Locating forest plantations in the Heart of Borneo

1. Identify and manage High Conservation Value Forests

The distribution of high conservation value forests (HCVF) need to be considered prior to allocation of concessions and long before clearance and planting.

In situations where some habitat fragmentation is unavoidable, wildlife corridors connecting fragmented forests should be set up and maintained to allow migration and ensure population viability.

 2. Identify restoration concessions (logging-specific)

Concessions that are inactive can be subject to illegal logging and encroachment.

The loss of value from degradation may then result in them being abandoned completely; lack of proper management and access restriction in such cases can result in degradation to the point where the forest cannot recover and the area becomes a wasteland.

• The Government of Indonesia has introduced a new type of forest concession, ‘Restoration Concessions’ (Minister of Forestry Regulation No. P61/Menhut-II/2008), to protect the abandoned concessions in order that they recover to a point where they are again viable for harvesting.
• The WWF Global Forest and Trade Network (GFTN) is actively helping Indonesian and Malaysian foresters to locate and manage restoration concessions. Find out more

3. Identify responsible cultivation areas (plantation specific)

Degraded land can in many cases be used to gain the economic and social benefits of forestry plantation development without serious environmental trade-offs.

• Use degraded lands: Areas with low conservation value, often called ‘degraded lands’, can provide ideal sites for new plantations. WWF has developed a tool to help identify areas which may be suitable for responsible cultivation
• Land swaps: One new idea with a potentially high impact is to work with government and business to swap concessions from high value forest land to low value degraded lands.
  
  If this proves acceptable to business, communities and government it has the potential to secure many hundreds of thousands of hectares of currently allocated forest lands, whilst maintaining the economic growth and opportunity associated with the forest plantation industry.
  
  It is also possible that the significant carbon savings associated with these swaps could be converted into carbon credits and used to compensate communities and businesses for any costs associated with the swap.