Social Forestry reform in Indonesia to achieve national development targets

To achieve Indonesia’s national development targets and priorities, Indonesian rural communities need to be more actively involved in and benefit from forest management.  RECOFTC and the ASEAN Working Group on Social Forestry (AWG-SF) organized two workshops in Jakarta to support Indonesia’s national commitments. “Forest Tenure Reform for Inclusive and Fair Development” was organized in November 2018 and “Strengthening the Capacity of Social Forestry Facilitators” took place in January 2019. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) funded both workshops.

The two workshops highlighted the need to develop guidelines to support various aspects of social forestry. This included guidelines for a more flexible recruitment process to ensure all stakeholders such as staff of non-governmental organisations and private companies can serve as facilitators. The existing standardization and competence tests can discourage community members from applying to become social forestry facilitators.

Facilitators play an important role in supporting forest communities to manage forests independently and sustainably while also improving their livelihoods. To date, the Indonesian government has identified around 2,647 Kelompok Tani Hutan (KTH) or farmer groups that need assistance to improve their knowledge and skills, which can only be done by partnering with communities in forest governance.

The target to establish 12.7 million hectares of social forestry by 2019 requires strong facilitation and efforts to partner with forest communities. The right skills and knowledge need to be developed among facilitators and extension workers in Community Plantation Forests (HTR - Hutan Tanaman Rakyat), Community Forests (HKM – Hutan Kemasyarakatan), Village Forest (HD – Hutan Desa), Customary Forest (HA – Hutan Adat) and Partnership Forests.

As part of capacity building for social forestry facilitators and extension workers in Indonesia, the government has developed several rules, modules and platforms. One of the platforms, known as SiNAV, is used to monitor and evaluate progress on social forestry but requires the standardization of facilitator competencies and stakeholder awareness.

Selain itu, pemerintah Indonesia juga telah membentuk SIMPING, sebuah platform untuk memantau distribusi fasilitator kehutanan sosial dan kinerjanya, dan Kelompok Kerja Kehutanan Sosial (SFWG) di tingkat provinsi yang terdiri dari berbagai pemangku kepentingan (lembaga pemerintah, perusahaan swasta, dan LSM). Keduanya dimaksudkan untuk mengoordinasikan dan memfasilitasi pemangku kepentingan yang berbeda yang memiliki sumber daya untuk mendukung program kehutanan sosial di tingkat provinsi. Sayangnya, banyak pemangku kepentingan enggan untuk terlibat sebagai fasilitator karena pemerintah tidak memberikan insentif dan tidak memiliki wewenang untuk mendorong berbagai pemangku kepentingan bekerjasama.

In addition, the Indonesian government has established SIMPING, a platform to monitor social forestry facilitators and their performance, and the Social Forestry Working Group (SFWG) at the provincial level, consisting of various stakeholders: government agencies, private companies and NGOs. Both are intended to coordinate and facilitate different stakeholders who have the resources to support social forestry programs at the provincial level. Unfortunately, many stakeholders are reluctant to be involved as facilitators because the government does not provide incentives and does not have the authority to encourage various stakeholders to work together

The Indonesian government has also developed an e-learning platform consisting of modules and manuals to improve participants' self-study skills and the quality of the content. However, the content needs to be simplified as it is not easy for the facilitator to understand. Data on the competence of extension workers is lacking, which is needed to ensure that the level of knowledge matches the training and to consider what future improvements are required in order to fill knowledge gaps.

In general, the government has recognized the importance of facilitating social forestry. Despite many challenges, such as the lack of support from provincial and district governments, low participation of private companies, and lack of appreciation for extension workers and facilitators, the data show that turning forest communities into forest entrepreneurs is the task of multiple stakeholders, not just the government.

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[Disclaimer] The story was originally published in Bahasa Indonesia. It was translated into English and adjusted for style.

RECOFTC's work is made possible with the continuous support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).