Synergy Development of “State-Representative Apparatus” in Accelerating Social Forestry Policy Outcomes in Ngawi Regency, East Java

Social forestry is a new approach to solving problems around forests, such as poverty, social inequality, and massive deforestation. Indonesia’s new social forestry policy has given local communities greater rights and legal certainty regarding their involvement in forest management. However, local communities cannot stand alone in their implementation but must collaborate with other relevant stakeholders. A qualitative descriptive approach is used in this paper to capture efforts to build synergies between stakeholders in forest management and empowerment of forest communities in Ngawi Regency and identify opportunities and challenges afterward. The results of our analysis found that the signing of the MoU can be the first step to accelerate the achievement of social forestry policy outcomes. The dichotomy between “forest” and “social” affairs is increasingly visible in the division of tasks of each stakeholder involved. There is a need for clear legal rules regarding the roles and limits of allowable intervention for Regency governments. In addition, an urgent issue that needs to be addressed is the acceleration of capacity building and the capability of local communities, which are identified as essential factors in the success of social forestry policies.

PRO INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY FORESTRY POLICY: A SOLUTION

The Papuan people have always lived and interacted with the forest. The forest is a place to live where almost all of their needs are taken from the forest. Today's forest management has far-reaching impacts on increasingly marginalized communities. The purpose of this paper is to present thoughts on a community-friendly forest management model by taking into account the advantages and disadvantages when forests are managed by communities to improve their welfare. This paper generates an idea about the importance of collaborative management to increase the role of the community as a solution. Taking into account the communal nature of the forest tenure system in Papua, it is necessary to take strategic steps to protect forest resources in a targeted manner.

Making the Case for Reforms of Forestry Policy and Law: Lessons and Experiences from Nigeria

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development incorporates 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 15 (SDG 15) focuses on terrestrial ecosystems. Regarding forests, it sets targets requiring signatories to promote the implementation of the sustainable management of all types of forests by 2020 and further mobilize significant resources from all sources to achieve sustainable forest management. The United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017 – 2030 advances the vision of SDG 15. Nigeria’s high demographic growth rate has led to the surging demand for land to support settlements and farming. Coupled with extensive illegal or uncontrolled logging, the annual forest net loss of 5% is one of the highest rates globally in percentage terms. This paper is a critical analysis of the policy-law interface of the forestry sector in Nigeria. It examines the country’s trajectory or state of preparedness for sustainable forest management, and it concludes that forestry policy and law in Nigeria must undergo urgent reforms so that the forest commitments such as those under SDG 15 and other regional and global instruments can be ultimately achieved.

Implementation Gap of Social Forestry Policy: The Case of HKm Beringin Jaya and HTR Hajran

The current social forestry policy is considered to accelerate the issuance of social forestry licences, but after the licence is obtained, various difficulties and obstacles are still experienced by licence holder community to achieve the objective of social forestry policy. For this reason, this study questions who is actually stakeholder or party stipulated in social forestry regulation to carry out social forestry and facilitate community to overcome the difficulties and obstacles they experienced. This study aims to analyze the implementation gap of social forestry policy towards those stipulated in social forestry regulation compared with their implementation in the field. This research was conducted at HKm Beringin Jaya and HTR Hajran. The results show that three groups of actors are stipulated in social forestry regulation, namely community with their rights and obligations, central and regional governments with their authorities and related stakeholders to support the implementation of social forestry. In two research locations, implementation gap of social forestry policy toward three groups of actors occurred in the field. The rights that can be obtained and the obligations that must be fulfilled by licence holder communities are mostly facilitated by non-governmental organizations and are influenced by the networking capacity of the community. The authority of the central and local governments to facilitate the community is not functioning adequately at the field level due to the separate political system and authority between the central and regional governments. The involvement of other related stakeholders is considered low because of their interests that must be accommodated and requiring the capacity of the community to access stakeholders.

Analisis Keterlibatan Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat dalam Program Hutan Kemasyarakatan di Provinsi Nusa Tenggara Barat

This paper aims to analyze the involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) of forestry policy frame with focus on the Community Forestry program in West Nusa Tenggara. The method in this study is using literature studies. The Data sources uses secondary data such as documents, legislation, articles and books containing the participation of NGOs in forestry programs. In the implementation of the HKm’s program is to realize democratization that is very strategic. It is because NGOs as a representation the needs and aspirations of people in forest areas. In the realm of policy, Forestry NGOs in NTB region synergized with all stakeholders that involved in the Community Forest program, ranging from formulation to evaluation. The involvement of NGOs in the community of HKm area is manifested by the assistance and business development of the community in the management of Non-Timber Forest Products (HHBK). Monitoring and evaluation efforts as a basis for government policy advocacy to fit the community context is a form of NGO participation in forestry policy. However, as an independent organization, NGOs rely on the availability of fund in handling the empowerment program.

Implementation of Social Forestry Policy: A Review of Community Access

The issuance of social forestry licence and the achievement of benefits to the community in the post-licensing stage are still obstacles and difficulties for the community which is demanding the community access. The research aims to analyze the access of the community of social forestry licence holders in the pre-licence and post-licensing stages through field studies in forest community of Beringin Jaya Lampung and people’s forest plantation of Hajran Jambi qualitatively. In the pre-licence stage, the two license holder communities have the same access to all members who will be involved, information, facilitator, and government authorities. In the post-licensing stage, Beringin Jaya community has higher access to all members, facilitator, information, knowledge, government authorities, capital, technology, programs/activities of agencies and local markets, compared to Hajran community. Access to these matters is carried out by the community and facilitated by facilitator by linking the community to those who control these matters –which are not adequately provided by social forestry policies– through processes, mechanisms and social relationships. Successful facilitation of access requires networked capacity among community members and networking with other parties outside the community. The high level of access and networking capacity of community to obtain benefits from the implementation of social forestry policies must be supported by the suitability of subject-objects in granting licence at the pre-licence stage and the availability of supporting infrastructure.