Sustainable Landscapes Management Project - Green recovery in agricultural commodity production in Jambi

The study provided an assessment of how livelihoods had changed since the pandemic and the 2016 baseline study, focusing on shifts in livelihood strategies, household well-being, and forest cover. This assessment yielded policy-relevant insights on the role of commodity agriculture in a green recovery and assessed the potential to support sustainable livelihoods pathways consistent with forest protection goals. It explored the potential to support sustainable livelihoods pathways by identifying the specific trade-offs and challenges facing households/communities proximate to the national park, and opportunities to address these through development policy and programming. The results of the study contributed to policy recommendations provided by the World Bank to the Government of Indonesia, and a growing body of international evidence on landscape management governance and policy. The research was situated within a context of rapid change to land use and land-use planning in Indonesia, and an urgent need to understand the issues that women and men faced in accessing and protecting natural resources while increasing wellbeing through livelihoods.

The research asked:

1. How livelihoods had changed since the pandemic, focusing on shifts in livelihood strategies in agriculture commodity-dependent households, household well-being, and forest encroachment. 
2. The role of sustainable commodity agriculture in a green recovery, including identifying the risks (to forests and people) of emerging/apparent trends in livelihoods activity in the surveyed villages. 
3. Perceptions on land use, resource use, forest conservation, and agricultural investments/practices, with a focus on differentiation across gender, age, and ethnicity. 
4. The specific trade-offs and challenges facing households/communities proximate to the national park, and opportunities to address these through development policy and programming.  This was expected to include (but was not limited to) themes including land tenure, local political economy factors, and assessments of production and marketing trends, and should have identified specific technical solutions (such as the type and scope of support/subsidies/payment schemes/legal and regulatory shifts) which would promote a green recovery.

Dala delivered this project with the University of Jambi Faculty of Agriculture.