THE SUSTAINABILITY OF INDONESIA UPLAND CONSERVATION PROJECTS

The Upland Agricultural and Conservation Project in Central and East J ava is representative of Indonesia's upland conservation efforts. An i mportant component of the project was the use of subsidies to promote activities which increased farmer incomes and soil conservation. Two t ypes of subsidies were used: an operating subsidy for annual inputs su ch as seed, fertiliser and pesticides; and a capital subsidy for terra cing and related construction. This study measures the extent to which the effects of the subsidies were sustained over varying periods foll owing termination of the project. The results show that the effects of the operating subsidies are clearly not sustainable; the effects of t he capital subsidies may persist longer, but they too are probably not sustainable.