Diandra Orissa used to simply serve coffee and quietly listen as the men in her rural community gathered to discuss the best ways to protect their sacred forest from illegal loggers, poachers and encroachment.
But the 24-year-old, who is part of the Adat Dalem Tamblingan community in the northern part of the tropical island, eventually put her nervousness to one side to find her voice - joining a handful of young and local women helping to lead her community’s forest protection and nature conservation efforts.
“In the countryside, a lot of young women get married and have children at a very young age - they don’t have a lot of time to learn about their land.”
“But many housewives are homemakers who grow their own vegetables – imagine how many carbon footprints are decreased just by this.”
“These practices can play a big role in climate change and protecting the forest but often aren’t seen.”
The role of rural women like Orissa – who produce up to 80 per cent of food in developing countries and have learned how to cope and adapt to climate change – in conservation efforts cannot be underestimated.
Yet despite often being best-placed to lead a community’s sustainability efforts and the fact that women and girls facing disproportionate impacts from climate change, only 35 per cent of delegates at the recent 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan were women, compared with 34 per cent at COP28 in Dubai.
In Indonesia, men, as the nominated heads of the family, are more commonly represented in government forestry programmes, according to researchers, with women largely absent from political decision-making and implementation. UN-REDD Programme, through its gender-responsive approach, is actively looking to change these power dynamics through its work, particularly on gender, social inclusion and safeguards.
Orissa’s own journey to the Dubai COP began after she became involved in a newly-established youth group in her community. Last year, she gave speeches and joined discussions at side events with other women and youth who know the real value of forests but are facing similar challenges.
Away from Bali’s tourism hotspots, local community promote sustainable livelihoods
In Bali, the 1,339-hectare Alas Mertajati Forest and Lake Tamblingan are a three-hour drive from the traffic-clogged streets and beach resorts of southern Bali where most tourists opt to stay.
In this area, Adat Dalem Tamblingan people promote eco-tourism that educates visitors about their culture – which dates to the 9th century. Tourist numbers are limited to protect and control strain on the areas’ natural resources.
To protect biodiversity, the community only grows crops, like coffee, oranges and flowers for Hindu offerings, in the mountainous areas and away from their forest. They maintain the few trees in their farming areas to improve the soil fertility, retain moisture and prevent landslides. Evidence says that forests on indigenous and local community lands are better maintained, with a higher preserved biodiversity than those on non-indigenous lands.
As well as helping to map the Alas Mertajati Forest, Orissa’s group is helping to establish a community-led school to ensure local knowledge and traditions are passed on to the next generation.
She is also helping create awareness online about her community’s fight for greater recognition and land rights to aid their conservation efforts.
For its part, the Indonesian government launched a social forestry scheme to return customary lands to local communities eight years ago, and to date, more than 8 million hectares of land titles have been issued to local communities.
“Forests in Indonesia are different to forests in western countries,” said Erik Teguh Primiantoro, director for forest inventory and monitoring at Indonesia’s environment and forestry ministry.
“Many people are part of the forest itself – their livelihoods are dependent on the forests.”
During an event at COP29 in Baku last month, Mario Boccucci, Head of the UN-REDD Programme Secretariat reflected on the continued need of creating a systemic way to support communities through social forestry.
“To get to the 2030 deforestation target, it’s a massive transformation that is going to have to take place and we have to really ensure that it is socially inclusive, in terms of rights, gender and tenure,” Boccucci added.
To help in these efforts, the UN-REDD Programme places social inclusion, gender equality and equitable forest tenure at the center of its supports to its partner countries. To illustrate, UN-REDD’s regional initiative, Climate Mitigation through Social Forestry Actions in ASEAN countries, builds capacities of local communities on forest management issues, and explores opportunities for generating incomes and more resilient livelihoods.
Rural women starting to earn more recognition
Initiatives and practices of the Adat Dalem Tamblingan community ensure that young people and women have a prominent role in helping in forest conservation and sustainability efforts. Socially inclusive and gender-responsive benefit-sharing schemes for Indigenous and local communities are fundamental to such sustainable forest conservation efforts and are championed within the UN-REDD framework.
Highlighting the important role of Indigenous Peoples within climate action, the Indigenous Peoples’ Troika was launched at COP29 last month to help coordinate efforts and priorities in talks at the climate conference. In addition, standards on carbon markets agreed in Baku also included the mandatory checks of projects to ensure informed agreement from Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Annette Wallgren, a UN-REDD Regional Coordinator within the Asia Pacific region, noted that Indonesia’s dedicated forest conservation efforts had resulted in a reduction in its deforestation rate in primary forests by 65 percent since 2015 – an achievement for both Indonesia and the world.
“Indonesia is a role model and has a strong voice in the region of Asia Pacific and globally,” she said.
“Women in Indonesia, and other parts of the region, are the informal managers of forests and rely on the ecosystem services that forests provide for livelihoods and household work,” Wallgren said.
“However, similar to the situation in the agriculture sector, women are not recognized for their contributions.”
“If we fail to recognize their role in managing and conserving the forests, we will also fail in presenting the most suitable and efficient solutions,” she added.
“Women’s leadership in forest conservation has the potential to accelerate action and simultaneously improve gender equality and livelihood generation.”
“The forest is the source of life for us. It is very important,” said the 26-year-old Komang Era Patrisya, another prominent female conservation leader in the Adat Dalem Tamblingan community.
“The task to protect our forests doesn’t just belong to men but women too. Women have a big contribution to make and more should get involved.”