Community forest management restores Yogyakarta's Menoreh Hill
Community forest management restores Yogyakarta's Menoreh Hill
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
Water resources around Menoreh Hill in Kulon Progo,
Yogyakarta, have been considerably depleted due to illegal
logging sanctioned by local forestry office personnel, which has
caused severe damage to the 1,047-hectare forest area as well as
water shortages.
Heri Margiyanto, representing the Center for Development and
Management of Natural Resources of the Damar Foundation, revealed
this when launching the small grants program to promote tropical
forests in the Bogor Botanical Gardens recently.
Providing guidance for the forest community in Kalibiru,
Hargowilis village, Kokap district, Kulon Progo regency, Heri
Margianto said nine out of 12 districts in Kulon Progo with a
population of over 58,600 shared the same boundaries with Menoreh
and their farmers had always complained about the need for clean
water.
According to him, 20 years ago there were still a lot of water
springs around the hill, but rampant illegal logging with the
backing of the forestry office has resulted in partial denudation
and the loss of water resources.
"For years, local villagers have faced water shortages and
thus have been forced to walk dozens of kilometers to reach
scarce pools, where they have to queue for hours to get fresh
water. Forestry field officers and rangers should have taken care
of forest conservation instead of selling wood for their personal
gain," Heri pointed out.
The communities around Menoreh have now inherited a severely
ravaged state forest, with some 85 percent of them having a plot
of only half a hectare per farmer. Their hunger for more farm
land finally compelled them to enter restricted forests to
reclaim land for crop planting to meet their daily needs and feed
their cattle.
Their encroachment, continued Heri, was due to the reality
that the state forests were not properly managed, as evidenced by
the repeated failure to implement reforestation and the absence
of follow-up programs to conserve the forests, which were well
maintained by the communities.
Therefore, the Damar foundation approached the government
three years ago and encouraged it to cooperate with Kulon Progo's
Menoreh hill people in forest management, which received a
positive response. The community-managed forests have turned out
to be better conserved than those handled by the forestry office,
though the people only control the areas around their villages.
"While helping the communities, the state also benefits
because its damaged forests have been restored. It's the reason
behind the government's provisional license issued on Feb. 15,
2002 to allow limited forest management by local village people,"
he added.
Suparlan, a local resident living near the hill, voiced the
same grievances. "The forest damage in Menoreh stemmed from the
deeds of some people at the forestry office including forest
rangers, who frequently sold teak and mahogany, thus setting a
bad example as locals strived hard for rehabilitation. Any
destruction will cause suffering and that is what we experience
now," he said.
The water requirements of the regency have lately been met to
a certain degree with the presence of the Sermo reservoir. Kulon
Progo is in fact a catchment area, but its badly stripped forests
have made the reservoir plagued by a shortage of water because
the rate of flow is reduced by forest denudation.