Wonosobo awaits control of forest

Wonosobo awaits control of forest

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Wonosobo

Should you ever sit on a hillside in the Sumbing and Sindoro
mountains in the Central Java regency of Wonosobo, you'll give
thanks to the regency for its green area, which collected the
national reforestation award for five consecutive years beginning
in 1994.

The glory days are a part of history now, when locals used to
provide sesajen or offerings of food to the spirit of the trees,
believing them to be the source of life.

Until 1998, almost one-third of the regency's 98,467 hectares
was still covered with large trees.

Around 20,161 hectares of the forest were managed by state-
owned timber management company Perhutani while the remaining
19,472 hectares belonged to the local community.

But then illegal logging hit the regency, replacing the
sesajen with chainsaws and axes, with apparent immunity.

Almost 60 percent of the industrial estate was destroyed,
leaving only bushes and shrubs in place of the big trees,
although the local community's forest was left undisturbed.

The looting of the forest caused around Rp 40.8 billion
(around US$39 million) in losses to the state, while climatic
disasters were to pose even worse problems for the tourist-
destination town.

An immense flood inundated the regency in 1998 and even hit
the Dieng Plateau, around 2,000 meters above sea level.

These environmental problems have encouraged the regency
council to return the entire management of the forest to the
people. As Constantinus Krustanto, chairman of the regency
legislature's Commission B on economic and natural resources, put
it: "It is proof the local community is capable of taking care of
their forest".

Krustanto was speaking during a discussion organized by the
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in the town
recently. Also attending the meeting were several representatives
of the farmers union in Wonosobo, government officers from the
local forestry and plantation and tourism and culture offices,
executives of Perhutani's local branch in Kedu Utara, and
journalists.

The discussion was aimed at evaluating the regency's Bylaw No.
22/2001 on Community-based Forest Management issued last October,
which excluded Perhutani from the new forest management system.

The bylaw was developed -- after a series of discussions with
local farmers, administrators and experts -- in order to ensure
that the people received a beneficial portion of the government's
income from forest exploration and, according to Krustanto, to
minimize the deterioration of the forest.

The bylaw stipulates that the community will be the sole
stakeholder of the timber estate and will determine which trees
or plants are appropriate for growing in the forest area, in
keeping with the regency's land conditions. The Wonosobo Forest
Forum, consisting of the local administration and experts, will
serve as a coordinating body.

D. Soehardono, chief of the local forestry and plantation
office, explained that, similar to the new policy on forest
management implemented in Sumedang, West Java, the ownership of
the forest in the regency had been returned to the indigenous
community.

The allocation of profits, he said, would be in line with the
spirit of regional autonomy as regulated in Law No. 25/1999 on
fiscal balance between the central and regional administrations.

"The local community is to decide on the management of the
forest. Thirty percent of its profits will go to the people, 20
percent to the village administration while the remaining 50
percent goes to the regency and will be allocated to the building
of infrastructure."

Farmers praised the bylaw, which they believed would help them
make a living from their own backyard, previously in the hands of
Perhutani.

Leader of the Kedu-Banyumas Farmers Union, Sumaeri, revealed
that Perhutani had prohibited farmers from tending to their herds
near the timber estate and collecting twigs there for firewood.

"Perhutani only enrich themselves, but never let us enjoy the
profits from the timber estate," Sumaeri said, while calling for
the withdrawal of the company, which he said "was no use to the
community".

Under the current system, farmers are allowed to plant
intercrops such as coffee, Zalacca palm, and spices at the local
community-managed forest and potatoes at the pine estate. The
intercrops have become the source of the farmers' livelihood.

But, according to Krustanto, the farmers are still treated as
if they are coolies working for the timber estate.

"Perhutani has placed a strong emphasis on the economic
aspects of the forest but ignores other aspects such as ecology,
the ecosystem, water reservation, medicinal herbs that grow only
in the forest, and especially squatters or semi-nomadic farmers
living in the forest," he said.

The timber company's management is not happy with the bylaw,
claiming that it has not contributed to the deterioration of the
forest and blaming it on the upheaval following the fall of the
New Order regime, when "outsiders" were allowed to exploit the
forest with impunity.

"We have tried to protect the forest from the poachers. We
have caught many and have turned them over to the police.
Perhutani has also implemented programs to alleviate locals'
poverty and the reforestation program," Perhutani Kedu Utara
administration assistant Bambang Djoemadijono said.

Perhutani also insisted that they had the right to control the
timber estate under the terms of Law No. 41/1999 on forestry,
which was enacted long before the package laws on regional
autonomy were endorsed.

Bambang said Perhutani had even raised its contributions to
the local people, even though they had suffered losses due to
illegal logging, adding that the company had formulated the plan
to rehabilitate and expand the forest as a means of compensating
for the destruction of forests in Java, where only 16 percent of
the original forest cover now remained.

A member of Tambi village Farmers Union, Nurul Mubin,
criticized the policy imposed by Perhutani that gives villagers
the right to manage the conservation forest but requires each
village to collect specified amounts of money.

"Perhutani has collected Rp 8 million from Tambi village,
where each family had to pay Rp 20,000 for one small plot of
land. But we are luckier than the neighboring Cemara residents
where they have to pay five times that amount for the same plot
of land," he said.

Bambang denied the existence of such a policy and promised to
return the money should the culprits responsible be found.

The bylaw is expected to come into force in April if Jakarta
has no objection to its contents. The administration, along with
the council, the people and experts, are now drafting guidelines
for the bylaw that are expected to be ready at the same time.

"We hope the government passes the bylaw, on the grounds that
it will give more benefits to the people compared with the
existing regulations," Krustanto said.