The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

The Rimba Raya Project is located in the Seruyan District(Kabupaten) of Central Kalimantan. BPS data from 2004 show 5-­‐10% of the population in Central Kalimantan fall below thenational poverty line – 500,000 to 1 million individuals (WB2006). According to Provincial data alone, the Project would notmeet the ‘50% of the population’ threshold for this criterion. Butone must look at spatial patterns of regional development withinthe Province to evaluate GL2.1 appropriately.The Seruyan District has a population of c.112000 people. In 2004(the most recent data available) Seruyan was reported to have aper capita income of Rp. 7,012,379/year (PDKS 2004). At the 2004exchange rate, this is equivalent to $2.22/person/day –approaching, but still exceeding, the $2/day internationalthreshold for poverty. However, one must consider spatialpatterns of development within Seruyan, and equality of incomedistribution, to evaluate populations of the Project Area itself.Unfortunately, national statistics are not reported at the sub-­‐District level, and formal household income surveys have not yetbeen conducted for communities of the Project Area.Nevertheless, qualitative inferences can be drawn tocontextualize these averages on the basis of known incomedisparities between rural and urban populations, and byreference to other standard indicators of poverty.Income disparities between rural and urban populations inIndonesia are severe, especially in remote areas. Incomes of ruralpopulations tend to be highly dependent on farming and othernatural resource harvesting, which can be highly dependent onlocal environmental conditions, regional and international marketdemand, and freedom of access to alternative markets.Livelihoods of most households in the Project Area aredependent on dry land farming or fisheries of the Seruyan river,both of which are reported be in severe decline due to intensifiedflooding (farming) and mismanagement and/or pollution of theSeruyan river (fisheries). On this basis, it is highly likely that poorrural populations of the Project Area fall far below the Districtaverage of US$2.22/person/day, and thus qualify as living belowthe national poverty line of US$2/person/day.Alternative standard indicators of poverty include access toeducation, health care, clean drinking water and housing. Asdetailed above in the community section, access to all four ofthese services are extremely limited and/or non-­‐existent in theProject Area. Both health care and education facilities requiredistant travel and cost is a limiting factor. Sanitation facilities arenot available (e.g. septic tanks are not used), with toiletsdesigned to drop waste directly into rivers – the same rivers usedto bathe, wash and collect water for drinking and cooking.Supporting data for these conditions are based on directobservations acquired during a recent social survey, site visits andfrom other national and international organizations working inthe area (OFI and World Education). Limited availablegovernment data are consistent with this conclusion.A government health program called Jaminan KesehatanMasyarakat (Jamkesmas) to assist poor families with the cost ofhealth care announced last year that 27,143 residents out of thec. 112,000 of the Seruyan District (c. 24%) were too poor to covertheir own medical costs, thus qualifying for this program (Kapuas2008). Again, this averages across the entire Seruyan District, notspecifically for the communities or sub-­‐districts in the ProjectArea, which by anecdotal data are amongst the mostimpoverished people in the Seruyan district. When widelyrecognized severe disparities of income between urban and ruralpopulations are considered, the extreme rural conditions of the274