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.