Borneo Future
Borneo Futures
Is a collaborative effort by a network of researchers and conservation practitioners to maintain the forests, wildlife, and forest services on the island of Borneo. We are not an organization, but represent a movement that seeks to change the future direction of land use on Borneo by changing the mindset of people that have the most influence on land use decisions and forest management.
Background Conservation efforts in South-East Asia have largely failed to make a durable and significant impact. Forests are disappearing as fast as ever, marine ecosystems are degraded to the point of ecological collapse, and environmental services such as clean water and air are increasingly rare. The survival chances for species like the orangutan are becoming ever smaller. One of the reasons for this failure is the lack of significant change in the mindset of politicians, local communities, NGOs, scientists, businesses and all others involved in the management of Bornean ecosystems. A paradigm shift is urgently needed, and therefore we target a new non-conventional approach. We suspect that in societies such as those in Borneo, change is most likely to happen if directed top-down. Most decisions made about Bornean land use ultimately lead back to a few of the most powerful politicians and business leaders. Without their consent it will be difficult for any change to take place. What we aim for is to target these ultimate decision makers with scientific information that shows how they can politically and financially benefit from new approaches to socio-economic development, while ensuring the maintenance of environmental and social values. We believe that such tradeoffs exist, but that these have been insufficiently explored.
Borneo Futures
We hypothesize that by providing these most powerful decision makers with the right kind of information will lead to the most rapid changes in land use, forest management and wildlife conservation. The ultimate result we are seeking is a Borneo that in 2050 will be managed in a way that respects people’s rights, ensures the survival of Borneo’s forests and forest wildlife on at least 50% of the island’s land area, and generates economic development that significantly increases people’s welfare.
Implementation The first phase of Borneo Futures was funded by the Arcus Foundation. It involved researchers from a range of universities and is strongly on the generation of new, important and exciting scientific insights with the specific purpose to influence political and business thinking about land use and orangutan conservation on Borneo. These new insights included a much improved understanding of the economics of land use, the cost and benefits of different conservation strategies, the perceptions about forests and forest services among local communities, the underlying reasons for orangutan hunting and conflict, A Collaborative Movement
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Borneo Futures
the flows and values of forest ecosystem services, a better knowledge of the resilience and versatility of the orangutan species, and the possible long-term impacts of climate change. We have made significant progress in this phase, with at least 35 scientific publications scheduled to result directly or indirectly from our efforts. Generating new scientific insights, however important, will not be enough to create the kind of major shifts in political thinking required to secure the long-term survival of species such as the Bornean orangutan, and implement sustainable forest and land use management strategies. New thinking is needed to achieve this vision. Although science provides us with several important new tools and crucial information we need to translate its findings into concise and compelling politically relevant language before it will be used in politics. Once an appealing story is available in appropriate language, a process can be started of implementing political strategies that target specific people or organizations with the ability to translate the science into political action.
Phase 1 -‐ Science and visioning (2 years)
Phase 2 -‐ Intermediate phase of consolida=on, consulta=on and strategizing (1 year)
Phase 3 -‐ Implementa=on and scaling up (mul=-‐ year)
Following phase 1 which focused on science we are presently developing a phase 2 focused. This second phase will take one year and focus on three key areas: 1) Consolidation of the scientific findings and insights as published in the ca. 35 scientific publications into a concise and compelling report to be peer-reviewed by colleagues in Indonesia and Malaysia; 2) Implementing a number of workshops at national and international level to map political pathways and strategies that facilitate the translation of scientific insights into political ideas; and 3) Initiate a process of consultations with multi-lateral organizations, finance institutions, policy makers, and business leaders to determine what might work and what won’t. Our emphasis will be on new, out-of-the-box thinking, and business-as-unusual strategies with a clear understanding that most efforts in tropical conservation have to date been ineffective or only achieved local success.
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Activities in phase 2 will prepare the full-blown implementation and scaling-up phase 3. The intermediate phase 2 is needed, because without a process of clear consolidation, strategizing and consultation, there is too much risk of making strategic errors, insufficiently exploring new opportunities, and presenting an unclear and unfocused approach to potential partners, which could result in a waste of resources as well as opportunities to achieve real change. Phase 2 should also clarify the scale, organization (e.g. embedding the project into an existing institution or continuing independently), and focus of phase 3, and an honest assessment as to whether the potential benefits of the scaling up process justify the costs and risks.
Contact Us - Principle Advocates Erik Meijaard
[email protected]
Marc Ancrenaz
[email protected]
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