Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
management system was designed in 1847 and resulted in 1890 in the first forest
district management plan, which was based on the principle of sustained yield
(Simon 1989). A regeneration taungya system ( tumpangsari ) for teak forests was
adopted in 1873, in which all teak-growing activities were performed by farmers
living near the teak sites. The farmers had the right to grow agricultural crops
between rows of teak and Leucaena for a specified period, although the main rea-
son for granting farmers such benefits was to minimize the operational costs of the
teak plantations. Intensified taungya systems are still widely practiced as regenera-
tion systems of teak and other species plantations (e.g., Pinus merkusii , Swietenia
macreophylla ; see also Kartasubrata and Wiersum 1995), being considered as a
form of social forestry since the 1980s. In 1985, the State Forest Corporation Perum
Perhutani started the implementation of 13 social forestry projects on Java's public
lands with farmers being allowed to plant fruit trees and horticultural crops in
between requested timber trees (Kusumanto and Sirait 2000). Similar projects on
islands other than Java (e.g., South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, and West Irian)
were initiated at a later stage in 1992. In 1995, the Indonesian government
announced a new policy and “community forest” program by issuing the Ministry
of Forestry Decree No. 622/Kpts-II/1995, which was revised in 1998 yielding
Decree No. 677/Kpts-II/1998 (Inoue 2007). With these decrees, communities - or
cooperative groups of people - living within and near the forest can be given the
right to use the forest in what is known as Hak Pengelolaan Hutan Kemasyarakatan
(HPHKM) or a License to Manage the Forest (Hindra 2005). The license is
acknowledged by the government as a Utilization Permit (previously by means of
Community Forestry Concession Rights) for timber and non-timber forest products
valid for a period of 35 years (Kusumanto and Sirait 2000). Since October 1999,
the permits have been granted in the form of Community Forestry Temporary
Permits valid for just 5 years but with possible extension. The authority of local
administrative units in forestry and tree growing affairs has been extended since the
start of the decentralization process in 2001. Moreover, with the issue of Decree
No.31/Kpts-II/2001 in 2001, local people have been recognized as the main actors
in forest management. However, the decree was counteracted by new regulations
on forestry planning in 2002. In 2004, the regulation of the Ministry of Forestry No.
1/Menhut-II/2004 was issued, facilitating the implementation of the Social Forestry
Programme launched by the newly appointed minister in 2003. The regulation
entails the empowerment of people living within and surrounding the forest through
the practice of social forestry (Hindra 2005). By the end of 2004 the Ministry of
Forestry declared five priority policies, one of which addressing the empowerment
of the economy of communities within and surrounding the forest. Finally a Private
Forest Programme (Program Hutan Rakyat) also exists in Indonesia, granting cred-
its to farmers in order to support the development or rehabilitation of privately
owned forest lands (Kusumanto and Sirait 2000). These private lands are planted
with timber species or non-timber species such as fruits and coffee. In various parts
of Indonesia, there are various examples of well-managed private plantations that
developed spontaneously in response to market demands of various forest-related
products (Michon and De Foresta 1997).
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