Executive Summary 

NRMP Overview 

The Natural Resources Management Project (NRMP) represented the first major USAID 

environmental initiative in Indonesia. The program was initiated in 1990 as a broad form of 

assistance to the GOI s efforts to improve policy making related to natural resources 

management.  The seven year project, which ended in early 1997, involved a donor investment 

of US$27 million to support one of USAID/Indonesia s strategic objectives; namely, the 

"adoption of improved policies and practices in natural resources management . The lead 

consulting firm providing technical assistance to NRMP was Associates in Rural Development 

(ARD) based in Burlington, Vermont, USA. 

Within Indonesia, NRMP aimed to strengthen the: 

Capacity of institutions with the responsibility for analysis and formulation of national 

policies related to management of natural resources 

Capacity of the Government to manage natural production forests for sustained yields 

through assistance to a private forest concessionaire 

Ability of the Government to prepare and implement management plans for protected 

areas Capacity for analysis and management through graduate training. 

In seeking to achieve these objectives, NRMP supported policy analyses for sustainable 

economic development, and field based pilot management implementation strategies for natural 

forests and protected areas. The policy analyses operated through a Policy Secretariat, 

designed to conduct policy analyses and studies of importance to the GOI s sixth Five Year 

Development Plan (Repelita VI). The NRMP also focused on two project sites (Bunaken 

National Park near Manado, North Sulawesi, and Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park in West 

and Central Kalimantan) to test and apply improved approaches for forest and protected area 

management. Project design expected field activities to complement the policy studies 

component with provision of valuable field information and opportunities to demonstrate new 

approaches. 

Program design was for institutional strengthening intervention, linking policy development, 

human capacity development and field experience.  In completing this task, NRMP quickly 

became associated with such concepts as "economic and environmental linkages", 

"industrialization and decentralization", "sustainable development", and "community 

participatory management".  These concepts became central themes in all NRMP interventions, 

but were sometimes not well understood, implemented, or translated into practice at the local 

level where needs are the greatest. 

Institutionally, NRMP reported to an Inter ministerial Environmental and Natural Resources 

Policy Working Group (PWG). The PWG was intended to serve as a Project Steering 

Committee providing guidelines and a policy agenda to enable NRMP to organize evaluations 

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