscapes will rely
on planning for responsible and sustainable harvest of their natural resources. This is where
innovative partnerships with some of those responsible for the major threats to these sites
will be necessary and most effective in both the short and long term.
When the portfolio map is viewed in this light, the layers of forest concessions, road
networks, coal mines, gas and oil fields, forest villages, and island communities forms an
ominous picture. Working at each of these levels requires a flexible approach that integrates
the needs of the many stakeholders (those who are interested in the products and services the
forests provide) with the responsibility of making sure the forests and rivers and their
inhabitants remain for future generations to both enjoy and gain a living from.
In the United States, TNC is able to work with private landowners to conserve a portion of
these large functional landscapes – in some cases by purchasing their homeland, farm, or
ranch to accomplish this goal. In Indonesia this approach is not possible, but there are
reasonable alternatives. We are already working with some forest concessionaires to pay
them for the lost productivity of significant blocks of their forest leases (HPH) to preserve
standing timber for the benefit of orangutans, gibbons, and many of the other target species
and ecological systems. This process is still in development, but it holds great promise.
In other cases, we are working with other conservation groups and the Forest Products
Industry to develop a meaningful certification process that will recognize responsible forest
managers by labeling their timber products as “environmentally friendly” in the way they
were harvested and processed. This labeling will ostensibly permit the owners/operators to
sell their product on the world market at higher than average prices or at markets that will
only accept environmentally sound harvested wood – thereby rewarding them for taking the
extra steps to manage their forests in a more ecologically sensible way. This too is in an
experimental phase. It remains to be seen if this certification process will allow responsible
forest managers to out-compete the illegal loggers and pulp and timber mills in the global
marketplace. Constant vigilance will be required to spot and arrest any actions to defraud the
labeling/certification process along the journey from concession forest to destination
markets.
And finally, by working together with local governments at the National, Provincial and
District levels, it is hoped that this ecoregional conservation assessment will be integrated
into their own spatial plans for the management of the vast natural resources in East
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