Through collaborative and integrated projects, we will examine ecological, social, and economic issues pertaining to forest conservation, conservation-based livelihoods, and local governance. The social-ecological system in focus is located in the district of Maura Wahau, East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. In 2004, facing the continued degradation of their land and physical separation from their forest, the Wehea Dayak people declared what remained of their forest ‘protected land’ under their traditional law. Since this initial self-organization, illegal logging has been reduced, incomes have increased and their project was awarded Indonesia's highest environmental honor. Despite early success in governing their common pool resource, the resilience of this SES to market pressures, changes in political context and continued environmental pressures, is unknown.
The study will begin in April 2011 through integrated ethnoecological and biodiversity studies. These studies will describe the system and help to map and define the spatial boundaries and scale of the Wehea SES. Information generated from these projects will be used to assess the resilience of the Wehea SES and to guide current and future policy options and management interventions that promote resilience-based stewardship. The information learned from this study should be broadly applicable to other regions of the world characterized by complex problems in conservation and development featuring fragmented “wild” biota, indigenous peoples, and emerging local governance.
Location: East Kalimantan, Indonesia
System Type: Forest/woodland
Contact: Brent Loken; Ken Lertzman
Organization: Ethical Expeditions/Simon Fraser University
Project Dates: 2011 to 2015
Keywords: Resilience; Borneo; Tropical Forest; Dayak; Wehea; governance; thresholds, REDD+; Biodiversity; Ecosystem Services; Education; Communication; Resilience-based Stewardship
