Over the past five years, an alliance of NGOs and civil society partners mounted a successful campaign against trade in unsustainable palm oil produced in Indonesia, triggering a cascade of commitments to source no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation palm oil.  These commitments hold potential to transform industry faster and more comprehensively than efforts in the past, but it’s increasingly clear that implementing these commitments will require pro-active engagement with government at multiple levels to remove policy barriers and promote new development models for palm oil. One approach for engaging government at sub-national levels widely promoted today is the so-called Jurisdictional Approach to palm oil sustainability.

Originally, the Jurisdictional Approach (JA) in Indonesia was developed for implementing REDD+ objectives across provinces or districts, taking advantage of the far reaching power of local authorities under Indonesia’s system of decentralized forest governance. This report describes results of a scoping study commissioned by The Packard Foundation to understand how the Jurisdictional Approach (JA) can be applied to reducing palm oil driven deforestation in Indonesia.

This document is an Extended Summary of a forthcoming full report that describes:

1. The evolving governance, political, and commercial context of palm oil development in Indonesia
2. Key actors and stakeholders involved in a JA and their incentives for participation
3. How a palm oil Jurisdictional Program (JP) might be designed and implemented over time
4. Experience to date implementing JPs and related landscape conservation programs in Indonesia.
5. Suggested prioritization of jurisdictions in Indonesia for JP experimentation, taking into account biophysical, governance, and industry aspects of different geographies.

The report also highlights possible entry points for developing JPs in select provinces, and draws attention to areas where further study is needed to inform future program planning. The full report will be available on 20 March 2016. Interested readers are encouraged to contact Gary Paoli at gary.paoli@daemeter.org with questions or further details.