Signs of Life from Peoples Forests

One cool evening, we drove our car through a wet, narrow and winding road. Treetops and the lining snake fruit trees made the night even darker.
30.

From between the trees, we saw shimmering lights of the town of Wonosobo, Central Java. It looked serene and peaceful, lying in between Mount Sindoro and Mount Sumbing. We made an appointment with Nisro, the chairman of Wonosobos Association of Peoples Forest Owners (APHR), while were in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, on a midday of early March 2012. In the early afternoon we headed directly to Wonosobo from Wonosari. There would have been no need for a rush, if only Nisro didnt have to depart for Semarang on the next day. I have to go to Semarang tomorrow; the MFP [Multistakeholder Forestry Program] has invited me to come

Peoples forests protect water catchments around Tempuran Dam in Blora, Central Java. Aside from serving as a tourist spot and supplying drinking water for Blora, the dam has been a birth place of national and international rowers.

over, he said over the phone. We made a stop at a wood workshop in Kali Mendong, the subdistrict of Leksono, from which Nisro guided us to his house. Stretching our bodies after the long road trip, we chatted. Snake fruit, rambutan, lanzones and freshly cooked tempe -- plus cayenne pepper -- were served on a table in the parlor. Two cups of black coffee helped us stay awake through midnight. The friendly air of the night lingered as I and photographer Dwi Oblo explored a peoples forest in the next morning. Mulyadi, the secretary II of the association, gave me a ride on his motorcycle

.31

If you want to see how the verification system improves forestry management, then Blora is the place.

through the village road, exploring the dense forest. The silhouettes of the trees that seemed blurry the previous night showed their clear forms in the morning. Sengon trees soar in between snake fruit trees. The Kali Mendong peoples forest is just one member of the association. There are three other villages in Leksono that are also members to the association: Jonggol Sari, Manggis and Duren Sawit. Burat village in the subdistrict of Kepil joined us just before the verification, Nisro said. The Association of Peoples Forest Owners was then founded. Wonosobos peoples forests, along with those of South Konawe in Southeast Sulawesi; Gunung Kidul in Yogyakarta; Central Lampung in Lampung; and Blora in Central Java have obtained wood legality certificates. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan handed over the certificates in Central Lampung in November 2011. SVLK is not only required for forestry businesses, but also for peoples forests, also known as owned or rightful forests. Sooner of later, all peoples forests across Indonesia are expected to have wood legality certificates. According to the man, who is also the chief of Kali Mendong village, the associations improving management has been a benefit of the certification. The management of the association is getting better because theres a counseling now, the meetings are getting more intensive and weve gained more and more knowledge. Nisro added. He said this had inspired him to look for a soft bank loan. APHR has a large number of members: 4,384 people. But the number here is quote unquote, Nisro said. I mean, they only signed a declaration supporting a wood legality certification. Thats not what I want. Nisro said if they were only after profits, they could easily do it straight away. Just take the woods from the workshop, sell them and then we will earn profits. But thats not what we want. We want to facilitate our members to have direct negotiations with industries, with the association managing the tree assets. I saw workshops selling sengon woods in a number of spots in Kali Mendong. Those are from peoples forests that have obtained wood legality certificates. They should have asked permission from the association. This particular logging phenomenon is called need-driven logging: people cut down trees when they have urgent needs, such as at the beginning of new academic years, or when some of their family members fall ill or when they have important events to organize. In short, forests here serve as some kind of savings to the locals.

The limestone industry in Plantungan, Blora, use teak woods as fuel. Karmijan scavenges a burning site for charcoals, to then sell them. A sack [of charcoals] is priced Rp 17,000, said Karmijan, who collected five sacks of charcoals that day (above). The magnificent Mount Sindoro is sheltered by clouds and grown with dense peoples forests at its feet in Kali Mendong, Wanasobo. Look at the Dieng plateau, [the forests] have been cut down. But its still green here, with the peoples forests, Nisro said. Kali Mendong sits on a remote slope of Dieng (next page).

Its been hitherto tetuko; sing teko ora tuku-tuku, sing tuku ora teko-teko, Suryanto Sadiyo from Arupa, a Yogyakarta-based foundation monitoring peoples forests, cited a Javanese expression. Those who come dont buy, those who want to buy never come, he translated the expression into Indonesian. Tetuko is the childhood name of Gatotkaca, a famous wayang (shadow puppet) character. What he tried to say was that it was not easy to market legal timbers in Gunung Kidul. A market for legally certified timbers is actually there already; I dont think theres a problem with need-driven logging, said Sugeng Suyono, the chief of Wana Manunggal Lestari Cooperative in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta. Sugeng said the cooperative would purchase timbers from need-driven loggers, who commonly cut down young trees, after the market opened on regular basis. Then well leave [the trees] for safekeeping. After its old enough, well sell them. The disparity between prices of need-driven cut trees and mature trees will be divided between the cooperative and land owners. For example, Sugeng explained, a young tree cut under a needdriven circumstance may be priced at mere Rp 500,000, but the price may go up to Rp 1 million if the tree reaches a mature age. The Rp 500,000 price gap is considered a profit that can be divided into two. The owner would thus earn a total of Rp 750,000, and the cooperative the rest. But this is on the condition that theres a regular market. Otherwise the cooperative will have to continue to cover the expenses, said the corpulent man. Wana Manunggal Lestari Cooperative has 681 members living in three villages: Dengok village in Playen; Girisekar village in Panggang; and Kedungkeris village in Nglipar. Up to 594 hectares of peoples

32.

.33

A peoples forest in Kali Mendong, Wanasobo is a land densely grown with trees and cassava plant, which are harvested in times of urgent needs (next page). Snake fruit trees are sometimes also planted in the forest, and the fruit is sold in Wonosobo, Temanggung, Semarang and areas outside Java. In rainy season, there can be two harvests a month, Mulyadi explained (above).

forests in this area have been granted wood legality certificates. Aside from teak, the forests are also grown with mahogany, acacias and other timber trees. The Gunung Kidul Sustainable Peoples Forest Working Group has also been working on marketing legal woods. Aside from the Wana Manunggal Cooperative, the working group also consists of relevant local institutions, a forestry business association and non-governmental organizations. The working group is currently forming a small team that will study the prospect of a procurement policy that will give preference to peoples woods. The small team will conduct an academic study and is expected to produce some recommendations for the local administration, Anik Indarwati, the head of Gunung Kiduls Forestry and Farm Agency, said while opening a meeting of the working group. Anik explained that the local work aimed at appreciating legally certified peoples woods would involve Wonosobo and Blora. Well build a network with Wonosobo and Blora to push for a local policy that will give preference to certified peoples woods. The benefit of the verification system in the promotion of legal woods has begun to materialize in Gunung Kidul, while Blora offers clear evidence of an improving forestry management. If you want to see the benefit of this verification system in improving the forestry management, you can see it in Blora, said Agus Budi Purwanto from ARuPa. Agus added another evident benefit from SVLK is its ability to push the local administration to improve its forestry management. Mustika Teak Forest Farmer Group Union in Blora, which has obtained a wood legality certificate, has urged the local government to improve the wood management. The improvement includes the cut in long procedures typical of the management of a wood business. Bloras timber businesses are plagued with a fairly long bureaucracy, as 48 percent of forest areas in Blora are comprised of teak production forests managed by Perhutani, said Mashudi, the head of the forestry control, supervision and management division at Bloras Forestry Agency. A tight regulation has been introduced to differentiate teak woods produced by peoples forests from those produced by state-controlled forests. In the past, before the reform era, processing a logging permit in a peoples forest was very complicated and took a very long time. As the consequence, During those periods, we only enjoyed 50 percent of revenues from the sales of peoples teak woods, Suryono, the deputy chairman of Gapoktanhut, recalled. The rest of the earnings were to finance permit processing, including inspections of the logging locations by officials from Perhutani, Muspika and counseling police.

34.

.35

Two Certified Colleagues The Hutan Jaya Lestari Cooperative has applied integrated planting and harvesting in peoples forests in South Konawe, South Sulawesi. The teak coverage potentials reach 18,7000 cubic meters for the 2011-2020 period, while the production potentials reach 14,900 cubic meters. With supports from its 750 members, the cooperative is targeting to run its own sawmill. In Central Lampung, Lampung, owners of peoples forests in five villages in Pubian established the Logging Giri Mukti Community Cooperative. Aside from fighting middlemen, who often take too much profits, the cooperative aims at improving the local economy based on sustainable utilization of natural resources. The wakening Pubian forest farmers have managed to fix water resources.

Praptowiyono works on his plantation in Dengok, Playen, Gunung Kidul. Dense rows of teak trees confine his lot, which is planted with cassava in the middle.

36.

.37

Its been hitherto tetuko; Sing teko ora tuku-tuku, sing tuku ora teko-teko, Those who come dont buy, those who want to buy never come.
The organization has verified five peoples forests. Haris said the most important thing was that a peoples forest should be able to build the local economy, and that there should be a joint agreement as to who would be the manager at the community level. This management unit, either a cooperative or an association, will be responsible for bringing in incomes which will impact on the economy, he added, as long as a joint agreement is there, a peoples forest will have a better bargaining position. That is why the management of a peoples forest should not stop at securing a wood legality certificate. If they can make economic impacts, Haris continued, a wood legality certificate will be a mere recognition. Before obtaining a wood legality certificate, Wana Manunggal Lestari Cooperative had secured a sustainable forest certificate from the Indonesia Ecolabel Foundation (LEI) in 2006. The cooperative once marketed peoples woods with the support of the certificate. Although it was small scale, between 2006 and 2009 we partnered with PT Jawa Furni Lestari. But it ended after three years, Sugeng explained. Upon obtaining a wood legality certificate, we will be monitored every year, so the management of the group is expected to continually improve in the future, Nisro said. Therefore, he added, he hoped the association would manage peoples trees. To earn a soft loan, people are obliged to sign a letter of agreement saying that the association will manage all from re-planting, cutting and selling. Nisro and his group have proven that peoples forests have potentials worthy of soft loans from banks. Before earning a wood legality certificate, in early 2010 we got a Rp 365 million loan from Bank Rakyat Indonesia, for the whole village. To be awarded with the loan, Nisro said, they should provide data concerning basic potentials of peoples forests, to give pictures on the villagers incomes. Managing peoples forests for the sake of a common benefit has indeed become a collective awareness. During a hot daylight, on limestone ground in Plantungan, Blora, a number of executives of Gapoktanhut Jati Mustika gathered at its secretariat. A wave of laughter was heard as they recalled the past, when it was hard to enjoy benefits from woods at their own land. To me, those laughter as they recalled the past sounds like an optimism about the future. Now it is easier to obtain permits to distribute peoples woods. Were planning to arrange drivenneed logging and wood sales, as well as planting of trees after the trimming, said Soewadji, the head of Jati Mustika, so we will have a stronger bargaining position. The hope spans across the 3,100 hectares of legally certified peoples forests throughout Indonesia.

With the role of regions in the forestry management becoming clearer, Blora issued in 2000 the bylaw No. 15 to ease business managements of peoples woods. Its no longer complicated; its propeople now, Mashudi continued. The Blora administration also issued Bylaw No. 4 in 2011, which rules on the management of peoples forests. But the bylaw only regulates macro issues. Technical aspects of the implementation and licensing of peoples wood distribution will be explained in a regulation of the district head. That is according to the Bylaw No. 4, Mashudi added. In the future, it is expected that a permit for peoples forests having already earned legal wood certificates can be issued by the head of Gapoktanhut or the head of the village. Although this verification system cannot yet provide added values for legal woods, owners of peoples forests keep holding on. One day the market shall accept [only] legal woods, so we have to get prepared. At the moment were holding on, Sugeng reasoned. Another benefit of the verification system is the forming of a management unit sheltering all owners of peoples forests. Their union in a management unit allows them to jointly bear the costs of a wood legality certification. Assessments for a wood legality certification can indeed be done on collective basis, either for owned forests, home industries or craftsmen. But there is a big challenge after a wood legality certificate is obtained. After obtaining a certificate, it is a challenge now to change the need-driven logging habit into a business unit, Surya said, this is the biggest challenge. Apparently the wood legality verification system gives a new weight to peoples forests. We cannot talk about planting trees only; at the community level it is about obtaining wood legality certificates, said M. Haris Witjaksono, the vice president for forestry, maritime affairs, fisheries and environment strategic business unit at PT Sucofindo.

A biogas installation collects cattle manures from Sugeng Suyonos yards in Dengok, Playen, Gunung Kidul, with dense teak trees at the background. A total of 11 biogas installations have been built at the yards of some owners of peoples forests in the area, who have obtained wood legality certificates. Although the gas spurts are not very strong, they are not bad; we can save gas, said Sugeng, the chief of Wana Manunggal Lestari Cooperative.

38.

.39