More and more sus­tain­able com­mu­nity for­est man­age­ment units have suc­cess­fully obtained LEI cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. Two com­mu­nity for­est man­age­ment units in Bangkalan and Probol­inggo, East Java have been declared to pass the assess­ment for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion based on the Sus­tain­able Com­mu­nity Based For­est Man­age­ment scheme from the Indone­sian Eco­la­bel­ing Insti­tute. The assess­ment was per­formed by mem­bers of a board of expert from PT Mutu Agung Lestari, i.e. Teguh Yuwono (Pro­duc­tion Aspect), Djuwadi (Social Aspect) and Sis­woyo (Social Aspect).

The two man­age­ment units are UMHR Ger­bang Lestari in Ban­gakalan and UMHR Alas Mak­mur in Probol­inggo. UMHR Ger­bang Lestari which man­ages a total size of 2,889.29 Ha com­mu­nity for­est passed the assess­ment with remarks on June 20, 2010. While UMHR Alas Mak­mur passed the assess­ment with remarks on June 22, 2010, man­ages 995 Ha of forests cov­er­ing two vil­lages in Tiris Subdistrict.

The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the two UMHRs has increased the num­ber of community-based for­est and indige­nous com­mu­nity for­est man­age­ment units receiv­ing sus­tain­able for­est cer­ti­fi­ca­tion through LEI scheme to a total of 12 units, cov­er­ing a total area of 24 thou­sand hectares. The suc­cess of the two UMHRs is the result of a multi-party col­lab­o­ra­tion with mem­bers rang­ing from NGOs, local gov­ern­ment and the Min­istry of Forestry, PERSEPSI as the part­ner insti­tu­tion, Pus­tan­ling of the Min­istry of Forestry as the part­ner and facil­i­ta­tor, East Java Province Provin­cial Office of the Min­istry of Forestry, Bangkalan Dis­trict Office of the Min­istry of Forestry, and Probol­inggo Dis­trict Office of the Min­istry of Forestry.

An increase in the num­ber of LEI cer­ti­fied com­mu­nity forests reflects an increase in the aware­ness of the peo­ple and local gov­ern­ment to prac­tice sus­tain­able for­est man­age­ment. The large poten­tial of Indone­sian com­mu­nity for­est is expected to become the source for sus­tain­able for­est prod­ucts that can be uti­lized in a respon­si­ble man­ner to increase the local and national economy.

As an illus­tra­tion, around 24 thou­sand hectares of LEI SCBFM cer­ti­fied com­mu­nity forests pos­sess 278,694 m3 of poten­tial wood area (con­sist­ing of teak, mahogany, aca­cia, saman), with sus­tain­able felling blocks of 44.705 m3/year. If all 966 thou­sand hectares of com­mu­nity for­est is man­aged in a sus­tain­able way through eco­la­bel cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, then com­mu­nity for­est will be the major sus­tain­able for­est man­age­ment prac­tice player in Indonesia.