The emergence of many new water springs, lush greenery and fresh air as well as deterrent to global warming, are some of the ecological benefits.

However, a more difficult challenge awaits namely forest sustainability, especially when the woods extracted from the forest are to be exported.

World market, particularly that of European, is very cautious to non-certified wood products. In 1990s, encouraged by the environmentalists, Indonesian wooden products and furniture were boycotted due to the fact that they were extracted from forests with questionable sustainability status. Forest sustainability is proven with a sustainable forest management certificate.

There are several institutions working in the field of sustainable community forest management certification. One of them is the Indonesian Ecolabeling Institute (LEI), which was established in Bogor. Founded in 1998, LEI has performed certification on 1.1 million hectares of natural forests; 453,000 hectares of plantation forests; 21,000 hectares of community forest and indigenous community forests throughout Indonesia, including in Wonogiri and Pacitan.

To obtain sustainable forest certification, the community members that manage the forest must establish a forest management unit (FMU). As an example, community in Batuwarno formed Communication Forum for Certification Farmer (Forum Komunikasi Petani Sertifikasi — FKPS) Selopuro and FKPS Sumberejo. In Pacitan, the community has formed Rimba Sari FMU and Kelompok Wana Rejo Asri in Sragen. Certification requirements include a series of tests and field inspections.

Despite the internationally-acknowledged standards, the certificate is yet to bring significant benefits to the forest communities. This is due to the facts that first, the plants are still young and have not reached the felling age. Second, only a limited area of forest that is currently certified which lead to limited public expose for the concern that it will bring a considerable number of demands for forest products which can threaten forests sustainability.

The future market for such forest products looks very promising, particularly with the increase of global communities’ awareness on environment sustainability and the legality of wood products. “Another challenge to face is how to create other sources of livelihood for the owners of community forests so that they do not solely depend on the forest to sustain their live. Based on our experiences, people still perform felling-when-needed habit. Such habit needs to be changed,” said Gladi Hariyanto of LEI.

Persepsi’s Vice Director of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment, Taryanto Wijaya – who has been assisting to the people in Batuwarno and Pacitan, admits that the felling-when-needed habit is a threat in achieving sustainable community forests. – By: Suharsih.

The drilled-well in Sumberejo Village, Batuwarno Subdistrict, Wonogiri was made in 2000. The spring that was founded by the local villagers can produce up to hundreds meter cubic of water per second.

Thanks to the spring, no less than 680 families in the village and surrounding areas can now enjoy a year-long access to sufficient amount of clean water. They no longer need to walk kilometers away to fetch water.

What more surprising is the fact that there are still more than 22 unexplored and unexploited springs in the village and another 16 in Selopuro Village.

All emerge after the community members of the two villages transform their land into community forests.

“Before the community forests grown here, the land was arid and barren. Water spring was located far from the villages. However, due to the reforestation, water now seems to spring everywhere,” said Katmo, a villager from Selopuro.

Communal Work
Persepsi’s Vice Director, Taryanto Wijaya – who has been assisting to the people in Selopuro and Sumberejo in their endeavor to conserve the environment, said that it was the community who found the spring.

Together they pushed aside rocks, drilled a well and installed a 6x450 watts water pump.

“A team with a task to manage the well and evenly distributed the water to the villagers has also been established here,” said Taryanto.

Meanwhile, in Selopuro – according to a local tree-planting pioneer, Misman – people built a dam to store water produced by the spring. Villagers can then make use of the water for their daily needs and to irrigate their field. Also according to Misman, he and other villagers need to transport 1.168 trucks of stone to build the dam.

Other positive impacts of the community forests – apart from the newly emerged water springs – are new work opportunities. So far, the community has processed twigs of teak, mahogany, and other hardwood trees into handicrafts. Thus, they can benefit from the forests without logging them.

For many, twigs are useless waste or, at the utmost, used only as firewood. However, for Siman, they can be collected and processed into various artistic furniture.

Twigs are usually made into sofas, cabinets or a set of table and chairs. The 5-cm in diameter twigs are arranged, assembled, and formed into furniture. Some decorated with glass.

“We are currently finishing the order from PT Jawafurni Lestari in Yogyakarta. Our business enterprise is run by 6–8 employees,” said Siman.

PT Jawafurni Lestari is a company that specializes in exporting furniture made from certified wood. Siman is yet to widely market his products to other companies. – By: Suharsih

For Misman, 59, a father of three, the increasing number of children going to school is evidence that standards of living in the village are improving.

“During my time, only two people, including me, completed junior high school. Just to have food on the table was difficult, let alone attend school,” he said.

Local people are becoming aware that forest conservation runs parallel to rising living standards through the sustainable forest management certificate program.

According to Slamet Riyadi Gadas, who heads environment and forest standardization affairs at the Forestry Ministry, community forests can obtain sustainable forest management certification provided they meet three conditions. Forests must be kept green and the socioeconomic value and ecological function of the forest must be maintained in order to obtain certification.

Slamet said that certification efforts were first initiated in 1990 when European countries boycotted tropical timber products because they were not managed in a sustainable manner.

The certification system was started in 2002 by the non-profit institution the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI).

To endorse whether or not a community forest warrants a certificate, the LEI has appointed four institutions responsible, PT Mutu Agung Lestar (PT MAL), PT TuV International Indonesia, PT Sucofindo and PT SGS Indonesia.

Since its initiation in 2002, it has so far issued LEI certificates to 10 sustainable community forest management units in Java, spanning a total of 21,000 hectares.

“Ecolabelling certification is now part of the world trading system and as a member of the World Trade Organization [WTO], Indonesia should comply with the standardization.

“The market of forest products is very promising and its economic value is higher because consumers are now aware of sustainable forest management,” said Slamet.

“It is more economically viable and people’s welfare will definitely improve with sustainable forest management,” said Siman, who is the leader of an accredited farmers’ forum.

Since carrying out reforestation to make their forests the first to be certified as a community forest in Indonesia in 2004, villagers in Selopuro have rapidly improved their welfare. There are now 22 sources of water available for more than 21,000 people in the village.

“Before the reforestation, the area was barren and the only water source was far away. The residents had to spend most of their days fetching water,” Siman said.

Now, they can use their spare time to engage in productive activities, such as raising livestock.

As many as 80 percent of the villagers currently own at least two heads of cattle and five goats
per family.

To meet their daily needs, the residents cultivate side crops among the woods.

“Villagers earn an average of Rp 600,000 [US$60], excluding proceeds from livestock breeding. They save the money from selling timber whose proceeds are bigger,” said Misman.

“You can calculate the yields, excluding profits from processing forest timber, and see that reforestation is more beneficial,” said Misman.

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.

Opened by Salahudin Wahid, also known as Gus Solah, and the representative of Lapindo mud victim children, the event took the theme of We Care. With this theme StoS Film Festival 2010 raises the solidarity and involvement from the Southern countries community and also upstream and downstream community members to save the environment and the victimized community. As one of its public involvement, StoS Film Festival 2010 held an environmental documentary movie competition.

The Indonesia Ecolabeling Institute took the part in the competition. In collaboration with KOMSEPSI Mataram, LEI presented the movie titled “Satu Harapan” (One Hope).

Directed by Yuli Andari, the movie presents community forest management practice in Sesaot, Nusa Tenggara Barat. Anton Susilo, the camera person, tells the story of how natural resources management, especially forest resources, is closely related to the problems of health education and gender faced by the community in the area. The movie focuses on the character of Ibu Sapiah. Ibu sapiah has to work hard to sustain her life and the life of her two children. She relies on the non forest products she can obtain from the forest she manages. Sapiah’s character is chosen as she is able to create an awareness that there are community members who have been marginalized due to the minimum access to forest resources. The movie also illustrate how difficult Sapiah’s life is due to the fact that she is also a mother who has to work in both private and public realms. The clear message of the movie is that the complex problem of forest resources management must be holistically approached using cross sector method, not only by improving the system and forest production technique.

On January 24, 2009 StoS Film Festival 2010 awarded Satu Harapan as the winner of the documentary movie section and it is also entitled to receive the South to South Film Festival Award. Satu Harapan was selected as the best movie out of the total 69 movies from varios places in Indonesia. In addition to the received award, Satu Harapan is also entitled to be awarded with cash money. The cash money is given to Ibu Sapiah so that she can use it to support the education of her two children. This is also our appreciation the Ibu Sapiah for the the inspirational story she has given.

Many parties contribute to the movie’s success, and as one of the communication media forms, Satu Harapan is expected to provide spirit to LEI, KONSEPSI Mataram and other constituents to be more creative in conveying their mission of fair and sustainable resources management practices.

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