Joint Project Aims to Rescue Java’s Critical Forests

Jakarta Globe, April 18, 2010

Banyumas, Central Java. The president director of state forest management company PT Perhutani has said that up to 900,000 hectares of land on Java Island are in critical condition, including areas located within forests overseen by the company.

Speaking during a working visit to Perhutani’s Baturaden tourist forest in Banyumas district, Central Java, over the weekend, Upik Rosalina Wasrin said that in 2005 the company began rehabilitating 350,000 hectares of critical areas under its management through its Green Perhutani program.

She said the program, which is hoped to be completed by the end of this year, also called for 70,000 hectares of land to be planted with trees and areas outside its scope to be rejuvenated.

“Perhutani is currently working on land outside its forest areas that belong to the public. This is part of the rehabilitation program and the development of local enterprises,” Upik added.

Rehabilitation plans for critical lands in the Dieng Plateau region of Central Java, Upik said are still awaiting agreement from local residents because the land there is privately owned.

“If we can reach a deal to work together with the local people, we will first start with an effort to identify the [problems],” she said.

Reforesting and rehabilitating private land is a complex issue, Upik said, and Perhutani needs to consult with local land owners in Dieng before any work can begin.

“Whether they want their land rehabilitated or not, we first need to find out if they want their land to be managed as public forested areas, how the land will be shared and what type of trees should be planted,” she said, citing a few of the problems that need to be resolved.

Forest rehabilitation efforts in cases such as Dieng require cooperation in the form of public forested areas, also known as joint forestry management, Upik said, adding that just handing out assistance funds does not work. The best way, she added, is to get local residents to form a business that offers the land as part of the public forested area in return for a share of its products.

Similar cooperation efforts have already been entered into by Perhutani with Banten’s provincial government and the province’s Pandeglang district administration, covering some 7,500 hectares of forest.

Several other cooperation programs have also been entered into with other regions in Central Java, including with Banyumas and the district administration in Kendal.

In Dieng, forested lands, especially on the region’s mountainous terrain, have been converted for agriculture by local residents. The resulting land degradation has been blamed for landslides in the area during the rainy season.

Upik said Perhutani’s rehabilitation model involved providing loans to residents to be repaid under a production-sharing system. “The people are encouraged to make use of their land in a productive and economic way,” she said.

The land rehabilitation projects also involve working with local forestry offices — in the case of Dieng, both Banyumas and Wonosobo districts — to ascertain whether any rejuvenation programs have already been conducted in the areas concerned.

“If there has already been some program, we will not get involved in the area because each of us, the Ministry of Forestry and Perhutani, have our respective programs,” Upik said. “And so that there is no overlap, we have to make sure of this first so the handling of critical areas in Java can be done together.”

As for Perhutani’s long-term reforestation program, Upik said the company aimed to replant an additional 2,000 hectares of forest lands across Java by 2014.

Antara