Why Should We Care About Social Forestry?
Talking about social forestry actually cannot be separated from KLHK data, where there are at least 60 million people spread across 25,683 villages, living in forest areas. This means that as many as 36,71 TP3T villages in Indonesia depend on forest products for their livelihoods.
Not only that, forests, apart from being a source of livelihood, indigenous peoples and village communities have also long used forests as a place to live, as well as utilizing the natural resources in them as a source of clean water, food ingredients and also to find medicinal ingredients and fuel.
These field data and facts must of course be the government's concern and focus to recognize and provide clarity on the legal status of customary forests and village forests through social forestry regulations.
The legal recognition by the government of social forestry is solely so that forest management, which has been carried out by communities in forest areas for generations, can continue to be maintained in a sustainable and continuous manner.
Getting to Know Social Forestry More Deeply
In terms of definition, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, social forestry is a sustainable forest management system, where its implementation is in two areas, namely in state forest areas or customary forests/customary forests.
KLHK itself also emphasized that the implementation of social forestry is carried out by local communities or customary law communities, where the purpose of managing social forests is to improve the welfare, environmental balance and socio-cultural dynamics of customary law communities. Furthermore, the form of management of social forests can be in the form of village forests, community forests, people's plantation forests, customary forests and forestry partnerships.
If we look back through the Constitutional Court decision on May 16, 2013, the government returned jurisdiction and ownership of customary forests to indigenous communities (MK 35/2012). Through this Constitutional Court decision, the government also plans to allocate at least 12.7 million hectares to be managed by local communities through five different schemes of social forestry (in the Production KPH and Protection KPH areas and one partnership scheme in the Conservation KPH area.
Legal Basis for Customary Forest and Social Forestry Laws
To reaffirm the legal status of social forestry, the government finally issued a legal basis for customary forests which is regulated in;
MINISTERIAL REGULATION OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTRY NUMBER 9 OF 2021 Concerning Social Forestry Management consisting of 12 chapters and 200 articles. This regulation is formed through the Legal Basis written in Law no. 11 of 2021 concerning Job Creation articles 29 A and 29B, as well as PP No. 23 of 2021 concerning Forestry Implementation Chapter VI.
The government also stipulates that the management period for social forestry is at least 35 years, where social forestry management is given to individuals, farmer groups and cooperatives, as stated in Law no. 11 of 2020 Article 29 A.
Walhi's Achievements Through AP2SI Regarding Recognition of Social Forestry by the Government
At least through government regulations, there are 5 groups of social forestry actors who have the legal right to manage state forests or customary forests/customary law forests that have been determined by the government, namely;
- Village forest management institution
- Farmer groups/ Gapoktan
- Customary law community
- Forest village community institutions
Walhi itself, through AP2SI, has currently recruited 51 social forestry group institutions and 17 assistants who are declarators and members of AP2SI spread across 17 provinces.
In addition, it has also received a social forestry permit covering an area of 165,468.15 Ha with 59,285 families with various uses in the form of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), agroforestry, environmental services, and ecotourism.
Jokowi's Nawacita Idea is Just a Promise
From the government's promise to allocate social forestry with a target area of 12.7 million hectares in the first term of Jokowi's administration, in reality only 321 TP3T have been achieved, or only around 2,541 TP3T of the area of permits that have been granted by the government to corporations.
Not only that, the achievement of social forestry as of August 2021 was only around 3.57 million hectares, while the customary forests that had been designated were only 59 thousand hectares. In fact, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has identified forests covering an area of around 1 million hectares to be designated as customary forests.
In fact, Jokowi's own narrative regarding Social Forestry through Nawacita 1, the state will be present to protect the entire nation and the sense of security of all Indonesian citizens. Then in Nawacita 6, increasing people's productivity and competitiveness in the international market, and Nawacita 7 realizing economic independence by moving the strategic sector of the domestic economy
