Turning Biodiversity into Livelihoods: Lessons from West Kalimantan’s Peatlands
In Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, the peatland forest around Pematang Gadung village holds the memory of fire, logging, and mining—but also the promise of renewal. Once scarred by extraction, this landscape is now at the center of a growing effort to make biodiversity itself a source of income and pride for local communities.
During her October visit, GCBC’s Anna Adamczyk observed both the promise and the practical challenges of turning biodiversity into a measurable and tradable community asset.
A New Currency for Nature
Unlike extractive commodities such as timber or palm oil, biodiversity credits place ecological health at the core of the economy. Each credit represents a verified improvement or sustained enhancement in species diversity or habitat quality, measured over time through transparent, science-based methods.
As Harry Tittensor from Plan Vivo describes, they provide a “certified positive contribution to nature.”
These credits can be traded on voluntary markets, channelling funds to those who restore and protect natural ecosystems. Under the Plan Vivo Nature Standard (standard for biodiversity credits), at least 60 percent of the revenue from credit sales must go directly to local communities.
In West Kalimantan, biodiversity credits are moving from theory to practice. Supported by GCBC through the BREL-Borneo project led by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the October workshops brought together the Plan Vivo Foundation, Biometrio Earth, YIARI, and local communities. Together, they’re helping Pematang Gadung villagers certify biodiversity credits for their 7,000-hectare Village Forest – a peatland ecosystem protected for nearly a decade and home to endangered orangutans, proboscis monkeys, and rare wetland flora.
Learning by Doing in the Peatlands
At the YIARI Learning Center, participants explored how robust data collection underpins the verification of biodiversity credits. Led and organised by Plan Vivo, the workshop provided technical demonstrations on monitoring methods. As part of the pre-deployment phase, participants set up camera traps and acoustic sensors in the nearby forest. Each project collects species and habitat data annually, tracking indicators such as species richness, diversity, and overall habitat health.
Community members were active participants, contributing thoughtful reflections to discussions. Ilyas, Head of Koperasi Mandiri Pematang Gadung Sejahtera, the cooperative co-developing the project together with the Pematang Gadung Village Forest Management Unit (LPHD Pematang Gadung), emphasised that “It’s important for us to clearly understand the process so we can explain the tangible benefits of biodiversity credits back to our community.”
Later, participants travelled by boat to the Pematang Gadung conservation station, accessible only through the waterways – to test their new skills in a real ecosystem and meet members of the local forest patrols. The long-term goal is for more and more members of the local community to take on forest restoration, wildlife monitoring and patrolling roles, thereby shifting the local economy from an extractive to a regenerative model.
Bridging the Finance Gap
One of the clearest messages from the workshop was that, from the perspective of small community projects, biodiversity credit certification can be seen as complex and expensive. Costs include expert validation, field data collection, equipment, and baseline surveys. Once the baseline is established, projects enter a two-year monitoring period before the first biodiversity credits can be issued and sold. During this time, communities must maintain operations and collect data without guarantee of income.
As YIARI’s NBS Senior Lead, Dr. Dorothea Pio, explained, the financial gap between early action and the eventual issuance of biodiversity credits remains one of the biggest challenges. Sustaining field activities throughout this period also requires genuine leadership and commitment from the village.
Even after credits are obtained, uncertainty persists – long-term financial viability depends on the maturity and strength of the emerging biodiversity credit market. As Dorothea reflected, “The long-term success of the project will in large part, depend on how highly the global community values these critical ecosystems and their biodiversity and whether that value can compete with other market forces.”
The solution emerging in Kalimantan is partnership. These collaborations show that lasting conservation grows from relationships of trust and shared learning, not just funding streams or policy frameworks.
From Challenge to Opportunity
The solution emerging in Kalimantan is partnership. Organisations like YIARI act as technical advisors – helping communities navigate the process of obtaining biodiversity credits, secure early-stage funding, and manage transparent reporting. These collaborations show that lasting conservation grows from relationships of trust and shared learning, not just funding streams or policy frameworks.
Plan Vivo, as the certifying organisation, also seeks to address these earlier-mentioned challenges by prioritising accessibility, participatory approaches, and community empowerment within its standards to ensure communities can access finance and take ownership of implementation.
The experience in Pematang Gadung highlights that, while bridging the gap between early action, credit issuance, and the eventual sale of credits is challenging, it also opens the door to a more sustainable future.
Ultimately, the lessons from Kalimantan point toward replication and scaling—informing best practices for other community forests, peatlands, and marine ecosystems. Encouragingly, other organisations from the region have also joined the workshops to explore how biodiversity credits could support conservation in their own ecosystems.
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This report was written by GCBC’s Anna Adamczyk and published with the kind permission of Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, Plan Vivo and YIARI.
Follow the link for more on our BREL-Borneo project: BREL-Borneo: Benefits of Biodiverse Restoration for Ecosystems and Livelihoods in Borneo
Image credits: All photos were taken by Anna Adamczyk, GCBC, and Pahjar Riudha and Indrawan from YIARI.
Image 1: Busran and Pak Ilyas from Koperasi Mandiri Pematang Gadung Sejahtera (KMPGS) are placing camera trap on a tree for biodiversity monitoring.
Image 2: Analysis of biodiversity data with Biometrio Earth and the local community.
Image 3: Testing deployment of biodiversity monitoring tool before going to the field.
Image 4: Group picture of workshop participants, representatives of Plan Vivo, Biometrio Earth, Koperasi Mandiri Pematang Gadung Sejahtera (KMPGS), Village Forest Management Unit (LPHD), GCBC, Konservasi Indonesia, WeBe and GCBC.
Image 5: Pandi and Jaka after successfully installing audiorecorder in peatland forest.
Image 6: Jaka and Icha from Koperasi Mandiri Pematang Gadung Sejahtera (KMPGS) installing audiorecorder in the peatland forest.
Image 7: Participants arriving in Pematang Gadung Conservation Station.
Image 8: Katus, Camp coordinator is introducing project area to participants.
Image 9: Local community with Plan Vivo and GCBC after successfully installing camera traps and audiorecorders in peatland forest
Image 10: Biodiversity credits workshops participants in Pematang Gadung Conservation Station.
