REDD+ Projects and Their Impact on Household Incomes in Indonesian Borneo

Authors

Sandy Nofyanza, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, The United KingdomFollow
Zahra Avia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang, IndonesiaFollow
Colas Chervier, Centre de Coopération International en Recherche Agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), Montpellier, FranceFollow
Agus Muhamad Maulana, Center for International Forestry Research-World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), Bogor, IndonesiaFollow

DOI

10.24259/fs.v9i2.44699

Abstract

In Indonesia, early Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects, established in the early 2010s, were required to self-fund through carbon credit sales or donor aid while supporting local livelihoods. This paper examines the impact of REDD+ projects on both agricultural and overall household incomes (i.e., from all economic activities, including agriculture). We hypothesize that the agricultural incomes of REDD+ participating households (or treated households) would decrease as REDD+ forbids forest clearance, but this loss would be offset by a subsequent rise in overall household income as REDD+ encourages income diversification. Additionally, we assess whether REDD+ implementation has an intra-community 'spillover' effect by comparing the incomes of households living in REDD+ villages but abstaining from participation, with those in non-REDD+ (control) villages. We evaluate two such projects in Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan) using panel survey data from over 400 households, collected in 2010, 2014, and 2018. Our analysis employs panel difference-in-differences in matched samples. Overall, our results reveal a small, heterogeneous impact of REDD+ on household incomes. While we found no significant impact in East Kalimantan’s BFCP site, participation in Central Kalimantan’s KMP site led to a reduced agricultural income over the short term (2010-2014). However, we detected no improvement in overall household income, nor did we find this impact to be long-lasting. We also found no conclusive evidence of intra-community spillover effects. The short-term income shock observed at the KMP site, despite its small overall magnitude, indicates the need for strategies to support and safeguard household incomes against temporary disruptions associated with REDD+ implementation. Our research contributes to the broader discourse on REDD+ performance, echoing previous findings of its mixed and modest impact on local communities' incomes globally.

Recommended Citation

Nofyanza, Sandy; Avia, Zahra; Chervier, Colas; and Maulana, Agus Muhamad (2025) "REDD+ Projects and Their Impact on Household Incomes in Indonesian Borneo," Forest and Society: Vol. 9: Iss. 2, Article 13.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v9i2.44699
Available at: https://scholarhub.unhas.ac.id/fs/vol9/iss2/13

Pages

665-683

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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