Optimization of Land Utilization of Community Forestry in Ngarip Village, Ulu Belu Sub Distric, Tanggamus

Abstract

Poverty has been considered as one of factors which caused forest degradation in rural area. About 63% of poor communities live in rural area and most of them are farmer. This study aims to identify cropping patterns, formulate optimal cropping pattern based on social, economic, and ecological aspects, and then identify development prospect of community forestry based on farmer’s perspective. This research was conducted in Desa Ngarip, Lampung province for 2 months. Data were analyzed by linear programming and descriptive method. The result showed that agroforestry system in this area were grouped into 16 cropping patterns. Based on economic and ecological consideration, all optimal cropping patterns achieved ecological criteria but not all profitable. The patterns consisted of commercial plants: 150 plants per hectare for high strata, 1.600 plants per hectare for middle strata and 2.400 plants per hectare for lower strata. With such an approach, it was revealed that the best result was found at cropping pattern 15.The profit was Rp 36.300.000 which was highest profit of all optimal cropping pattern types and could support a life worth living. Furthermore, through descriptive analysis, community forestry had good prospect to be develoved based on farmer’s perspective.