Can Secure Tenure Help Reduce Deforestation?

While land is a crucial asset for most people in rural, hilly area of Sumberjaya, Lampung province, securing land tenure has been a long battle. Long after their establishment in the early 1970s, Forestry Department announced that 30% of the watershed area classified as protected area in 1990 (Verbist and Pasya, 2004). Farmers were demanded to stay away from their managed gardens. Both the process of policy making and the implications of the policy ignited conflict between the farmers and the government, which culminated by the government’s action of farmer eviction from their land in 1991, 1995, and 1996 (Kusworo, 2000). Negotiation support system which is based on social forestry concept was later introduced in the area in 1998, following the starting point of devolution process; a period many called as ‘reformation’ in Indonesia. The system offers more tenure security in the form of rights to manage land inside protected area by the means of preserving remaining forest (stop further deforestation) and planting new tree (‘reforestation’). This concept, generally known as HKm, was instantly accepted by farmers and implemented in 1998. Four years after the HKm enactment, 3 farmer groups, consist of total 292 households, obtained their 5 years HKm permit. Later on in 2006, 16 farmers groups also obtained their permit. Now, 8 years after the enactment of HKm, it is timely to ask whether securer tenure provided by social forestry concept really meets its conservation objectives: to reduce deforestation and to increase tree cover in Sumberjaya watershed.

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