Subsistence hunting has sustained human populations in New Guinea for millennia, without seriously affecting the highest levels of biodiversity on Earth. Recent changes to hunting practices, demographic, social and economic context and the introduction of large exotic species has significantly altered the dynamic of hunting and its potential effects in...

The island of New Guinea is one of the world’s highest diversity areas in terms of its 13,600 vascular plant species. It is also one of the least botanically explored parts of the world, so documentation of the flora is very important. The documentation of palms is as important as...

The understanding of the role of using forest resources in the livelihood strategies of smallholder farmers is limited. Rural household surveys often omit this aspect. From a survey of 600 Indonesian cattle farmers, we apply the sustainable livelihood framework to investigate the role extracting forest resources has in livelihood strategies...

In Indonesia, smallholders have historically practiced agroforestry, which warrants examination in terms of food and livelihood security within sustainable community forest frameworks. Based on a literature review, we analysed these two forms of security related to smallholder agroforestry practices. Findings indicate diverse agroforestry systems, with 88% focusing on non-timber forest...

Agricultural development currently focuses primarily on increasing the production of food crops. However, horticultural agriculture is essential in producing and supplying other goods besides main food crops such as rice, corn, and soybeans. This condition causes agricultural development to not fully optimize its potential because each region has varying characteristics...

The chosen public policy for this case study is the Village Law, No. 6 of 2014. There is an urgency of the Village Law for family farming in Indonesia because, through the derivative program of the Village Law No. 6 of 2014, the family farming community received support in terms...

With a coastline of more than 90,000 km – the second longest after Canada – it is in Indonesia’s interests to protect its coastal areas from climate change impacts. The continued existence and preservation of extensive coastal vegetation like mangroves and seagrasses is a nature-based solution for successful adaptation to...

Coastal area rehabilitation/restoration involving mangrove ecosystems for climate change mitigation is a long and risk-laden journey. It requires strong and comprehensive governance, and policies that involve stakeholders from the national to subnational levels. Institutional complexities can become a bureaucratic hurdle and obstruct information and funding flows. These pose new challenges for...

Sustainable Development Goals and Low Carbon Development are global- and national-scale development agendas Indonesia is currently applying. Mangrove ecosystems are included to achieve the targets within the same time frame, and a coordinated strategy and integrated planning are necessary. The National Strategy for Mangrove Ecosystem Management clearly separates between conservation and...

Following severe forest loss in recent decades, Southeast Asian countries are increasingly employing social forestry as a means to ensure the sustainable development of their forest-dwelling communities. Given the potential of agroforestry to provide multiple ecosystem services, habitat for the maintenance of biodiversity, and the economic and social development of...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on food security in Indonesia. Ensuring food production and availability is a major concern for policymakers. The Indonesian government has historically made various efforts in this regard, encouraging and providing facilitation to farmers as the main producers of food, such as through...

Using Tebat Benawa customary community in Indonesia as a case study, this paper aims to understand how non-specialty Robusta coffee value chain operates at the farmer-trader level and see if and how customary setting influences the relationships between actors. We employed a mixed-methods research design combining qualitative and quantitative analyses...

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a tool for fostering a new paradigm in natural resources management. Combined with an Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) approach, in community-based fire prevention and peatland restoration, PAR facilitates transformative change through a simultaneous process of research and taking action, linked together by critical refl ection....

Non-extractive and power-equalising research involves different knowledge holders (e.g. researchers and farmers) in a process of close cooperative engagement, jointly producing new knowledge, with mutual learning. As such, this form of cooperative enquiry is a significant reversal from dominant roles, locations, and ways of knowing. I offer some examples and reflections on...

About the SAFE project The Sustainable Agriculture for Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) project is dedicated to the preservation of forests through the promotion of sustainable agri-food systems. SAFE operates in six countries – Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Zambia, Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – supporting the transition to deforestation-free,...

This report provides a collection and analysis of six case studies which introduce trailblazing shared label initiatives by smallholder organisations across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Each case study explores the motivation for collective marketing action, the choice of claims to make through a shared label, the control over the...

Complex rice systems (CRSs) are integrated agricultural systems that combine azolla (aquatic ferns), fish, ducks and border plants into rice production systems to augment ecological processes of nutrient recycling, weed and pest suppression, and replace agrochemicals that are harmful to human, animals and environment. Moreover, CRSs could foster ecosystem services...

When Edy Prasetyo began farming catfish in 2001, he couldn’t have imagined how popular it would become for Indonesian street food culture. Today, grilled-catfish vendors line the streets of Jakarta and other urban centres on the archipelago, catering to city dwellers whose appetite for pecel lele often outruns the supply. But...

Through a mix of downplaying, intransparency and undertesting, the largest archipelago nation in the world paid little heed to its vulnerable fishers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Edy, a fisherman on Indonesia’s Pari island said: “For almost three months we did not travel outside the island. Earlier, we got additional income from...

Nissa Wargadipuras’s earliest memories involve learning how to live with nature. Her childhood home’s backyard in the hilly town of Garut, West Java was a little forest where her father planted vegetables, herbs and fruits. Her mother produced traditional medicine from the plants for their family and their neighbours. “Whenever I...