Forest and potential natural resources in Indonesia turn out makes us to manage and maintain it in a good way, otherwise there are some groups that try to utilize the natural resource massively for business needs.
This is the main reason in forestry issues and unsustainable land and forest management in our country. We can mention the number of deforestation and land degradation that have increased by years in some provinces in Indonesia and become the world spotlight to find solutions for this non-stop problem. Therefore, it is very important for the environmental activists to consider the sustainable land and forest development, as well as pay attention to the aspects of welfare and justice for communities around the forest area.
It brings The Asia Foundation (TAF) through SETAPAK program concern to improve the Forest and Land Management in Indonesia as one of the strategic approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring that the benefits of natural resources are distributed based on the principle of sustainability and justice. SETAPAK program recognizes that good forest management is important to sustain the forest and land management.
To coordinate the program, communities around the forest area utilize the Social Forestry momentum in national level to ensure access for the society in monitoring the forest area as an effort to conserve forest and improve the community’s economy. The Social Forestry were expected to strengthen tenure rights includes the adat forest. CSOs and the government working together to accelerate the target of Social Forestry, among others by forming the Working Group in national and several provinces, allocate the social forestry budget, and encourage social forestry regulations at national and provincial level.
As an effort to carry out the program, there are various challenges found in the field, such as:
- Slowimplementation of Social Forestry in the targeted areas
- Adat forest implementation in the Papua, West Papua and Aceh province.
- Lack ofinformation and socialization to the community about the Social Forestry plans and the submission processes
- The existenceof tenurial conflicts that involves community and company
- Social forestry proposals fromthe community who haven’t followed by the ministry through permit decrees
- Insufficient budget allocation for forest management, and to ensure the community could get the economic benefit from their activities in forest area.
Some supports from SETAPAK and communities to encourage the Social Forestry through the Management Rights of Village Forest in coastal landscape of Padang Tikar – West Kalimantan are) :
- Legality of forest village in coastal landscape of Padang Tikar, Kubu Raya District, West Kalimantan was given in 2016
- The forest village was divided by Protected Forest (69,299 hectares), Limited Production Forest (1,985 hectares) and Conversion Production Forest (5,086 hectares). Administratively, the forest village was divided to 10 administrative villages with the total area of 76,370 hectares.
- As SETAPAK’s partner in West Kalimantan, SAMPAN encourage the optimization of Non-Timber Forest Products (HHBK) and environmental services or ecotourism, conserved mangrove forest and peat from illegal activity, strengthen Village Forest Management Agency (LPHD) and ensured the funding sources for forest village, both from government or third party (such as banking).
We must monitor the forest management in accordance to law and policies. Your support would be very meaningful to preserve the Indonesia’s forest.
