The concept of community empowerment in Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP), Musi Rawas Regency, South Sumatera - Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is blessed with unimaginable natural resources and abundant biodiversity. In order to preserve the resources, a proper and responsible management should be engendered. One of the conservation areas that has been established is Kerinci Seblat National Park (TKNS), that occupied an area of 1.372 million ha, located across four provinces from Jambi, Bengkulu, South Sumatera, and West Sumatera, and the national park also covered 13 district which one of them is Musi Rawas Regency, South Sumatera. Various studies have reported that the local people are still living under severe poverty line. In Musi Rawas regency, an area of 34 administrative villages, where TKNS also belongs to this district, 26 villages are categorized as underdeveloped spots that inhabited by 39,877 poor people or equal as 43 % of the total population. According to Nugraha (2005), the powerlessness of people that resulted into poverty is not caused by cultural or natural factors, but structural unfairness. In general, the factors can be divided into two classes, internal and external factors. From the analysis, it is found that the factors of natural, human, and socio-culture resources with high indigenous wisdom cannot be managed optimally to unleash local people from helpless situation. It is due to the low education and healthcare status, limited availability of employments that are environmentally friendly, low participation in managing the national park, geographic condition, and limited infrastructure that triggered limited access to social and economic institution, lastly it is about poor perception of society towards conservation area. The existence of external factors for instance supporting legislation, government regulation, training, and financial bodies that strengthen community empowerment is still nonchalant. These phenomena are mostly caused by low capacity of government officials such as HR Manager, and financial resources management. Furthermore, by using Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) and SWOT analysis, the concept of social empowerment can be formulated. This concept covers the Integrated-Collaborative Community Empowerment, the practical aspect of empowerment that can detach the society from weakening internal and external factors so that the society can be more prepared to seize the opportunities that are benevolent to increase their life status such as infrastructure development, economic services, environment services of National Park (clean water and medicinal plants) including carbon binding to sustain the conservation area of TKNS, human capital improvement and increased the community participation.

Indonesia sangat kaya akan berbagai sumberdaya alam, termasuk keanekaragaman hayati yang terkandung di dalamnya. Kekayaan sumberdaya alam tersebut harus dikelola dengan baik dan bertanggung jawab agar tidak rusak atau bahkan punah. Pengelolaan yang bertanggung jawab diantaranya adalah melalui kebijakan pengembangan kawasan konservasi yang ditujukan untuk mengusahakan kelestarian sumberdaya alam hayati dan ekosistemnya dalam rangka mendukung upaya peningkatan kesejahteraan masyarakat dan mutu kehidupan manusia secara berkelanjutan. Salah satu kawasan konservasi yang telah ditetapkan adalah Taman Nasional Kerinci Seblat (TNKS) dengan luas 1.372.000 ha, terbentang di empat Provinsi, yaitu Jambi 422.190 ha (40%), Bengkulu 310.910 ha (21%), Sumatera Selatan 281.120 ha (14%), dan Sumatera Barat 353.780 ha (25%), yang mencakup 13 daerah kabupaten/kota, salah satunya adalah Kabupaten Musi Rawas Provinsi Sumatera Selatan. Berbagai kajian melaporkan bahwa ribuan penduduk yang bermukim di kawasan TNKS, terperangkap dalam jerat kemiskinan dan tidak berdaya. Ketidakberdayaan masyarakat bersumber dari faktor kemiskinan, baik kemiskinan alamiah maupun kemiskinan struktural. Secara struktural, masyarakat tidak memperoleh kesempatan untuk berperan serta, tidak berdaya dan kian lemahnya akses terhadap aktifitas pembangunan, sehingga mereka tetap pada kondisi marjinal, dalam kemiskinan, pendidikan rendah, kondisi kesehatan buruk serta ketidakberdayaan. Khusus wilayah Kabupaten Musi Rawas, dari 34 desa yang di dalam desanya terdapat TNKS menunjukkan bahwa sebanyak 26 desa merupakan desa tertinggal, yang dihuni oleh penduduk miskin sejumlah 39.877 jiwa atau 43% dari total penduduk. Menurut Nugraha, (2005) ketidakberdayaan yang melahirkan kemiskinan masyarakat desa di kawasan konservasi bukan disebabkan karena faktor budaya (cultural) atau alam (natural) namun lebih disebabkan karena faktor struktural. Secara garis besar faktor penyebab ketidakberdayaan masyarakat dapat dikelompokkan menjadi dua, yaitu faktor internal dan eksternal.