”In addition to that, the activity also directly contributes to the increased welfare of the communities members who manage the sustainable forest”, Indra said during the workshop themed “My Forest is Sustainable, the River is Friendly, the Community is Prosperous”, held in Yogyakarta, Wednesday.

Initiated by the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI), the workshop was held during a visit from journalists to community forest areas in the districts of Wonogiri in Central Java and Pacitan in East Java.

Indra further explained that LEI, as a non-profit organization working to develop an ecolabel certification system for sustainable resources management, would very much like to introduce sustainable community forest management to public because not only sustainable forest management could help conserve the environment, it could also help further develop the communities which implemented the system.

Indra also added that during 2004–2010, several parties had build a collaboration to promote community forest conservation with thwe aim to help save watershed areas. This was performed by utilizing the LEI-standard ecolabel certification.

To achieve it, the Provincial and District Offices of the Ministry of Forestry, the Watershed Management Hall, the Center for Environmentaal Standardization of the Ministry of Forestry and the Association for Economic and Social Study and Development (Perhimpunan untuk Studi dan Pengembangan Ekonomi dan Sosial PERSEPSI) – a community economy empowerment organization – have worked hand in hand to promote ecolabel certification for community forests located along the 4 watershed areas.

The four watershed areas are Solo and Pemali-Jratun watersheds in Central Java, Sampeyan watershed in Madura and Cimanuk-Cisanggarung and Citanduy watersheds in West Java.

Watersheds’ condition in Indonesia has become more severe as indicated by frequent floods, droughts, and landslides due to the inability of deforested upriver area in absorbing rain water.

The decrease in watershed quality is directly caused by irresponsible upriver deforestation process in meeting the recent urgent demands, such as conversion of forest areas into plantations, agricultural and residential areas.

As the result, the community members must endure the consequences, such as losing their properties, cattle, rice fields, valuables, etc.

LEI’s certification standard is opted to help save the watershed because it promotes a sustainable forest management practice and empowerment of communities performing such practice. Thus, it will stimulate the growth of forest farmers’ welfare.

Apart from that, LEI’s Chain of Custody (CoC) certification will ensure that wood and non-wood products are extracted only from sustainable and legal community forests.

Wood and non-wood products extracted from sustainable and legal sources will bear the LEI-CoC identity on their package or surface.

PT Jawa Furni Lestari have been producing LEI-CoC certified wood products. The company processes the materials, of which generated from LEI-certified community forests, into wooden furniture.

So far, there are 10 LEI-certified sustainable community forest management units (Unit Manajemen Hutan Rakyat – UMHR). Five of them are located along Solo watershed areas, i.e. in Wonogiri, Pacitan, Sukoharjo, Sragen, and Magetan Districts.

The preparations for LEI certification is currently being performed along the Pemali-Jratun watershed area that includes Batang and Pekalongan Districts; Cimanuk-Cisanggarung watershed area; and itanduy watershed area includes the Districts of Garut, Sumedang, Majalengka, Brebes, and Pekalongan, added Indra.

The successful achievement of the above 5 UMHRs was the result of a multi-party collaboration which involves community members, which managed the community forest area, and the Association for Economic and Social Study and Development (Perhimpunan untuk Studi dan Pengembangan Ekonomi dan Sosial PERSEPSI) as the guarantor and partner.

In addition to that, other parties involved in the collaboration are the District Office of the Ministry of Forestry, as partner and facilitator, the East Java Province Provincial Office of the Ministry of Forestry, the Solo District Office of Watershed Management (Balai Pengelolaan Daerah Aliran Sungai — BPDAS) and the Center for Standardization and Environment of the Ministry of Forestry which provided the funding and other types of supports.

Conservation program
Meanwhile, the Manager of LEI Accreditation and Secretariate Gladi Hardiyanto stated that the watershed conservation program is in line with the Minister of Forestry’s programs, of which had selected 108 watershed areas as conservation areas priorities during the five years development period (2010–2014).

Furthermore, the program is also in line with the Presidential Instruction No. 5/2008 on the focus of economic program year 2008–2009 on watershed management strategies and key efforts to be taken for the next 20 years.

To promote environmental conservation movement for community forests in other areas, LEI invited local journalists from various provinces to join a field visi. The journalists were able directly observed the field activity processes, starting from the community forests to the manufacturing of LEI-CoC-certified wooden products.

The objective of the activity, he said, was to give an experience to the journalists on sustainable forest management practices of which have been able to support the community’s development and environment conservation.

The field visit was also aimed at introducing LEI standard ecolabel certification in sustainable community forests and LEI-certified wood products in Wonogiri, Pacitan, and Gunung Kidul areas.
(ras/RAS/ant)

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Sumiyati (51), a community forest farmer, stated that an acknowledgement as ecolabel-certified community forest brought about two benefits.

A statement made during the discussion with the participants of journalist workshop and field visit themed “My Forest is Sustainable, the River is Friendly, the Community is Prosperous” organized by the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI) in a community forest in Ngasem Sub Village, Tinatar Village, Punung Sub District, Pacitan District.

“First, we gain an acknowledgement on our ability to implement sustainable forest management. Second, we can also help save the environment,” she said while adding that the latter was considered very beneficial because landslides and floods still occured up to the year 2000.

She also said that based on her parents’ experiences back in 1960s, Pacitan was a barren area consisting mainly of karst, on which only hardwood trees, such as acacias, could grow.

“Water sources were also difficult to access, around 2 kilometers away. But now, many new water sources are found as the condition of the forest are becoming better,” said this lady – who also works as Tinatar Village Secretary.

A more detailed statement expressed by Sapuri, an administrator at the “Rimba Sari” Cooperative Forest Management Unit (FMU) from Pacitan, which had been declared to pass the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute Sustainable Community Based Forest Management (PHBML-LEI) certification with remark on March 3, 2010

“The commitment to achieve ‘Green Pacitan’ will surely be strengthened with the acknowledgement on ecolabel certified community forest,” he said.

An outreach officer from the Pacitan District Office of Forestry and Plantation, Luwarno, added that the process to reach the current state of Pacitan forests and achieve LEI ecolabel certificate was not an easy and short one.

“It was surely not easy to build people’s awareness to a point where they voluntarily perform tree plantings. However, we have reached that point,” said the officer who has been working in Punung Sub District since 1984.

Another outreach officer, Wardoyo, added that in 1971, due to the difficulties in mobilizing the community to plant trees, aeroplane seeding was performed to sow hardwood tree seeds on steep karst.

Meanwhile, the Head of Pacitan District Office of Forestry and Plantation, Ir. Suyatno, M.M. explained that his office has the vision to be the pioneer in utilizing community forests and plantations as the source of livelihood and economy activity of the people in the area.

In addition to the above objective, it is also to increase the contributions of community forests and plantations to the community’s and the local government’s economy as well as to boost community empowerment and participation in forest development meovement.

It is also to enhance the functions of community forests and plantations in sustaining the community’s livelihood through natural resources rehabilitation, conservation and preservation efforts, as well as protecting and securing community forests and plantations.

Main commodities
According to Suyatno, Pacitan has a huge size of possible community forest area. Around 67,324 hectares (ha) or 97.1% of forest in Pacitan is community forests. “While only 2.9% or 2010 ha is state-owned forests” he said.

Community forests in Pacitan yield around 250 m3 of wood per day; with teak, pine, albizia, acacia, and mahogany as the main products.

Suyatno also explained that farmer’s awareness on tree planting and maintenance had accelerated the development of forest area in the region. Furthermore, the markets for forest and plantation commodities are still as promising as before due to the diversity of forest plant species.

”The quality of our wood products is well-received by market. And local government supports are also available, as shown by the achievement of the Head of Pacitan District as the 1st National Winner in forest administrator competition,” he said.

LEI spokesperson, Indra Setia Dewi explained that Rimba Sari FMU in Pacitan District – declared by the Decision Making Expert Team to pass the certification with remark on March 3, 2010 – managed a total size of 1,073 hectares of community forest in 13 villages. The forest is dominated by teak, mahogany and acacia trees.

This success is the result of a multi-party collaboration, from among others the community which managed the community forest and also the Association for Economic and Social Study and Development (Perhimpunan untuk Studi dan Pengembangan Ekonomi dan Sosial — PERSEPSI) as the guarantor and partner.

“This serves as a proof that many community forests in Indonesia are managed sustainably and that communities in Indonesia are capable of implementing sustainable forest management practices,” Indra said.

Meanwhile, LEI’s Accreditation Manager, Gladi Hardiyanto added that Maisons du Monde (MdM) – a French-based company – had committed to use wooden furniture with ecolabel certificate from Indonesia.

The products include those extracted from LEI-certified community forests in Gunung Kidul District, Jogjakarta Special Province.

According to Gladi, PT Jawa Furni Lestari or commonly known as “Rumah Jawa”, which had passed the chain-of-custody certification using LEI scheme and obtained the chain-of-custody certificate from PT TuV International Indonesia, is an industry that collected products from community forests.

To promote environment conservation, LEI invited local journalists from various provinces for a field visit to directly observe the field activities, starting from the community forests to the manufacturing of LEI-CoC-certified wooden products.

For three days (21–23/4), LEI held a serie of workshops and field visits to community forests with the aim to provide an insight for the participants on sustainable forest management practice capable of supporting community development and environment conservation efforts.

In addition, this can also introduce LEI ecolabel certification in sustainable community forests and LEI-certified wood products in Wonogiri, Pacitan, and Gunung Kidul areas.(T.A035)

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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.