This page provides an overview of the role, mechanisms, and programmes of Farmers4Forest (4F) in supporting smallholders and forest conservation.
4F is the only foundation platform established by and for smallholders, connecting markets, producers, government, and other stakeholders with smallholders. 4F's function is to support smallholders monetarily and non-monetarily in order to: - Protect forests, including customary forests, in the landscapes surrounding smallholders in both forest and non-forest areas. This is complementary and can support the Indonesian government's NDC target of conserving forests outside non-forest areas, thereby widening the positive impact of forest conservation in the landscape. - Support smallholders to produce deforestation-free products, using global best practice standards, including traceability standards and HCS-HCV approaches for smallholders. - Support the adoption of best practices by smallholders that are deforestation-free and environmentally friendly. - Helping promote fair treatment of farmers. - Monitor and report on the social impacts and impact of forest conservation efforts.
4F focuses on helping farmers, who are the backbone of the nation, in their efforts to protect forests, practice best practices, get fair treatment and have smallholder products accepted in the world market. The majority of smallholders are indigenous people. Whereas the other funding focuses on the local and indigenous communities themselves, not the farmers.
The sources of funds for 4F include private and government donors, commodity supply chain partners, associations and public.
4F has some initial funds from a UK Foundation to pilot and field trial the fund incentive and benefit mechanism and implementation. 4F also received some funding to launch the foundation from some donors in Indonesia.
4F has a Management Team consisting of experts with experience in farmer organizations to run the general I&B support mechanism. The 4F Supervisory Board will oversee this process. Funds are received, managed, and reported to the Board by the Management Team. These funds can be channeled to village organizations or outside village organizations to be used for approved I&B activities. Final reporting will be provided to donors, to partners in monitoring the impact of forest conservation, to relevant stakeholders and to the public. 4F also plans to open opportunities for relevant stakeholders to sit on 4F’s Advisory Board and Expert Council.
No. 4F was set up by SPKS but is a separate and an independent partner of SPKS.
4F does not always have to work with SPKS. 4F is open to working with any organization. It is possible that if the 4F program is in an area where many SPKS farmer members are located, then SPKS can become a program implementation partner.
No, it won't. 4F only focuses on being a platform mechanism to provide I&B to smallholders for forest conservation and best practices in order to improve farmers' welfare.
Farmers can receive monetary and non-monetary I&B. The activities to be supported by 4F are based on approved farmer-input based proposals, where these farmers commit to implementing deforestation-free and sustainable best practices. Examples of I&B based on farmer input in West Kalimantan are: Land mapping and legalization, recognition of customary forests, forest guarding, processing and marketing of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), Good Agricultural Practices training, agroforestry, establishing traceability of farmers' products, strengthening farmer village institutions, and market access and fair prices.
Donor partners channel two types of funds to 4F i: conditional and unconditional. Conditional funds may be tied to specific areas, specific farmers, or linked to specific supply chains with specific targets. Unconditional funds are not tied to specific conditions except that the key conditions of 4F include: - Fits the definition of a smallholder. - Farmer groups or farmer cooperatives that commit to operating without deforestation. - Committed to protecting High Carbon Stock and High Conservation Value forests, - Committed to the FPIC process, representation of women and youth. - Committed to operating sustainably at a landscape scale. 4F will work with smallholder support organizations such as SPKS to identify and assist with the proposal development process to access 4F funds.
Unlike many other funding organizations that sometimes manage funding remotely, 4F was created by and for farmers. The 4F team are partners of farmers. 4F works directly with farmers and understands their problems, so 4F can ensure that 4F funds are used properly. 4F uses a combination of self-reporting, verification, and third-party verification to monitor activities and impacts. High-quality deforestation-free and sustainability programmes require more than one tool or approach to monitor and report progress. Tools and approaches to be used in 4F reporting include: - State mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on government programmes, such as through and Village Regulations and Customary Regulations. - Non-state mechanisms such as smallholder declarations, High Carbon Stock Approach Monitoring, Deforestation Free Landscape Monitoring, Global Forest Watch, and Independent Verification (including ISPO/RSPO/Carbon where relevant).
In accordance with their local wisdom, smallholders, who are local and indigenous communities, will not deliberately destroy forests if they have their basic needs of land, fair treatment and support in protecting their forests. The impact of rapid development and capitalization has left smallholders behind and lacking these basic needs. 4F connects the dots between smallholders and the global community to try to redress this imbalance, so that deforestation does not continue. For example, implementing best practices without deforestation will hopefully bring farmers and the global community closer together, open up market access, improve the welfare of farmers and forest communities, and improve economic development so that there is no pressure for deforestation.
Yes, a prerequisite of receiving any incentives and benefits support from the fund is the demonstration that Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) has been given by the community, and the participatory and inclusive processes have been used.
All programme preparation and implementation processes will involve women and youth, such as through participatory social mapping, participatory land use mapping and planning, and special programs for women and youth. The village forest conservation programme will also significantly impact the sustainable livelihoods derived from products from the forest such as rattan, which is usually managed by women to be used as household tools or sold.
4F is not linked to the EUDR but will support Indonesian smallholders to meet the no-deforestation requirements in the EU Deforestation Regulation and in global market demands. This includes proving no-deforestation and forest conservation, geolocation of plantations, proof of traceability, implementation of FPIC and fair treatment and investment and capacity building in smallholder communities.
No, due to the uncertainty of a credible offset process at present. However, 4F provides protection to carbon stored in community forests or agroforestry areas as part of the Ecosystem Services they provide. Funding can be made to 4F for ongoing carbon conservation, but not as offsets. 4F does not specifically calculate or monitor the amount of carbon stored in forests, but uses carbon estimates to categorize land cover as part of the High Carbon Stock Approach assessment process to be protected and for land cover monitoring.
It started with the need to develop a Deforestation Free Toolkit for smallholders championed by the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) initiative. In 2018, HCSA and the Palm Oil Farmers Union (SPKS) began the development of the toolkit for smallholders. After conducting various field trials for more than four years in West Kalimantan as part of implementing deforestation-free practices using the High Carbon Stock and High Conservation Value approaches, SPKS has received a lot of inputs from farmers, indigenous communities, and academics. Based on these valuable inputs, SPKS believes that 4F, an independent I&B financing platform, is urgently needed to connect the aspirations of farmers, indigenous peoples, government and markets in protecting forests in Indonesia.
4F focuses on activities that smallholders and communities have identified as a need and act as an incentive or a benefit for forest protection and no deforestation. Activities include: GAP training, forest guards, land rights support, NTFP market support, traceability support, and market access and fair price support. As part of the fair price support it is hoped a premium price for CPO & FFB will be achieved for verified traceable deforestation-free smallholders. RSPO premium is associated with the RSPO Book and Claim scheme using the PalmTrace tool, where RSPO certified smallholders that are not able to sell to a RSPO certified buyer can sell credits to RSPO members who want to support sustainable smallholder oil palm production. One tonne of palm oil is equal to one credit. This can act as a premium for RSPO certified smallholders.
There is no limit on the length of time communities can received I&B, and 4F aims to establish a flow of I&B support in recognition that forest conservation requires ongoing support. The first milestone is legal recognition of the forest to be protected. With legal status deforestation can be controlled by regulation. The long-term target is a sustainable landscape management plan that is part of a government institution that is supported by corporate, market, government and independent funding. Forest cover monitoring through a credible platform is one form of verification that ensures customary forests linked to I&B support are protected.
Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) is the foundation for any dispersal of 4F funds or support. The main requirements to apply for funds to 4F are that: there is a demarcated forest or high conservation value area in the village, the community gives FPIC to protect the forest and to go through the accompanying participatory process and seek legal land rights recognition, and ideally the village community is also consisting of commodity farmers so that 4F can then provide the benefit of linking to markets and accessing funds to protect the forest in the producing area.
That will depend on whether the village has a forest conservation programme within the village government? If yes, then it is important to align and embed the management of the funds within the existing governance. Similarly, if the fund management is attached to an institution outside the village government programme, the management needs to be embedded into the institution. Once embedded, 4F will identify gaps and address them, including through capacity building and training in management and reporting in accordance with 4F requirements.
4F’s geographical scope is all of Indonesia. It is currently working with providing I&B for communities in West Kalimantan, but 4F plans to expand its work area to include landscapes in other parts of Kalimantan, to Sulawesi and to Sumatra.
Broadly speaking, 4F programmes include: awareness and training, social mapping and participatory mapping, implementation of FPIC, mapping of forests (HCS-HCV) and other areas of importance to the community using a participatory process, working with local stakeholders for legal recognition of conservation forests, development of work plans and the delivery of I&Bs, and securing funding.