Eco-Certification as an incentive to conserve biodiversity in rubber smallholder agroforestry systems : a preliminary study

Rubber agroforest managed by smallholder, a low intensity cultivation system with a forest like structure, cover more than 1 million ha in Indonesia and contribute significantly to the conservation of forest species. In the face of the rapid deforestation that isa taking place in Indonesia, their importance for conservation is of fundamental importance. Rubber agroforests offer many economoc advantages to smallholder, such as loe development costs and minimal risk. However, they offer a smaller return on land and labour than alternative land uses, such as the monoculture of high-yielding hevea clones, oil palm, and in areas close to urban markets, intensive food crop production. In the absence of specific intensives, there are no reason why smallholders should forego the benefits of more profitable land uses for the sake of biodiversity conservation. This means that the conservation community must be ready to reward the services rendered by samllholder willing to conserve their cots of the conservation services is trough eco-labelling of the products coming from the agroforests. Selling eco-labelled products at a higher than average price would increase the economic returns from the agroforest. This report examines prospects for selling eco-certified products from agroforest and the potential benefits and constraints of eco-certification.