Community-based approach in forest conservation and rural development: Case study of rural areas in Japan and Indonesia
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The development of community-based forest management (CBFM) in Indonesia has been in line with the changes in forest laws and regulations in the country. Based on Basic Forestry Law 1967, all forest areas in Indonesia were controlled by the state and managed by governmental forest company named Perhutani (Sukendro et al., 2002). With the respect of the customary laws in forestry, the partnership-based forest management during Dutch Colonial Period (Ansori et, al., 2011) and the emerge of regional autonomy in Indonesia (Sukendro et al., 2002), Forest Law 1999 re-recognized the old customary law and encouraged a CBFM scheme named Pengelolaan Hutan Bersama Masyarakat (PHBM) in rural areas in Indonesia (Nurjana, 2005). However, the compromise between government and local people through CBFM schemes is still facing problems related to land ownership and border disputes (Kusumanto and Sirait, 2002) including illegal logging. Destructive attitudes among local people assumed as the result of insignificant benefits from forest resources. To learn community-based approach in forest management, this study further compared the Indonesian case and the situation in Japan when local people have no longer received optimal benefits from forest resources. Forest management in Japan is facing the lack of labors and the decline of log and prices problems (Matsumura et al. 2013). Forests in Japan are mostly privately owned and dominated by plantation forests due to the needs of timber during early years of 600-850 (Marten, 2005). Forest owners are facing high management cost and failed to supply timber products while imported timber happened to be cheaper (Matsumura et al. 2013). The Japanese government has been encouraging the forest owners who are no longer conducting proper management anymore into their forest because abandoned forests may lead to the environment damages (Iwamoto, 2002). The generally purpose of this study is to local people involvement in forest management in with different forest purposes including timber production, forest conservation and tourism. Located in two different countries, this study was conducted by observing the significance of local involvement in forest to their economic development. In the first study, research was held in a community who lived around plantation forest in a rural area in Indonesia named Desa Ciomas where PHBM has been being practiced. PHBM is a collaborative management on forest between the governmental company and local people; local people get benefits shares by working in thinning and cutting processes and full benefits by cultivating the intercropping areas in the plantation. Through this study, was examined the hypothesis that PHBM contributes to reducing poverty. There were three steps of observation and one follow up research done for this research. The first step was focusing on identifying the level of people’s involvement in PHBM in Desa Ciomas, the motivation of local people to participate in PHBM, and local people preferences on tree species in the plantation area. The second step was focusing on identifying the problems faces by local people participating PHBM and examining the farming systems in the PHBM area. When local farmers found complications cultivating land from PHBM, they practiced different farming systems by hiring paid farmers. In this step we calculated the Benefit Cost Ratio for each farming systems. The third step was focusing on analyzing the impact of PHBM on poverty by calculating local people’s income. Lastly, the follow up research was conducted to observe the persistence or the effects of the previous researches. In the second study, research was held in rural areas nearby conservation area; Desa Taman Jaya which is close to Ujung Kulon National Park (UKNP), Indonesia and Komono Town which is close to Suzuka Quasi National Park (SQNP), Japan. This study was addressed in comparing local people’s activities in forest resources utilization by identifying principals such as benefits they obtained from forest resources, local values they possessed related to forest management, and their perspective on ongoing forest management in the areas. First study resulted in that the contribution of PHBM program to local income was low and poverty alleviation needs to be supported by local empowerment. Local people initially showed eagerness to take part in PHBM program and they had a positive judgement on tree preferences based on their knowledge on forest management and timber market. In the second step of the study, identified problems faced by local people in the practicing of PHBM including illegal logging and plantation damages. Further local people faced incapability to work on PHBM lands and hired additional workers. A benefit-cost ratio analysis resulted that the practice of hiring additional workers would cause the farming less profitable, while working in a smaller scale with family members was more profitable. It is suggested that land allocation in PHBM should reconsider the family members or working forces owned by one farmer. Second study resulted in considerably different situations in the Japanese and Indonesian cases. In Indonesia, limited access of local people to forest caused less benefit in Desa Taman Jaya and local people are still actively exploited forests for daily needs while in Komono, the force to carry out forest management among forest owners were decreasing because of the low economic returns from the forest. Statistical analysis was conducted to identify the relationship between respondent backgrounds to their attitude on forest resource utilization that showed in their answers to questionnaires. Some significance matters are able to be learnt from Indonesian case while it needed more heterogeneity of data in Japanese case. From both studies can be suggested that the encouragement among local people to be more supportive in forest management and conservation by attracting the economic benefits from forest other than timber production including non-timber forest products and ecotourism. The government as policy maker should be more concerned by equipping local people with educations and knowledge dissemination in forestry.
Author: PARHUSIP BERNADETTA, SEPTARIS
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7146019474