Perception and Participation of Local People in Community Based Forest Plantation Program in Sarolangun Regency, Jambi

Abstract

The failure of supply timbers to keep pace with industrial demand and conflicts over land property rights in community level have increased the number of forest and land degradation especially in production forest. In an effort to address this problem, the Indonesian Government introduced a new community-based forest plantation program in 2007 called Hutan Tanaman Rakyat (HTR), which allows local communities to have rights and incentives for developing timber plantations on state forest lands. The objectives of this study are to understand local perceptions on HTR regulations, to identify their participation in HTR program, to identify factors influencing their decisions to join the program, and to analyze the correlation between their social economic characteristics and perceptions with their participations in HTR activities. Data and information was gathered from a survey of 81 households from Taman Bandung, Seko Besar and Lamban Sigatal villages in Sarolangun Regency, Jambi. The results of this study showed that the perception level on HTR regulations of local community is in middle level except for regulation about inheritance, rights and obligations which are still in the lower level. Due to relatively new program which started in 2009, the participation level of local community in HTR is still low. This study also showed that ownership of land in HTR area, distance to the area, local perceptions of land allocation, HTR schemes, time period and concession area, inheritance law, rights and obligations, local institution, and socialization activities have significantly influencing people decision in joining HTR. Based on logistic regression models, the perception variables are better in explaining someone’s opportunity to join HTR than social economic variables, but both variables have high correlation with participation level.

Untuk mengatasi permasalahan kerusakan hutan terutama di kawasan hutan produksi, pemerintah berusaha melibatkan masyarakat dalam pengelolaan hutan tersebut dengan mencanangkan kebijakan Hutan Tanaman Rakyat (HTR) pada tahun 2007. Untuk mengetahui apakah kebijakan HTR telah sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan kemampuan masyarakat, maka diperlukan kajian terhadap ketentuan-ketentuan pelaksanaan HTR dari perspektif masyarakat sebagai pelaku utama. Hal ini penting agar implementasi kebijakan tersebut bukan hanya berlaku di atas kertas tapi dapat bersifat realistis di lapangan. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk (1) mengkaji persepsi masyarakat terhadap ketentuan-ketentuan dalam pelaksanaan HTR, (2) mengidentifikasi dan menganalis faktor-faktor yang berpengaruh dalam keputusan masyarakat untuk ikut serta dalam program HTR, (3) mengidentifikasi tingkat partisipasi masyarakat dalam setiap kegiatan HTR, dan (4) mengukur dan menganalisis hubungan antara karakteristik sosial ekonomi dan persepsi masyarakat dengan tingkat partisipasinya dalam kegiatan HTR di Kabupaten Sarolangun.