The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

Co-­‐management of Tanjung Puting National ParkThe TPNP Authority currently has a staff of 56 personnel, workingout of offices in Pangkalan Bun, Pembuang Hulu, KualaPembuang, and Kumai, whose job it is to protect over 400,000 haof national park besieged by economic actors that would profitfrom its destruction. The mere presence of the Rimba Rayaproject along the park’s exposed eastern flank will greatly reducethe resource and administrative burden for this staff.Beyond this, and as part of their commitment to developing afor-­‐profit conservation model for underfunded national parks,the Rimba Raya project proponents will work to strengthen theco-­‐management agreement already in existence betweenTanjung Puting National Park and OFI.A portion of the revenues from the sale of the project’s carboncredits will be used to fund directly the park’s management andconservation activities. Moreover, park personnel will haveaccess to training and capacity-­‐building opportunities, improvedequipment for monitoring and communication, and the reserve’sfire brigade.Development of Social BufferAn essential element of the Rimba Raya project is theengagement of all stakeholders in the Project Zone in order tocreate a social buffer to the park and Project Area, therebyalleviating many of the external pressures that drivedeforestation. The project proponents have created a processframework designed to disseminate information about projectdevelopment and implementation, support communityparticipation in all aspects of the project, and offer opportunitiesfor capacity-­‐building.To create an effective social buffer, project proponents believethat a comprehensive approach to socio-­‐economic developmentmust be undertaken with the objective of addressing the rootcauses of community-­‐based deforestation – namely poverty,hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion. To thatend, a slate of programs has been developed based on data froman initial social survey in the Project Zone and with reference tothe UN Millennium Development Goals for Indonesia. For a fullelaboration of specific social targets, see Section CM1.1, below.Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED).According to the World Bank, there has beensignificant progress on human developmentoutcomes in Indonesia over the past two decades(World Bank 2006). However, these positive national trendsmask disparities at the regional and district levels and amongsocioeconomic groups. A large proportion of the population stilllives in poverty, and there are large differences in education,health, and nutrition outcomes among districts. Furthermore,within districts, the poor suffer further disadvantages along everydimension. Children from poor families start school later,complete fewer years of schooling, and have higher dropout andrepetition rates. These children also have lower rates ofparticipation in early childhood education and development(ECED) services. Districts with high dropout rates, for example,have low enrollment in early education services.ECED initiatives are designed to develop “school readiness” inyoung children. International evidence shows that these133