Farmer Tree Planting Barriers to Sustainable Forest Management - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 410

Unfortunately, there are too many examples of poor performance of forest planta-
tions associated with a parallel absence of institutional support for farmers interested
in planting trees (Rahman et al. Chapter 11, this volume). There is inadequate under-
standing of the tree planting risks faced by smallholders, even when 'supported' by
large forestry programs (e.g., Barney, Chapter 13, this volume). Violent conflict
frequently occurs between the forest plantation sector and communities (see Box
20.1). These examples have been an uneconomical and hard way to learn a simple
lesson: unless farmers share substantially in the long-term benefits of forest planta-
tion efforts, the interaction between the 'agro' and the 'forestry' component remains
a competitive one (Van Noordwijk and Tomich 1995). Because of land scarcity,
large-scale plantations and smallholder development programmes tend to be mutu-
ally exclusive, at least in most developing countries of Asia and parts of Africa.
What is needed is recognition of the crucial role of smallholder farmers in forest
production with foresters starting to support and participate in farmers' tree planting
efforts, rather than expecting farmers to support and participate in foresters' efforts
(Bertomeu, Chapter 8, this volume; Garrity and Mercado 1994).
Box 20.1 Key threat to sustainability of large-scale plantation forestry in
Indonesia
The allocation of land for plantation development in Indonesia (both timber
and oil palm plantations) has often been undertaken without recognizing the
rights of local people who already occupy and cultivate the land. Fires initi-
ated by the plantation companies have often been used to force local commu-
nities from their land. The feeling of perceived injustice by smallholders
decreases their incentive to control the spread of fire to large-scale tree planta-
tions. As a consequence of land tenure conflicts, local communities frequently
burn plantation grown trees that have been established by large companies.
Since the start of the political reformation period in Indonesia in mid-1998,
the open manifestation of the land tenure conflicts (that date back to the 'New
Order' period) between local communities and large companies has increased.
There are increasing visual signs of violence and burning of property, as com-
panies can no longer rely on armed security to quell the unrest. In many cases,
tenure conflicts often become a trigger for forest and land fires. The nature of
partnerships between communities and companies in the development of oil
palm and timber plantations is also a very important factor in reducing the
incidence of fire as communities with partnerships have a vested interest in
protecting their assets. Many people believe that a good partnership between
farmers and companies in developing oil palm or timber plantations will
reduce land tenure conflict. The result of the study by Suyanto et al. (2001) as
part of the CIFOR/ICRAF project on underlying causes of forest fire sup-
ported this view and quoted examples where actual progress is being made.