Incentives to Conserve or Convert? Can Conservation Compete with Coal in Kutai National Park?

Abstract

"The discussions on climate change and potential mechanisms to support conservation efforts have fixed the attention on incentives to conserve and protect forests. However incentives alone will not do the job for forest conservation, what might?

"We will use the case of Kutai National Park to examine the potential for incentives to boost conservation and the urgent need for simultaneously applying disincentives against conversion of the national park. Kutai NP is an extreme case: conservation values have to compete with the value of vast deposits of high grade coal (possibly in 50% of the 200, 000 ha of the NP). The Park management unit has tried to calculate the conservation benefits derived from the park ecosystem, but these values are miniscule compared to the alternative of mining.

"Incentives for encroachment or even conversion of the Park are the easy accessible timber and known enormous coal deposits. These resources provide an immediate tangible benefit for the settlers in the park and the local government to exploit the park. We will show how these incentives for conversion affect local possibilities for conserving the important ecosystem of Kutai National Park.

"We will then examine what mix of incentives and disincentives might provide the appropriate push to change to tide for the national park. If we are to be serious about conserving important ecosystems, incentives alone will not do the job. Some force might be needed to ensure that all stakeholders support the commitment to preserve representative example of biodiversity / ecosystems. Each stakeholder will have to make some sacrifice, e.g. settlers will have limited development options, local government have to agree to set aside some area that can not be 'developed' and the national government will have to provide subsidies as incentives to local stakeholders and ensure law enforcement."