Property Rights, Environmental Services and Poverty in Indonesia

Abstract

Rewards for environmental services (RES) have potential to maintain flows of environmental services while providing marginalized social groups with greater opportunities to generate income, obtain more secure property rights, and be included in environmental governance processes. This document proposes research on rewards for environmental services related to watershed management and carbon sequestration in two sites in Indonesia. Both are sites where substantial research and development has already been undertaken by ICRAF with Indonesian collaborators under the IFAD-funded program, Rewarding the Upland Poor for Environmental Services (RUPES). This project will identify factors affecting which communities and households benefit from such rewards, assess the household impacts of such rewards, and guide the design of reward mechanisms to provide greatest benefits for the poor. The research combines qualitative and quantitative methods, building upon other components of the RUPES program and the different disciplinary strengths of the research partners from Michigan State University, ICRAF, IFPRI and Lampung University. Two graduate students from Lampung University will be trained to MSc level. The project will support USAID’s strategic priorities in Indonesia. The RUPES network will facilitate the dissemination of outputs throughout Asia.