Social Forestry reform in Indonesia to achieve national development targets

Social forestry and agrarian reform in Indonesia

Indonesia has a forest area of around 127 million hectares. More than 30 percent of villages in Indonesia are located around or within forest areas. In 2017, forest areas were home to 10.2 million people who live below the poverty line, or 36 percent of Indonesia's total population according to data from Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Foresty. An extreme imbalance in land tenure and access to forest resources exists between communities and corporations: 97 percent of forest area is owned by corporations and 3 percent by communities.

This imbalance can lead to social conflicts. High deforestation rates of 684,000 hectares per year between 2010 and 2015 have caused around 64.5 percent of the forest area to become degraded. In the Medium-Term National Development Plan (RPJMN) 2014-2019, the Government of Indonesia allocated 12.7 million hectares for social forestry activities and 4.1 million hectares for agrarian reform within the forest area. This initiative aims for more inclusive and equal local development by increasing people's access to productive assets and resources

The end of the RPJMN marked an opportunity to gather reflections and learnings from the experiences with social forestry and agrarian reform to design better programs in the future. Experts and practitioners of social tenure and forestry in Indonesia participated in a one-day workshop held by RECOFTC and partners on 22 November 2018. This activity is part of the joint activities of the ASEAN Working Group on Social Forestry (AWG-SF) and the ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC) in Indonesia supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). 

The workshop resource persons were Ir. Erna Rosdiana, M.Sc (Director of Social Forestry Area Preparation); Ir. Mariana Lubis M.M (Head of Forestry Extension Center); Sigit Nugroho (a representative from the Directorate of Planning for the Use and Formation of Forest Management Areas); Prof. Supratman (Hassanudin University); Hasbi Berliani (The Partnership), and Dahniar Andriani (HuMa). The discussion was facilitated by land tenure experts Yando Zakaria (RAPS National Secretariat), Suwito (The Partnership), and Emila Widawati (WG-Tenure).

Achievements and lessons learned of social forestry and agrarian reform in forest areas

The presentation and discussion highlighted several achievements in social forestry by the end of the year 2018. The first achievement is that social forestry is considered to have contributed to reducing economic inequality, reducing Indonesia's Gini coefficient from 0.41 (WB, 2014) to 0.39 (BPS, 2018). The second achievement is the establishment of regulations that provide a variety of social forestry schemes for communities to manage state forest areas. Regulation of the Minister of Environment and Forestry Number P.83/2016 provides an opportunity for the community to manage forest areas through five schemes: community forestry, village forest, community plantation forest, customary forest, and environmental partnership.

In Java, social forestry is regulated through the "P.39/2017" scheme for the Social Forestry Utilization Permit. In addition, the "P.32/2015" law concerns forest rights and regulates customary forests. The third achievement is that, as of 12 November 2018, around 5,097 SF permits were issued, covering over two million ha and nearly half a million households. The fourth achievement is mapping forestry extension workers, amounting to 3035 extension agents spread across 32 provinces. 

However, the above achievements are still limited to policies in the SF scheme, the number of Perhutanan Sosial (HutSos) or social forestry permits, and the mapping of community groups that need assistance. There are a number of challenges that still need improvement:

1) weak synchronization and coordination of the regional and rural development with Forest Management Unit (FMU) management plans and SF activities and assistance;

2) the lack of understanding and strategy for assisting SF in the regions;

3) budget and staff limitations to accelerate the SF program to reach 12.7 million ha;

4) clash of policies and institutions in the issuance of SF permits on peatlands; and

5) the number of forestry extension agents is not comparable with the extent of the location of the targets and the distribution in each FMU is uneven.

For the agrarian reform activities in the forest areas, the target of achieving agrarian reform in the forest areas is 54% or 2,363,405 ha of the target of 4,195,685 ha in 88 regencies/municipalities in 26 provinces. It is also targeted to allocate 20% for the community from the release of forest areas covering 426,355 ha. However, with the agrarian reform program in the forest area, the community tends to expect their managed areas to become agrarian reform areas rather than following the SF scheme.

Recommendations for future

Several recommendations to improve the SF and AR programs in the forest area arose from the workshop. First, greater cooperation and synergy is needed between sectors, such as the Ministry of Village, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, Badan Usaha Milik Negara (BUMN) or State-owned enterprises, and the private sector

Assistance and facilitation are needed from the government in the locations where SF permits are issued. Second, the decentralization of authority and the flow of bureaucracy to the provincial level are recommended. The provincial government has the authority to independently verify the SF working area, provide assistance at the regional level, and coordinate all of these needs with the ministries at the national level. Third, prioritizing the role of the SF facilitators, rangers, and forestry extension agents in the implementation and acceleration of the Social Forestry and Agrarian Reform is recommended.

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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).