Two com­mu­nity for­est man­age­ment units (Unit Man­a­je­men Hutan Rakyat – UMHR) in Pac­i­tan and Luma­jang Dis­tricts, East Java passed the assess­ment for LEI Sus­tain­able Community-based For­est Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (PHBML-LEI).  The deci­sion was car­ried out  by a Deci­sion Mak­ing Expert Team from PT. Mutu Agung Lestari, of which con­sists of the fol­low­ing team mem­bers: Teguh Yuwono (Pro­duc­tion Aspect), Sis­woyo (Eco­log­i­cal Aspect) and Djuwadi (Social Aspect).

UMHR Rimba Sari in Pac­i­tan Dis­trict – declared by the Deci­sion Mak­ing Expert Team to pass the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion on March 3, 2010 – man­ages 1,073 hectares of com­mu­nity for­est in 13 vil­lages. This for­est is dom­i­nated by teak, mahogany and aca­cia trees.  UMHR Wana Lestari – declared  to pass the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion on March 5, 2010 – man­ages 3,077 hectares of albizia-dominated for­est, cov­er­ing 9 villages.

The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the two UMHRs increases the num­ber of community-based for­est man­age­ment units receiv­ing sus­tain­able for­est cer­ti­fi­ca­tion through LEI scheme. The cur­rent num­ber of cer­ti­fied com­mu­nity and indige­nous com­mu­nity for­est man­age­ment units is 10 units with a total area of 20 thou­sand hectares. This serves as a proof that many com­mu­nity forests in Indone­sia are man­aged in a sus­tain­able way  and that com­mu­ni­ties in Indone­sia are capa­ble of imple­ment­ing  sus­tain­able for­est man­age­ment prac­tices. How­ever, such under­stand­ing is not widely acknowl­edged by the pub­lic and gov­ern­ment due to  the insuf­fi­cient pre-conditions capa­ble of  sup­port­ing  sus­tain­able for­est. If all involved par­ties – the gov­ern­ment, own­ers of com­mu­nity forests, busi­ness peo­ple, and part­ner – can work together, such pre-conditions will be created.

The suc­cess of the two UMHRs is the result of a multi-party col­lab­o­ra­tion namely com­mu­nity mem­bers as com­mu­nity for­est main­tain­ers, PERSEPSI as guar­an­tor and part­ner, Dis­trict Office of the Min­istry of Forestry as part­ner and facil­i­ta­tor, East Java Province Provin­cial Office of the Min­istry of Forestry, BPDAS Solo and the Cen­ter for Stan­dard­iza­tion and Envi­ron­ment of the Min­istry of Forestry which pro­vided sup­ports in the form of fund­ing and other  means  of sup­ports. The above  par­ties have been col­lab­o­rated to pro­mote the poten­tials of com­mu­nity for­est as the source of sus­tain­able for­est prod­ucts that can be uti­lized in a respon­si­ble ways to increase both local and national economy.

It is expected  that other community-based for­est man­age­ment areas, such as indige­nous com­mu­nity for­est, HKm, HTR and Vil­lage For­est can also use PHBML-LEI cer­ti­fi­ca­tion scheme, which can be used as an instru­ment to gain mar­ket acknowl­edg­ment on community’s capac­i­ties  in man­ag­ing for­est areas.

PT. Mutu Agung Lestari as the Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Body will soon announce the pub­lic sum­mary and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion deci­sion for the two man­age­ment units.