MEMPAWAH (Tribun Pontianak) – Head of Forest Preparation Section for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), Irwan Hermawan conducted technical verification (vertek) in two villages in Mempawah Regency, namely Sekabuk Village and Suak Barangan Village, Sadaniang District, with the company of Gemawan as the assistant of the proposed village forest and the provincial forestry department of West Kalimantan and BPKH of Mempawah Regency which was held for two days, on Saturday (3/8/2019) and Monday (5/8/2019).
With the social forestry program, the communities living in the forest areas will be given management rights for 35 years.
It means that all the potential in the forest can be used by the community, whether it is honey, rattan or fruits.
In addition to granting management rights, it also has an objective in order to make the people living around the forest areas be able to optimize the potential of the existing forests and are expected to improve the community’s economy.
“So, the proposal for Village Forest is merely for the right of management for 35 years. Moreover, it is clear that this is not ownership right because forest areas are state land, and they are given only the management access, “he said in a press release delivered on Wednesday (7/8/2019).
During those 35 years, his party will evaluate it every five years. Particularly related to the management development carried out by the community in this forest area, there are decline and rise in the quality of the forest area.
This Vertek is a cross check by the technical team in the field, especially regarding administrative requirements such as the membership structure of the Village Forest Management Institution (LPHK) which will become a management institution, correspondence on village forest proposals as well as direct check on areas that are made into Village Forest.
In Sekabuk Village, the proposed forest area is around 689 hectares with the status of Permanent Production Forest area.
Meanwhile, Suak Barangan Village has an area of 3,550.47 hectares with the status of a Protected Forest, Production Forest and Limited Production Forest.
Village Forest and Social Forestry
In Mempawah Regency, there were two more villages which had previously done vertek, namely Bun Bun Village and Ansiap Village.
Irwan mentioned that the community was very enthusiastic in proposing this idea, but even so there were several requirements which immediately had to be fixed. For example, related to village boundaries which are still in discussion between Suak Barangan and Ansiap Villages.
“So here, there are some requirements which need to be fixed. It also needs to be conveyed as our consideration to proceed it, “he said.
The head of Suak Barangan Village stated that with the area of the proposed village forest reaching up to four thousand hectares, to him this area can later be managed by the LPHD.
For example, sugar palms that are still widely found in this area, he hopes that the issuance of Village Forest Decrees in his village later can be used as an initial step for the community, through LPHD to process them to be, for example, processed brown sugar.
With this decree, he was sure that the help from the government, NGOs or supporting organizations, as well as the private sectors would easily got into the village.
Not only in tool aid, this assistance can also be in capacity building or training for the community in processing this palm sugar into products to their marketing.
Similar to durian and rubber gardens. So far, the development of potential around the forest by village communities is still stagnant.
He said that with the assistance from Gemawan Institute, besides being able to propose village forest proposals, Gemawan also had quite much contribution in community capacity building as the preparation when the decree of Village Forest is issued.
“So during this time, we only manage it manually. There is no special assistance. Therefore, with this proposal of social forestry with Gemawan’s assistance,” he said.
For West Kalimantan itself, it is targeted to achieve 1.2 million hectares in order to accelerate the realization of social forestry.
“In the realization, from these 1.2 million hectares, the area which has been realized is about 300 more hectares, and even then there has been 3 revisions of Social Forestry Indicative Map,” he said.
In its work, a team of working group has been formed from the forestry department, BPKH, assisting organizations and related agencies. He said, the social forestry proposals were spread across 14 regencies and cities.
The area with the most proposals was Kubu Raya Regency with 10 proposals. In supporting the management of social forestry, he said, his party has prepared DAK funds which will be used to purchase facilities and infrastructure to support social forestry.
“For example, the purchase of speedboats, motorbikes and three-wheeled transport motorbikes to support the increase of community income in forest areas,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, the CO staff of Gemawan Institute, Lani Ardiansyah, said that after with vertek and the issuance of village forest decree, his party will work together with the community to explore the potential in the forest area.
Gemawan Institute will also build networks with many parties in order to encourage the development of the environmental service quality.
“For example, in the future we will try to facilitate the community to prepare LPHD programs where this program is in line with the expectation of our governor to create independent villages. The previously underdeveloped villages are slowly proceed to become developing ones. If possible, until they become developed villages, “he concluded.
This article has been released on tribunpontianak.co.id with the title Optimizjng Village Forests To Become Independent Villages https://pontianak.tribunnews.com/2019/08/07/pengoptimalan-hutan-desa-menuju-desa-mandiri?page=4.
Writer: Destriadi Yunas Jumasani
Editor: Ishak