Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP) Design ...

Health
Key human health issues are mainly related to haze and relatively poor sanitation practices in the area.
This is underlined by the CKPP REL 37% of all children underweight (national 27,5%) while the
MDG target is 18%. The underweight percentage acts as indicator of the overall child welfare and
household wealth. This therefore provides a strong indicator of the overall welfare situation, which is
poor and alarming based on international set standards.
Major driving factors behind poor health have been identified as
Acute respiratory infections (especially during haze period)—detailed research has shown a
strong impact between haze exposure and human health. In acute respiratory infections during
periods of low rainfall and about the same time as hotspot densities are increasing. 24
Poor water quality and sanitation practices, river water remain the main source of water and it
is contaminated.
Cultural practices such as early age marriage cause significant risk to women during
pregnancy, leading to relatively high maternal mortality rates and low birth weights.
In general, basic human services data is scarce and more information needs to be gathered to
underbuild and draw better conclusions. A note has to be made on the use of mercury for gold
panning. This will have devastating health impacts if no action is taken.
3. GENDER, LIVELIHOODS AND PEATLANDS
One of the key challenges is gender in relation to peatland development. Land clearing and the use of
fire has traditionally been a male task amongst Ngaju Dayak. The role of the women has changed as
rubber tapping is something that is a shared task of men and women. Women tend to be responsible
for key tasks such as nursery management but lack access and control over financial resources.
Customary tenure over land is male focussed and females, even single headed households cannot
ascertain control over their land.
The burden women are carrying is significant. Fertility is relatively high and women tend to be
engaged in more labour intensive, but less economically attractive activities. This requires a better
balance in the design of livelihood interventions. It is not advisable to engage women in activities like
fire fighting and peatland restoration for the reasons mentioned above. This should enable women to
reduce demands on their labour through the introduction of tools and technology to increase
productivity and improve bargaining power through facilitating the establishment of more equitable
value chains.
Limited access and engagement of women in the management of peatland will have to be considered
as part of the payment mechanism. To effectively address the poor health situation, more investment
is needed to target women. Gender mainstreaming in REDD will most likely need to generate a
separate funding stream for women controlled and managed activities. These should be located in
areas close to the house such as nurseries.
4. CONCLUDING REMARKS
The present socio-economic development situation is below average and remaining alarming, but the
area is not dramatically poor as compared to some parts of Eastern Indonesia, pockets urban Jawa or
Central Javanese sharecropper where monthly incomes are averaging between 350,000-600,000
IDR/hh. Incomes are around or slightly above the Indonesian poverty line (which is below the World
Bank one dollar a day based a family of five) but non-income related poverty is more problematic as
health facilities and access to drinking water is limited. Cultural practices such as under age marriage
are aggravating the current situation. The area is relatively poor when non-income related poverty is
taken into account.
24
D. Soekarjo & J Kieft, 2008, The impact of peat fires on Human health; towards better understanding on how are ENSO, fire
outbreak and key health impacts are linked. CARE: Unpublished paper.
1-4 KALIMANTAN FORESTS AND CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP (KFCP) DESIGN DOCUMENT