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.

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.

After a long preparation to apply for the LEI certification assessment, the Decision Making Panel from PT Mutu Agung Lestari, a LEI accredited certification body, stated that both community forests have passed the LEI certification assessment on Community Based Forest Management (CBFM). The Panel stated that they are capable of managing their forests areas in a sustainable way.

Argo Bancak, a forest management unit that manages community forest of 600 hectares in 3 villages, while WARAS, a forest management unit that manages community forests of approximately 1,404 hectares in 8 villages. The community forests grow on the sites owned by the farmer members in their yards, fields, and forests.
The sites are dominated by Teak wood, Mahogany, Sengon and Acacia trees, with an annual log rate of 1,572 m3/year in Argo Bancak and 5,056 m3/year in Waras.

The achievement of both management units is also a result of hard work and commitments from the local stakeholders, such as local NGOs and local government. The preparation of the management units to apply for the LEI certification assessment was carried out by the local preparation team, collaborating with local NGO namely PERSEPSI, which supported by the Forestry Office of East Java and Central Java provinces, as well as Standardization and Environmental Center from the Ministry of Forestry.

The support was given as commitment as well as financial support for the preparation and assessment of LEI certification process. During the assessment process, the supporters followed the whole assessment processes starting from the site survey to decision making. Direct support from the wider parties particularly from the regional and central government (through the Ministry of Forestry, Pustandling) becomes the starting point to extend the areas of certified community forest to achieve sustainable forest and community welfare.

According to Mr. Tirsan Yusuf, the Head of Forestry Office in Magetan, the success of Argo Bancak in passing the LEI certification has encourage other parties to continuously implement sustainable community forest management system. As mentioned by Mr. Wakidi– the Head of Forestry Office in Sragen — the Forestry Office will continue to prepare other community forests for LEI certification assessment, as well as establishing collaboration with other parties for marketing. According to Mr. Bibit– the Chief of Waras and representative of Argo Bancak– at first, they did not expect their management units to be able to pass the LEI certification. Therefore, aside of feeling relieved and grateful, they feel that it is their responsibility now to preserve the community forest in their areas.

The success achieved by both community forest management units has expanded the total LEI certified community forest areas. More than 16,700 hectare of community and indigenous/traditional forest areas, managed by 8 (eight) community forest management units have obtained the LEI certificates of sustainable managed forest. The area distribution also expands, covering Central Java, DI Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan, and East Java provinces. Other community forests in other regencies in East Java, Central Java, Jogjakarta and West Java are preparing themselves to apply for the LEI certification process. The total sustainable forest managed by local community members will be expanding in the future.

At that time, he added, two community forest located in Selopuro and Sumber rejo villages in the regency of Batuwarno, Wonogiri were the only ecolabel-certified forest areas. This means that the woods produced from the community forest areas were processed in a sustainable way. PERSEPSI, an NGO based in Klaten, provide advocacy for the farmers performing the SCBFM practices.

According to Teguh Suprapto, the total certified forest area in Selopuro reaches the size of 262.77 ha with a total farmer of 682 hh. In Sumber Rejo, the total certified forest area is 549.68 ha in size with 1640 hh of farmers. The total size of the certified forest is 812ha. Apart from teakwood and mahogany, the main plants in the forest are acacia, trembesi and mindi.

At the moment, the total production rate resulted from the certified forest is considered lower than the actual demand of certified wood. Based on the above fact, there have been efforts to extend the size of community forest area to be submitted to Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI). There are four villages proposed, namely Girikikis, Sejati, Tirtosworo and Guwotirto, all located in Giriwoyo Regency. The area lies along Gajahmungkur riverbank and considered as rain water catchments area.

Limited
The total size of the community forest areas in the four village reaches the number of 2700ha consists of field and yard areas in where 5000 farmers are involved. Off course the management of the community forest areas must be conducted in compliance with LEI’s standard.

According to Taryanto, one of PERSEPSI staffs, must take environmental preservation into account. For example the farmers in the area should only be allowed to perfom selective cutting due to ecological preservation aspects. In Selopuro and SUmber Rejo, a farmer who cut one tree must replace it by planting 10–25 of the same tree species and maintain them.

The regulation has been determined and endorsed since 1970 through a rembug desa meeting. It is hoped that the regulation can be adopted and strengthten in a Perdes (village regulation).

At the moment several industries become the customers of Wonogiri forest certified products. One of the industry is PT.Novika from Denpasar. “The problem we have is, the total wood production resulted from the community forest is still far too low that it fails to fulfill the market demand. This still happens despite the fact that the price of ecolabel certified wood products are 30% higher compared to that of non-certified wood products”.

In a separate occasion, Joko Widodo, the Chairman of Surakarta Furniture and Souvenir Exporter Association admits the low production rate of ecolabel certified woods despite the fact that there have been many companies requiring certified woods for their furniture products.

He added that, a few years a go he regularly export furniture for Carrefour hypermart with a total rate of eight containers/ month. Environmental activists, such as Greenpeace, protested the products due to the non-certified material. Two years a go Carrefour decided to order furniture from Brazil. At the moment Joko only export furniture for middle to low industries in which ecolabel is not a big issue.