The knowledge level of the academics, the government, the local community, the local NGOs, and the private sector are 80 %, 79 %, 79 %, 77 %, and 69 %, respectively. According to the ANOVA, the significance was 0.012 with a 0.05 threshold of significance, which means there was no significance. Hence, the knowledge level between stakeholders was identical or similar.
Variables with a significance value less than 0.05 would have a significant influence on the knowledge level. From five independent variables, namely, stakeholder, education, age, gender, and participation, only the participation variable had a value less than the minimum 0.05, that is 0.002. This result revealed that the participation of REDD+ working group members was the most significant factor affecting their knowledge level and that the influence of other variables was not significant.
This circumstance seems to indicate that the UNREDD Programme Indonesia successfully achieved their objective to enable the stakeholders’ capacity in acknowledging REDD+ issues and the stakeholders were also actively involved in REDD+ discussions. Of interest was that the stakeholders (the government, the academics, the local communities, the local NGO, and the private sector) and education (high school, undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral) variables had no significant impact. Thus, the origin of institutions and education level do not enhance knowledge level.
In regard to the local communities, it was observed that the representatives of local communities in the REDD+ working group were not from the communities who actually live in the surrounding forest area. However, they came from the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago organization called Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) in Bahasa Indonesia. The members of this organization already have good knowledge of forest issues. They were also having experiences participating in the national and international conferences. Therefore, their level of knowledge was equal to the other groups. As education level does not significantly decide the knowledge level, it indicates that the REDD+ scheme can be learned and understood through intensive participation and discussion.
19.5.3.2 Opinion of REDD+ Working Group
According to the statistical analysis, the variation in opinions between stakeholders can be summarized as follows.
a. The government shares similar opinions with academics, local NGOs, and the private sector, yet has opinions different from those of the local communities.
b. The view of academics is shared with the government and local NGOs; however, it differs from the opinions of the local communities and the private sector.
c. The beliefs of the local communities are shared only with the private sector; all other groups disagree with the local communities.
d. The local NGOs are in agreement with the government and the academics, yet they are in disagreement with the local communities and the private sector.
e. The private sectors only share consensus with the government and the local communities, but differ in opinions with the academics and the local NGO.
In regard to the responses, all stakeholders agreed that the deforestation and forest degradation in Central Sulawesi Province is relatively high and that it is caused by land conversion and the mismanagement of forest. They also were of the opinion that the REDD+ program could help to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. However, they believe that REDD+ has many uncertainties in addition to expecting REDD+ implementation to take a significant amount of time and expense. Furthermore, they agreed that commitment and cooperation from all stakeholders is needed for the REDD+ program to succeed, even though there are still different levels of knowledge between central and local levels, which need to be addressed for REDD+ to succeed. As for indigenous communities to be able to participate in REDD+, it remains clear that they will support the projects that are effective and bring more benefit than harm and that indigenous people are only willing to consider such projects if they clearly see preconditions in place that would safeguard their cultures, territories, and autonomy (Reed 2011).
19.4 Conclusion
The Government of Indonesia has been conducting numerous activities and established a number of regulations related to REDD+. However, as these issues are evolving rapidly, it is still inadequate to face current REDD+ uncertainties. Hence, strategy, methodology, regulation, development of capacity building, MRV, financial mechanisms, and the benefit distribution system still need to be strengthened to allow REDD+ projects to succeed.
The funding mechanisms from both bilateral and multi-donors are divergent. The Indonesian Government must identify each target of these funds to avoid overlapping activities in the implementation stage. As a consequence of many institution being involved, there is a risk related to operational, transaction, and opportunity costs of REDD+ implementation. Thus, the government should be cautious and act quickly to synchronize the roles of all institutions.
The knowledge level of the academics, the government, the local community, the local NGOs, and the private sector are 80 %, 79 %, 79 %, 77 %, and 69 %, respectively. According to the statistical analysis, it was identical. From five independent variables, this study revealed that only the participation was the most significant factor affecting the REDD+ working group knowledge level. In addition, the REDD+ working group tended to have different opinions between stakeholders related to REDD+ issues.
Acknowledgments Our deep gratitude to the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program, the Global Environment Leaders Program of IDEC Hiroshima University, the Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia, the UNREDD Programme Indonesia, the Forestry Service of Central Sulawesi Province, and the REDD+ Working Group Members of Central Sulawesi Province, which supported me to conduct this research.
