International Institute for Environment and Development 
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Forestry and Land Use Project Summary |
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Theme: Small-scale producers and local economies Project name: Making komuniti forestri work in Indonesia Dates / Duration: February 2001 to October 2006
Geographic Region(s): Asia Introduction: Historically, forest policy in Indonesia has been driven by central government and dominated by the interests of the international timber industry and donor governments, especially through the CGI (Consultative Group on Indonesia). The approximately 80 million people, 40% of Indonesia’s population, who live on designated forest lands have been consistently excluded from legitimate participation in the decision-making processes that determine how the land on which they live is allocated and managed. The upshot of this imbalance of power and inequality of benefit-sharing is that a country with vast natural resources endures persistent rural poverty. Space for change is now emerging. Both the government and forest residents are showing increasing commitment to new modes of forest management. The Ministry of Forestry has made a public commitment to “forestry for people” while community groups and NGOs representing the interests of the rural poor are proliferating and maturing. New systems of national governance may be a useful route towards better sharing of power and benefits: a comprehensive policy of decentralisation, effective since January 2001, has devolved legislative power, including control over budgets, to provincial governments. Of course decentralisation will not necessarily be a step towards greater self-determination for the many impoverished residents of forest lands. However, the process of decentralisation in Indonesia is flexible enough to allow myriad opportunities for the voices of marginalised forest users to enter the forest policy debate. The challenge then is how best to use these opportunities. The project Making komuniti forestri work in Indonesia is designed to facilitate engagement in policy by community representatives, by starting small, with a limited number of sites and stakeholders. Objectives: IIED and LATIN have entered into a “twinning” arrangement, so that both organisations contribute to each other’s aims as needed. The foremost aim of the twinning arrangement is to facilitate mechanisms through which residents of forest lands (and their representative organisations such as local peoples’ groups and national NGOs) can make effective entry into local and national forest policy processes – to expand, sustain and secure the development of komuniti forestri in Indonesia. (Note that the term komuniti forestri is used to embrace all the different models of state-promoted social forestry, indigenous land claims on forest lands and local forest management initiatives in Indonesia). Key findings/ progress to date: LATIN’s long-term vision for komuniti forestri is “16 juta hektar untuk 80 juta jiwa” (16 million hectares for 80 million souls). To work towards a goal of this magnitude requires a two-pronged strategy of (1) focused change at local level in a small number of sites and (2) scaling up to include many other sites through national-level policy processes and networks. A real shift towards komuniti forestri requires negotiated changes in policy and practice among communities, local government departments, national government and the timber industry (legal and illegal). Multi-stakeholder dialogue is the key – and thus LATIN’s central approach is to convene joint planning and debate among community, government and private sector representatives. To promote shared learning and progress at national as well as local levels, LATIN invited stakeholders from seven different sites to work together as a loose consortium. This initiative was launched at a workshop in October 2001 where opinions were aired and plans of action hammered out for the seven sites separately and together. The Cangkuang team – or Tim Cangkuang – have since formed the backbone of LATIN’s collaborative approach to promoting komuniti forestri locally and nationally. The immediate challenges at the seven sites are of course very different. But the seven sites have also chosen to share useful approaches, such as the IIED “4Rs tool” which has been used to good effect to weigh up the balance of power among stakeholders at different sites. The tool has also benefited from the feedback and subsequent refinements made by users at the various sites. Future objectives include application of other tools, such as a simple economic valuation tool to back up the negotiating position of communities, and the collection of all useful policy tools into a practical toolkit. Key Publications: 1. Catatan mengenai progress kegiatan making komuniti forestri work in Indonesia. Links to partners:
Lembaga Alam Tropika Indonesia (LATIN, or the Indonesian Tropical Institute) Project supported by: Department for International Development (DFID), within the framework of the DFID Multi-stakeholder Forestry Programme for Indonesia Contact:
Sonja Vermeulen, IIED Copyright © 2005 International Institute for Environment and Development. |
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