Time for Local People’s Involvement in Managing Forests

The legacy of Guru Mahatma Gandhi for humanity are Three ”A”. Ahimsa-stop using violent to achieve our goals; Anekanta-the goodness and dynamic of dialogue should consider and respect difference interest , and Aparigraha-awareness of every participant to develop dialogue that consider universal values of humanity, human rights, goodness and badness. This 3A is still relevant for us if we intend to solve conflict in forest management. Local community, traditional community  should be put as a subject and they should involve and actively participate from the first  phase in forest management cycle. The Three ”A” is the most basic important principles to be imlemented in any dialogues facilitated by government, CSOs, or private sectors.

Result from research led by Indonesia’s geographical expert, Belinda Margono, who is at the moment pursuing her PhD at the University of Maryland USA, is quite striking for many of us. She stated that the destruction of natural forest in Indonesia throughout the period of 2000-2012 has affected 5.02 million-hectare forest areas or altogether almost in the same size of Sri Lanka. The area of degraded forest in Indonesia in 2012 reached 840,000 hectares or twice of the area of degraded natural forest in Brazil (460,000 hectares), of the same year (National Geographic Indonesia, 1 July 2014). As such, towards which direction will we bring the Forestry of Indonesia?

Discussions and the long debate among the government, forest experts, practitioners, thinkers, and the NGOs have been revolving the issues on whether the local people could be entrusted in managing the forests sustainably. Since the New Order in Indonesia, the large scale of commercial forest exploitation has proven to be unsuccessful in sustaining the resources of production forests, although it had its role as largest contributor to national income after petroleum during the era of 1980s-1990s. During that time, it seems that local community was not provided sufficient access rights to forest management and their access was limited to their activities as labors or workers at forest concessions. This policy has been reformed in these past five years, among others by limiting the number of forest utilization permits issued and the limiting production forest areas for forest concessions or for industrial plantation forest purposes.

Preview of Other Countries

Result from study on the abovementioned forest degradation has portrayed the accummulation of problems from forest management pattern for commercial scale since the 1970s. Such pattern that at this moment has been corrected with limitation of forest management concessions for timber production as well as or industrial plantation forest, has not been able to prove to be sustainable forest management (SFM). How about the position and role of local community in this forest management.

Such provision of management rights to local community has turned out to develop through movements in most Countries in Asia and Latin America. In 2012, the Government of Nepal has provided access rights over 1.2 million-hectare area or 21 percent of its forest area, to 15,000 local users groups and community forest users groups; in the same year, the Government of the Philippines has allocated 6 million hectares (38 percent of forest area) with pattern of community based forest management (CBFM) involving 700,000 farmers households, valid for period of 25 years; in India, although the joint forest management endeavors to involve the community, it was only in 2006 the Law was issued on the Rights towards Forests that acknowledges the rights for the local community and established traditional forest dwellers, cooperatives for management and tree planting were formed independently without external support and until year 2007 there have been 548 cooperatives for tree planting established; the Law on Agrarian Reform in Bolivia in year 1996 acknowledges the collective lands and the form of communal property assets for the rural (inland) community that is recognized as Original Community Land (Ismatul Hakim and Lukas R Wibowo; Editor, 2013). 

Forests for People

In Indonesia, the impetus for the development and issuance of forest development policy that enables benefit for the local community was first declared in the Eighth Forestry Congress in Yogyakarta in 1978 that has launched the big theme of “Forest for People”.  Nevertheless, the policy on providing access to forest management for the local community with no lands, poor community with marginalized lands, through the social forestry movement was started with the thinking and the concepts only in the early 1980s.

Various studies and supports have continued generating, and after the reform, the Law No.4/1999 on Forestry was enacted, followed with the Government Regulation (PP) No.6/2007, clearly mandating on the provision of access rights for the local community to participate in forest management, in order to directly access the benefits. Finally in year 2007, the Minister of Forestry of Indonesia had issued the very strategic decision on community forest and in 2008 on village forest. This provision of management rights for community forest (HKm) and village forest (HD) is for duration of 35 years. Moreover, the policy for smallholder plantation forest is providing access rights for a duration of 60 years. With this relatively long period, it is expected to guarantee for the permit holders to gain certainty for timber harvesting with this access rights.

Target that has been proclaimed by the Minister of Forestry is throughout the years of 2010-2014 there will be provision of access rights to cover 2.5 million hectare production and protection forest areas to be managed (by the community) in the form of community forest (Hutan Kemasyarakatan/HKm) and Village Forest (Hutan Desa/HD). Although the coverage of this access rights is only 3 percent of the total areas of production forest and protection forest in Indonesia, this is considered policy that is bold and a breakthrough that is long awaited by the community of customary forests and local community living in the surrounding forests whose activities were previously considered illegal when they were utilizing the forest areas without permit from the authorities. Up until February 2014, the coffee farmers of the protection forests in Lampung Province had obtained community forest (Hkm) permit from the Minister of Forestry for forest land covering 110,139 hectares. Since their participation in this HKm scheme, the coffee farmers are no longer considered as illegal forest dwellers. The potential for social conflict can be minimized with this kind of policy that provides access rights as such, and at the same time the local community can peacefully continue their agroforestry management activities in order to improve the welfare of their families. Certainly, this program needs to continue be facilitated and assured that relevant forest management patterns such as agroforestry, combination of coffee plantations with various tree species as shelter trees that may later generate timber products continue be enhanced in ensuring the hydrological function of the protection forests to sustain.

Remaining Tasks (Homeworks) going Forward

Having learned from the various developments in other Countries, we see the tendency for the increasing provision of access rights to the local community in managing the state forest. The area of production forest in Indonesia at this moment is approximately 75.4 million hectares whereas the 36.9 million hectares of these are not yet designated with permits. The 5.9 million-hectare area that has not been designated with permits has been indicated towards the development of forest concessions and industrial plantation forests. At this moment, the permits that have been issued for forest concession and industrial plantation forest have covered 10.32 million hectares (Sinar Harapan, 10 July 2014). As such, the remaining production forest that have not been designated for permits still cover 20.68 million hectares. The Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia is implementing the development program of Forest Management Unit (FMU) in the production forest and protection forest. In these FMU areas (it is expected that) the community will be able to directly partner and collaborate with the FMU managers in order to improve their welfare. The remaining tasks for all of us are still piling-up, particularly in relation to:

(1)    Management at the grassroots level in the production forests in the format of FMU management both in production forest and protection forest that at the same time promote the enhancement of partnership with local community as solution for the community dependency on resources of the forest that has developed with an FMU. Out of 600 FMU units, there have been only 120 units developed as model.

(2)    Providing management rights for local community through the schemes of community forest (HKm), village forest (HD), and smallholder plantation forests (HTR) in the production forests (that have not been designated with management permits), protection forests, and with possibility to expand to conservation areas. This provision of management rights is a solution to tenurial conflicts that were caused by the structural poverty of the local community, particularly the ones with limited or no land ownership.

(3)    Encourage the district and provincial governments to support community forest programs, for which the Ministry of Forestry has boosted the provision of management rights towards the state forest for improvement of community welfare with duration of 35 years that can be extended. Up until August 2014, out of the size designated for Determined Working Area (In Bahasa Indonesia: Penetapan Areal Kerja/ PAK) that covers 327,077 Ha for Community Forest (HKm) and 288,016 Ha for Village Forest (HD) designated by the Minister of Forestry. There have been only approximately 20-25% of these designated areas that are supported with follow-up action through the issuance of community forest (HKm) management utilization permits by the Regents of the respective Districts, and village forest (HD) management utilization permist by the Governors of the respective Provinces. In total, there are 615,093 Ha of state forest land for Hkm and HD. This size is about  8.8 times of Singapore (size of Singapore is 71,610 Ha or 716,1 SqKm).

(4)    Facilitation for: (i) prior to the Working Area Determination (or “PAK” in Bahasa Indonesia), for (ii) process of “IUP/HD” (Village Forest Management Utilization Permit), and for (iii) post provision of “IUP/HD” is still needed by the local community in order to develop their capacity in strengthening the “Three M” (In English: “Three M” for Management and In Bahasa Indonesia: “Tiga K” for Kelola), namely the “Institutional Management”, “Forest Area Management”, and “Entrepreneuship Management”. The roles of the Technical Implementation Unit – Watershed Management Agency (In Bahasa Indonesia: UPT BPDAS for “Unit Pelaksana Teknis Balai Pengelolaan Daerah Aliran Sungai”), District Government, Provincial Government, CSOs, and the local community leaders will really determine whether this pro-poor program can further be enhanced in raising the awareness and self-sufficiency of the local community as well as in improving their welfare and restoring the quality of the environment.***

**  The Bahasa Indonesia version of this Paper was presented during the Seminar-Workshop on “Optimizing Role of Local Government in Accelerating Community Based Forest Management Programmes” IPB ICC, 22-23 July 2014. Collaboration between the Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia and the Partnership for Governance Reform (Kemitraan). This English version is produced with relevant updates for Day-1 of the Tenure Learning Visit organized by NTFP-EP, Manila, 15 September 2014.