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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 7
Publication Date: July 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.87.10547. Antoh, A. A. (2021). Pro Indigenous Community Forestry Policy: A Solution. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(7). 341-
345.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Pro Indigenous Community Forestry Policy: A Solution
Alfred Alfonso Antoh
Biology education study program
Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Education
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Cenderawasih University
Jalan Raya Sentani, Abepura 99351, Jayapura, Papua Province, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
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.
Keywords: community forest, indigenous peoples, forest management
INTRODUCTION
As a strategic natural resource, forests play a significant role in the state and are used for the
welfare of the community, nation and state (UUD 1945 Article 33 paragraph 3). This is also in
accordance with the mandate of Law Number 21 concerning Special Autonomy for Papua,
where forests are mentioned as one of the strategic natural resources owned by the region and
used for the welfare of the people in Papua. It is further emphasized that Law Number 34 of
2004 which is amended in Law Number 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government mandates
the community to be able to enjoy the results of natural wealth as part of state property used
by the community for their welfare.
The activities of collecting and managing old forest products are formed and passed down from
generation to generation. However, currently, forestry issues are more prominent by conflicts
over spatial use. Forestry is one sector that is closely related to spatial planning. According to
data from the Consensus Forest Use Management (TGHK) and Provincial Spatial Planning
(RTRWP), of the total forest in Indonesia of 120.35 million hectares (63% of the land area),
forest allocations have been made based on forest function, namely conversion forest 20 .5
million ha, 35.2 million ha of production forest, 33.52 million ha of protected forest and 8.07
million ha of convertible production forest (Nurrochmat et al. 2012). In this regard, many forest
areas can be converted both legally and illegally.
In this regard, the state and local governments are obliged to create local regulations and
operational permits so that the community can easily and easily fulfill their forest management
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 7, July-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
efforts so that their livelihoods can be well served. Although according to Seymour et al. (2020)
explains that the current legal approach to reducing deforestation and land use activities in
Indonesia is not very familiar. The in-depth study and analysis explains that social forestry
policy making is no longer monopolized by a centralized state management philosophy, namely
policy networks are formed following ideological lines, namely those who believe in the state
as the controller and those who believe that the authority should devolved to local communities
(Lindayati, 2003).
Forest concession rights (HPH), KOPERMAS to Timber Forest Product Management Business
Permits (IUPHHK) in the Papua Province have not had a significant impact on improving the
welfare of the Papuan people living in and around the forest”. Observing the dynamics of the
development of forest use and its potential, new strategic policies that are better and more
mature need to be formulated in an effort to improve the welfare of indigenous peoples as forest
owners in order to improve their welfare.
Currently, the implementation of forest management policies at the site level is by (Forest
Management Units, FMUs). Another study explains that FMUs are expected to be able to resolve
conflicts related to forest management in the community (Su Kim et al. 2017). Leadership,
delegation of tasks and authority to what is done by FMUs in relation to helping communities
manage their forest resources.
FINDING THE ROOT OF PROBLEMS TO FORMULATE STRATEGIC POLICIES IN FORESTRY
DEVELOPMENT
Owners of natural resources in practice and the reality on the ground are often not properly
involved. This is shown by looking at the welfare distribution system when the orientation of
the timber business is only with the final goal of achieving business for profit. This condition
can lead to non-transparent practices in the management of the timber business. The local
government in this case the Forestry and Environment Service, Papua Province has a significant
role in providing permit recommendations, monitoring and evaluating operations and
controlling timber business activities. The results of research conducted by Antoh and Raunsay
(2019) explained that the high level of timber extraction activities in the Cycloop nature reserve
which is a conservation area is influenced by the high level of demand by the community in the
city of Jayapura.
There are several weaknesses possessed by indigenous peoples, such as: capital, mastery of
technology, business networks (marketing). Research conducted by Bannor et al. (2021) in
Ghana that failure in reforestation activities is due to factors: individual commitment, low
adaptation to new technology and lack of support from experts. While on the one hand:
community capital is having customary rights, having potential as local workers, and having
forest resources. Between these strengths and weaknesses there is always no synergy so that
the policies of the forestry and environmental services need to give good weight to bring the
two points together. Strategic policies such as: the establishment of customary institutions,
assistance and supervision of timber management permits to technical training for equipment
mastery as well as training for financial management for indigenous peoples need to be
implemented with assistance for them and involving the banking sector to ensure the
mechanism or procedure for obtaining capital. to run their timber management business unit.
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Antoh, A. A. (2021). Pro Indigenous Community Forestry Policy: A Solution. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(7). 341-345.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.87.10547
It is important to maintain good forest governance and management between communities and
their environment (VÖlker et al. 2017).
GOVERNMENT POLICY IN TERMS OF GRANTING MEASURABLE PERMITS
The use of wood for indigenous peoples is important for welfare reasons. However, the granting
of permits needs to be carefully carried out with supervision and control by the forestry and
environmental services related to the concept of sustainable and sustainable forestry
development. Research conducted by Fujiwara et al. (2012) explained that when forest
management collaboration was developed in 2001, it resulted in a lack of transparency
between forest management community associations and the state forest company
(PERHUTANI) and there were many cases of illegal logging on a large scale. A research study
conducted by Nanang & Inoue (2020) explains that most current regulations and policies do
not accommodate the interests of forest management at the local level.
This principle becomes important if the community has a strong customary organization or
institution and can partner with the forestry and environmental services. The model of
customary institutions in Papua varies greatly depending on the character of the culture and
the system of customary institutions. Of course, this has consequences for the management
model of forest products, namely wood. In addition to forest management, forest clearing
activities by taking wood followed by mixed system gardening activities through forest
encroachment techniques have increased significantly (Antoh et al. 2019).
THE ROLE OF THE PARTNERSHIP IN SUPPORTING SUSTAINABLE FOREST
MANAGEMENT POLICIES
Capital and technology are something that indigenous peoples lack. Meanwhile, the role of
capital and technology is important for an adequate increase in production output. For this
reason, partnerships with other institutions are important to be accommodated in the service's
strategic policies by cooperating with certain business partners. Example: for equity
participation, you can partner with the bank as part of efforts to increase investment in other
fields. This collaboration can be created if the forestry and environmental services seriously
can build intense cooperation between the service, banking and indigenous peoples. Therefore,
the quality of customary institutions needs to be improved and professionally built to increase
the capacity of the people so that later they can be more responsible. Community development
can be done through collaboration between parties in villages close to forest areas to provide
training to improve human resources (Antoh et al. 2018). Kustanti et al. (2014) explained in his
research that collaborative management for mangrove management in Lampung involving
local governments, communities and the University of Lampung can reduce conflicts over
mangrove forest management.
For the aspect of mastering technology, you can also partner with the Vocational School (SMK)
which has special expertise in designing and designing good and efficient equipment for
harvesting timber forest products. This partnership can also be built with cooperation between
the forestry and environmental services, vocational schools and related customary institutions.
Other research shows that in building partnership patterns, it is necessary to conduct in-depth
studies of actors to prevent conflicts in the management of forest and land resources
(Sanders et al. 2019).