Analysis of policy making process and implementation of decentralized management of protected forest policy

Abstract

Base on Regulation 38/2007, the management of protected forests decentralized to regency government. Even though decentralization policy of forest management on protected forests has been enforced, deforestation still continues to occur. This indicates that the policy is not effective. The ineffectiveness of the policy can be caused by the policy itself or failures in its implementation. Content of a policy is closely related to the process of policy making itself. Currently, political framework of the decentralization policy formulation in the management of natural resources and environment (including protected forest management) is based on administrative approach rather than ecosystem approach. This research aims to: i) identify the policy making process of decentralized management of protected forest, ii) analyze the gap between decentralization policy and its implementation, iii) analyze the performance of regency government in managing protected forests, and iv) analyze the appropriate form of decentralized management of protected forests in accordance with Forest Management Unit (FMU/KPH) concept. The research was conducted in three regencies within Batanghari watershed area, namely East Tanjung Jabung regency (downstream), Sarolangun regency (middle stream), and South Solok regency (upstream). Qualitative methods were used to analyze policy making process, discourse analysis, assumption analysis, and qualitative descriptive. Besides quantitative method was used to conduct scoring, in the assesment of regency government performance, economic and ecological benefits, and social capital of communities around the forest areas. In order to support the assesment of regency government performance, analysis of forest cover changes was carried out including forest cover in year 1990, 2000 and 2009. The research showed that there are three discourses in policy making process on authority division, namely i) the democratic discourse, ii) the economic discourse and iii) the economic and democratic discourses. It is difficult to implement externality narative in the process of authority division policy making. Redefinition of externalities and interdependencies can be used as narratives of new policies to improve the policy division of authority among government levels. There still exists some gaps between decentralized policy and its implementation, where each stakeholder has not play its role appropriately yet. The average score of performance of three regencies governments in the management of protected forest is relatively low, which is showed by the high deforestation rate. Theoritically, there are four options of FMU institution, namely: the the central government FMU through delegation to regency goverment, the provincial FMU, the regency FMU, and the national/regionally owned enterprises (BUMN/BUMD). Policy of asymmetric decentralization is an option in decentralised management of protected forest, because forestry is an option matter.

perlindungan sistem penyangga kehidupan untuk mengatur tata air, mencegah banjir, mencegah erosi, mencegah intrusi air laut dan memelihara kesuburan tanah. Hutan lindung merupakan sumberdaya milik bersama (common pool resources). Pengelolaan hutan lindung menimbulkan interdependensi atau ketergantungan antar kabupaten di bagian hulu dan kabupaten di bagian hilir. Menurut PP 38 Tahun 2007, pengelolaan hutan lindung didesentralisasikan kepada Pemerintah Kabupaten. Desentralisasi pengelolaan hutan lindung meliputi kegiatan: inventarisasi hutan, rehabilitasi hutan, perlindungan hutan, pemberian perijinan pemanfaatan kawasan hutan, pemungutan hasil hutan bukan kayu yang tidak dilindungi dan tidak termasuk dalam appendix CITES dan pemanfaatan jasa lingkungan skala kabupaten. Setelah sekian lama kebijakan desentralisasi pengelolaan hutan lindung diberlakukan, deforestasi terus terjadi. Hal tersebut mengindikasikan bahwa kebijakan tersebut tidak efektif. Ketidakefektifan kebijakan terjadi karena isi kebijakan itu sendiri atau karena implementasinya. Isi kebijakan terkait dengan proses pembuatan kebijakan. Kerangka politik perumusan kebijakan desentralisasi dalam pengelolaan sumberdaya alam dan lingkungan hidup (termasuk diantaranya pengelolaan hutan lindung) sampai saat ini berdasarkan pendekatan administratif, belum berdasarkan pendekatan ekosistem. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk :1) mengetahui proses pembuatan kebijakan desentralisasi pengelolaan hutan lindung, 2) menganalisis kesenjangan (gap) antara kebijakan desentralisasi dan implementasinya di lapangan, 3) menganalisis kinerja Pemerintah Kabupaten berdasarkan syarat-syarat yang harus dipenuhi untuk berjalannya desentralisasi pengelolaan hutan lindung, dan 4) menganalisis bentuk desentralisasi pengelolaan hutan lindung yang sesuai dengan dengan konsep KPH.