The Significant Role of Companion in Social Forestry

"The spirit of Social Forestry is to give social justice to community inside the forest and at the same time make the forest sustainable" Joko Widodo, The President of RI.

A year ago, Jokowi had been committed to make prosperity for forest community through social forest mechanism. He then created a policy to actually aim for social justice for forest community and equal development. He noted that there are many people who live inside the forest that still depend on forest resources. Therefore, he allocated at least 12,7 million ha of land forest to be used by that people.

Social forestry is sustainable forest management system in state owned forest area or in community forest that the implementers are people around the forest or indigenous people.  The purposes of the program are to increase prosperity, and to balance the environment with social culture. The outputs of the social forestry are Village Forest, Community Forest, Community Forest Plantation, Customary Forest, and forestry partnership. Through this program the community around the forest have a chance to manage land forest up to 35 years with agroforestry.

To earn the right on social forestry, community must propose their area. Generally, based on Permen LHK no. P83/Menlhk/Kum.1/10/2016 tentang Perhutanan Sosial (The Regulation of Ministry of Environment and Forestry about Social Forestry) the requirement are application letter addressed to Ministry of Environment and Forestry, general description of area, Village’s Law, Recommendation from Head of Village, map with 1:50.000 scale, and etc.

Certainly the requirements are not easy for community or indigenous people to provide it. Therefore, the government made a working group of social forestry acceleration (POKJA) as it only has 5 Technical Implementer Unit (Unit Pelaksana Teknis) for whole forest area in Indonesia. On the implementation, the group can be formed from government, civil society, or private sector.

The POKJA act as companion for the community. They must encourage and convince people around the forest to follow the initiative. Gaining community trust and distributing information to the target community are the main challenge in this initiative. The method of approaching has to right on target. If this stage runs smoothly, the companion and community can move to the next level.

After earning the forest management permit from the government, community still needs guidance to actually implement the social forestry program. This is also the task of the companion to train the community in forest management. Mentoring from the companion is necessary to conduct more productive and sustainable forest management. The managerial skills needed are cultivation plan, choosing the right plant, calculation on the productivity of the plant, and maintaining the quality of the product.

To actually learn about the whole process of social forestry, Lampung’s social forestry in Tanggamus District can be the perfect example.

The District is the two times winner of HKm’s national achievement. It have 40 Gapoktan (farmer union) or equal to 28.512 Head of Household who earn the right on HKm. Through the HKm, they can produce forest product such as coffee, honey, palm sugar, ginger, cucumber, tea, ecotourism, and etc.   

The success of social forestry in Tanggamus District is part of the huge effort of their companion, a NGO called KORUT Consortium. The NGO had helped the community to run 78% of the total HKm on the district. Before that, KORUT Consortium had helped the community to earn the right on HKM by helping them make the area’s map and other administrative requirement.

To run the HKm, the NGO constantly teach the community on nurturing the plant and encourage to rehabilitation and restoration. They also keep the community informed that the HKm right is only for 35 years. Through the mentoring from KORUT Consortium, the community can increase the land cover and its income. The community previously earned only Rp. 1,5 million per person/month, and with the mentoring they can get at least Rp. 4,5 million per person/month.

Lesson learned from this success story is the significant role of the companion to help the community development. Therefore, the task attached to the POKJA is crucial. It will connect the government initiative with the community who live near the forest. It will become the catalyst of the social forestry program and help the government to achieve the target of 12,7 million ha of social forestry.

Failed to do so, there will be abuse on the right on the social forest. For example in North Sumatera, Bengkulu, and Lampung (based on Kompas News, edition Aug 25^th 2017).  The community uses the right to sell the land to Palm Oil company or other purpose.