Incorporating Social and Natural Science in the Restoration of an Indonesia Conservation Forest : A Case Study from Jambi

Abstract

Ind onesia, with its 1 30.6 million ha of designated forest,1 ha s the th ird l argest area of\ tropical forest in the world. According to the Indonesia Constitu tion, the forest area is admini stered by the Government through the Ministry of Forestry (MoF) as a national resource. The total forest area is divided into 55.6 million ha of conservation and protec­ tion forest and 57.2 million ha of limited produc tion or product ion forest. A [Uith cr 14.0 million ha have been identi fied as bei ng available to be cl eared and used for other purposes (MoF 2006). The natural production forest has been commercia lly utilized since 1960, becoming one of the main dtivers of the I ndone sian economy from 1980 to 1990 when a substant ial global market share of the tropi cal ti mber trad e was secured th rough exports of logs, sawn timber, plywood and other forest products. c However. the exploi tat ion of these natural forests ha s also become one of the ma in drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Ind onesia. During the period 1985-1997 the deforestation rate was 1.87 mi ll ion ha/year. It then increased in 1997-2000 when 2.83 million ha/ycar of the designated national forests were cleared