Villagers create forests, improve environment

Villagers create forests, improve environment

Bambang M, Contributor, Wonogiri, Central Java

Wonogiri has long been known for its dry, barren areas that
recurrently experience clean water shortages during the dry
season.

That was also the case with the two neighboring villages of
Sumberejo and Seloputro in Batuwarno subdistrict, Wonogiri, whose
landscapes are dominated by rocky land.

Yet, like magic, both the villages are now among the greenest
areas in the regency with thousands of teak (Tectona grandis) and
mahogany (Swietenia mahogani) trees emerging from the villager's
cornfields and herbal medicine plantations, and in other village
fields.

The same huge trees can also be easily found in the housing
compounds, in the yards of locals' houses, providing good habitat
for various kinds of birds living in the region. It seems that no
spare space in the villages is left unplanted, creating an
impression that the villages were established in the middle of a
forest.

It is difficult to believe that both villages were once barren
like the surrounding environment that is located on the southern
karst mountain range. But local villagers have created and
maintained a true community forest on their own land.

Indeed, among environment activists, Seloputro and Sumberejo
are not new names. Numerous researchers from both Indonesia and
abroad have carried out studies in the villages, which are
located some 50 kilometers east of the regental capital,
Wonogiri.

Dozens of scientific writings and theses describing the
success of the villages have also been produced.

Many, too, have expressed astonishment and appreciation over
the success and asked about the key to the success.

"I always answer such a question jokingly -- that it is
because we have no mantri hutan (forest rangers) here that we are
successful in managing the forest on our own," Head of Sumberejo
village Hadi Subroto, 44, said.

He was referring to government officials assigned by the
Ministry of Forestry to control state forests. It has been public
knowledge that forest rangers have often been the parties behind
rampant illegal logging in many Indonesian forests that has led
to massive damage to the nation's forests.

The success of Sumberejo and Seloputro is a good example that
people truly have the ability to manage community forests.
Unfortunately, this has been a marginal issue in the country
regardless of its benefit, both economic and environmental.

"A community forest can have greater biodiversity. Besides,
economically, they are also of greater benefit compared with
state monoculture forests," Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada
University Center for Community Forest Studies chairman San Afri
Awang said.

The reforestation movement in Sumberejo was started in 1976-
1977 following a presidential instruction to plant Acacia trees
in the village.

People, however, have different opinions on when exactly they
began planting their fields with teak and mahogany.

Sutanto, chairman of Gondangrejo Farmers Club of Sumberejo,
for example, said that people started to plant the trees in 1981,
after realizing that acacia was not marketable, so they
eventually substituted other trees.

Hadi Subroto, however, said that people began to seriously
manage the community forest by planting teak and mahogany in 1985
when members of the farmers club of Wates hamlet, Sumberejo,
planted teak and mahogany in their respective fields.

"At that time people did so merely because they wanted to earn
more from planting the trees because they could not rely solely
on agricultural products to make a living at that time. It was
only later on that we realized that what they did had a positive
impact on the environment," Hadi Subroto explained.

Speaking separately, Siman, chairman of Seloputro's Certified
Farmers Community Forum, said that reforestation in his village
has been taking place since 1975, with Karsomo and his son Misman
pioneering the movement. They started so by planting teak and
mahogany in their fields.

Other farmers, however, were reluctant to follow their move,
worrying that they would deplete their food supply if they
substituted food crops with trees.

A few years later, however, it turned out that Misman made a
lot of money from the wood, so they began to plant the same trees
in their respective fields. As more and more people did the same
in the years that followed, both Sumberejo and Seloputro
eventually become greener than ever. And that was the way
community forests in both the villages were established.

Currently, some 70 percent of Sumberejo's 547 hectares is
covered with big trees. In Seloputro, similarly, the community
forest totals 263 hectares. This success, of course, cannot be
separated from the people's discipline in sticking to what they
had jointly agreed.

They have made a kind of "rule" which stipulates that whoever
fells a tree has to plant 10 to 25 new trees. They abide by the
rule. As a result, no spare space remains for them to plant more
trees. All the space is already planted with either teakwood or
mahogany, such that the rule is only effective for those who
still have spare land on which to plant.

The community's stance in maintaining and nurturing the trees
is also no less important. Although both the villages are located
in Java, which has long been known for its consumerism, people of
both villages do not sell their wood easily.

Sutanto, of Sumberejo, said that people's earnings from wood
amounted to only about 20 percent. The rest was mostly from
animal husbandry, agriculture and quarrying.

"We only sell wood if we are forced to do so, when things are
too difficult to handle, financially," Sutanto explained.

Another factor that contributes significantly to the success
of the villages in managing the community forest is the fact that
many of the villages' youth work in Jakarta.

As a consequence, the economic burden on each family is
smaller, so pressure to fell trees for money is also reduced.
Moreover, many of those working outside the villages also help
support their families back home by sending them money, thereby
improving their financial situation.

Thanks to the forest, the people of both villages now no
longer experience flooding. Many water springs are also found
along the village's Nekuk River, while existing water springs
have improved water flows. A large spring in Seloputro has even
been providing water to people in neighboring villages.

"In short, we no longer experience shortages of clean water
during dry seasons as before," Sutanto said, adding that both
Seloputro and Sumberejo were also major suppliers of teak and
mahogany seedlings to neighboring villages.

Thanks to the success, Seloputro and Sumberejo have become the
country's first villages to win certificates from the Indonesian
Eco-labeling Institution (LEI). The certificates were officially
granted on October 22, 2004. Former Minister of Environment Emil
Salim handed over the certificates in Jakarta.

With the certificates, both villages have the right to enjoy a
premium price facility for their wood products, both on the
domestic market and abroad.

The higher prices are paid by environmentally sensitive
consumers who take into account sustainable approaches to forest
management.

"With the premium price facility, they can sell their wood
products for 15 percent to 30 percent more than the usual price,"
said Taryanto Wijaya of Persepsi (Perhimpunan Untuk Studi
Pengembangan Ekonomi dan Sosial, Society for Social and Economic
Development Studies), a non-government organization that has been
supporting farmer communities in Selopuro and Sumberejo.

Currently, there are reportedly four potential buyers from
Bali, Surabaya, France and the Netherlands, that have been
considering buying wood from Seloputro and Sumberejo at a premium
price.

Whatever the advantages that both the villages have enjoyed,
Seloputro and Sumberejo have shown that communities are also
capable of managing and preserving their forests.

This is in contrast to Forest Authority Rights (HPH), which
have frequently caused damage rather than contributed to
sustainability in the country's tropical forests.

It is also more beneficial for the community compared with the
forests managed by state-owned Perhutani.

"I think it's time for the government to encourage the
implementation of community forest systems," Awang said.