Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
Due to increasing global demand for palm oil, coal, and timber, Indonesia has become the largest contributor of greenhouse gases from primary forest loss in the world. Carbon market mechanisms, like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), are being promoted by many elem...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Conservation & Society |
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| Online Access: | http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2018;volume=16;issue=2;spage=136;epage=146;aulast=Howson |
| _version_ | 1811256153597804544 |
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| author | Peter Howson |
| author_facet | Peter Howson |
| author_sort | Peter Howson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Due to increasing global demand for palm oil, coal, and timber, Indonesia has become the largest contributor of greenhouse gases from primary forest loss in the world. Carbon market mechanisms, like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), are being promoted by many elements of Indonesia's government as an effective policy response. The REDD+ programme is designed to enable the provision of financial compensations to protect and restore standing forests by making them more valuable than the timber they contain. However, the logic of REDD+ constructs people living in and around project sites as environmentally destructive and therefore in need of incentivisation to do otherwise. Local people are compensated for the 'opportunity costs' of not degrading forests. Within this frame ‘locals’—suffering from the malaise of dispossession—are Othered as illegal loggers, poachers, greedy miners or arsonists. In reality, REDD+ often facilitates the continuation of violence, legitimising an image of small-holders, rather than large international corporations, as the cause of forest degradation in Indonesia. Focusing on the Sungai Lamandau REDD+ project of Central Kalimantan, I discuss how, for some of Sungai Lamandau's landless farmers, REDD+ is accelerating the very violence and environmentally destructive behaviours it claims to discourage. Farmers are becoming embroiled in other ongoing processes, pushing them towards illicit livelihood strategies, sometimes with devastating outcomes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:36:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6045812d5068415d8b07703232c33c0b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0972-4923 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:36:40Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Conservation & Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-6045812d5068415d8b07703232c33c0b2022-12-22T03:22:58ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsConservation & Society0972-49232018-01-0116213614610.4103/cs.cs_16_150Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, IndonesiaPeter HowsonDue to increasing global demand for palm oil, coal, and timber, Indonesia has become the largest contributor of greenhouse gases from primary forest loss in the world. Carbon market mechanisms, like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), are being promoted by many elements of Indonesia's government as an effective policy response. The REDD+ programme is designed to enable the provision of financial compensations to protect and restore standing forests by making them more valuable than the timber they contain. However, the logic of REDD+ constructs people living in and around project sites as environmentally destructive and therefore in need of incentivisation to do otherwise. Local people are compensated for the 'opportunity costs' of not degrading forests. Within this frame ‘locals’—suffering from the malaise of dispossession—are Othered as illegal loggers, poachers, greedy miners or arsonists. In reality, REDD+ often facilitates the continuation of violence, legitimising an image of small-holders, rather than large international corporations, as the cause of forest degradation in Indonesia. Focusing on the Sungai Lamandau REDD+ project of Central Kalimantan, I discuss how, for some of Sungai Lamandau's landless farmers, REDD+ is accelerating the very violence and environmentally destructive behaviours it claims to discourage. Farmers are becoming embroiled in other ongoing processes, pushing them towards illicit livelihood strategies, sometimes with devastating outcomes.http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2018;volume=16;issue=2;spage=136;epage=146;aulast=HowsonREDD+neoliberal conservationintimacy-geopoliticsviolenceexclusionIndonesia |
| spellingShingle | Peter Howson Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia Conservation & Society REDD+ neoliberal conservation intimacy-geopolitics violence exclusion Indonesia |
| title | Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia |
| title_full | Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia |
| title_fullStr | Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia |
| title_short | Slippery Violence in the REDD+ Forests of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia |
| title_sort | slippery violence in the redd forests of central kalimantan indonesia |
| topic | REDD+ neoliberal conservation intimacy-geopolitics violence exclusion Indonesia |
| url | http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2018;volume=16;issue=2;spage=136;epage=146;aulast=Howson |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT peterhowson slipperyviolenceinthereddforestsofcentralkalimantanindonesia |