The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

Community Involvement during Project DevelopmentSince the start of the Rimba Raya project development process,OFI and World Education have continued their community workin the region (with interim funding from USAID until a newprogram is formalized), but their program goals have evolved toprovide a bridge to major project activities under the Rimba Rayaproject.Meanwhile, project proponents have engaged with governmentand NGO stakeholders at all levels to secure support for theproject and to collaborate on project design and development toensure successful implementation. Concurrently, a social surveyproject was initiated in the Project Zone, and communitystakeholders were interviewed to assess their current conditionand priorities. A list of early dialogues with communitystakeholders is presented in Table 30 below.Rimba Raya management team. Hartjahjo Ariawan (Wawan) isnow our field manager for community affairs.The following is a list of specific community engagement meetingdates conducted during the development phase of the project: November 6-­‐11, 2009 January 13-­‐14, 2010 January 15-­‐19, 2010 February 7-­‐10, 2010 February 25 – March 1, 2010 March 6-­‐11, 2010 March 22-­‐23, 2010 March 28-­‐30, 2010Please see Annex 17a, 17b and 17c for a full report oncommunity engagement activities.Subsequently, project proponents have engaged with thecommunities on an ongoing basis, covering a variety of issuesincluding project design, community needs and priorities,discussions about illegal harvesting activities inside the projectarea, community access to the project area, filling in of oldlogging canals, solar lighting, employment, land-­‐use conflicts withpalm oil, formation of guard patrols, fire management, and solarlighting.In January 2010, the project proponents hired the programmanager of World Education as a permanent addition to the170