Watershed and Water Resources Management in Indonesia
An Overview of Forest Degradation and Present Situation of Water Resources Supply andEfficient Utilization for Human Survival and Bioproduction1)
Hendrayanto2)
INTRODUCTION
The total area of Indonesia is estimated about 5,193,250 km2 and the sea territory is about
3,166,163 km2. Indonesia is an archipelago nation consisted of about 17,508 islands with fivemain islands and some 30 smaller islands.
The climate of Indonesia mostly is tropical humid climate characterized by two seasons, thedry and rainy season. The monsoon type climate changes approximately every six months,
where the dry season is from June to September and the rainy season from December toMarch, although in recent years weather patterns have been somewhat disrupted [11].
Indonesia is blessed with abundant rainfall and has approximately 6 percent of the world’s
fresh water resources equivalent to about 2,500 km3 of annual renewable water resources.
However the rainfall transformation into run-off become increasing by time due thedecreasing function of land system to regulate the appropriate water balance. Recent situation
figures about 60% of the rainfalls become run-off water [17].
In the past, the landscape of Indonesia mostly is covered by natural rain forest as the climatic
climax forest which is characterized by high vegetation density, multi canopy stories, highorganic matter decomposition, high bio diversity, high economic and ecology values, but
actually high risk for environment when it is utilized. In the climax stage, natural rain forest
regulates the water balance optimally in term of economic utilized water. Water is available
appropriately in quantity and quality within the years for many purposes.
Population growth with the annual rate (1990-2000) of 1,49% reach up the Indonesia
population of about 206,264,595 people in 2000 [1] causes increasing the needs of water,---------------------------1

Presented in 2004 Tsukuba Asian Seminar on Agricultural Education (TASAE)/UNESCO-APEID, November 9 - 15, 2004.
Agricultural and Forestry Research Center University of Tsukuba, Japan.
2
Laboratory of Forest Influence, Department of Forest Management, Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University(IPB) Bogor, Indonesia.

1but this increasing needs ironically followed by the decreasing of water availability especiallyin term of quality and timing which are caused by the individuals and in grouped humanbehaviors and accelerated by the behavior of government policies which is actually hoped toregulate the individuals and groups behavior to create the appropriate water supply-demandbalance, but in facts many cases reversibly toward decreasing water supply.
Population growth also increases the need of land which push the forested lands areconverted into other land uses. Conversion of natural rain forest into monoculture forest
plantation, settlement, annual crop fields, etc. without considering the land capability reduces
the function of land system for water balance regulation which shift water balance component,
where the number of run-off water increasing while the infiltrated water decreasing. This
causes the frequent severe flood and drought, that mean, the amount of available or utilized
water is decreasing. In other hand the available water is utilized inappropriately. Water isutilized without control, limited waste (used) water treatment, and polluted by liquid andsolid waste disposal.
This paper presents the forest degradation in relation to present situation of water resources
supply, and water utilization for human survival and bioproduction in Indonesia and the roleof agro–environmental education.

FOREST DEGRADATION
Indonesia as recently as 1950 was still densely forested (Table 1). Forty percent of the forests
existing in 1950 were cleared in the following 50 years. In round numbers, forest cover fell
from 162 million ha to 98 million ha. The rate of forest loss is accelerating. On average,
about 1 million ha per year were cleared in the 1980s, rising to about 1.7 million ha per year
in the first part of the 1990s. Since 1996, deforestation appears to have increased to an
average of 2 million ha per year (Table 2). Forests have been almost entirely cleared in
Sulawesi and are predicted to disappear in Sumatra by 2005 and Kalimantan by 2010 if
current trends continue [3].

2Table 1. Forest Cover in 1950 (thousand ha)
IslandPRF, PF,
SWF, P

Tidal
ForestSecondaryForestTotal Forest

Sumatera
Kalimantan
Sulawesi
MalukuIrian Jaya
Jawa
Bali/Nusa Tenggara
Total% of Total land Area

33,400.0
47,500.0
14,700.0
6,9000.0
38,400.0
4,400.0
3,000.0
148,300.0
77%

570.0
700.0
50.0
—
2,300.070.0—
3,000.62%3,400.0
3,200.0
2,300.0
400.0
—
600.0
400.0
10,300.0
3.5 %37,370.0
51,400.0
17,050.0
7,300.040,700.0
5,070.0
3,400.0
162,290.0
84%

Savana, Grassland& Non-irrigated
Rice Fields
8,600.03,500.02,600.0
1,300.0300.0
4,100.05,600.0
26,000.013%

Irrigated
Rice Fields

Total
Land Area

900.0
—
—
—
—
4,100.0300.0
5,300.03%

46,900.0
54,900.0
19,700.08,600.0
41,000.0
13,300.0
9,300.0
193,700.0
100%

Source: Base on L.W.Hannibal, 1950, Vegetation Map of Indonesia, Planning Department, Forest Service, Jakarta, in: Forest Policies in Indonesia. The
Sustainable Development of Forest Lands (Jakarta, Indonesia: International Institute for Environment and Development and Government of Indonesia,1985). Vol. 3, Ch.4. (in: (FWI/GFW. 2002)
Notes: Numbers may not add due to rounding. - = zero or no data.
PRF: Primary Rainforest, PF : Protected Forest, SWF : Swamp and Wilderness Forest, P: Plantations

Table 2. Forest Area and Degradation, 1985-1997 (GFW estimates)
1985
IslandSumatera
Jawa
Bali
Nusa
Tenggara
East Timor
Kalimantan
Sulawesi
MalukuIrian Jaya
Total

1997

Land Area(Ha)

Forest Cover(Ha)

47,581,650
13,319,975
563,750

22,938,825
1,274,600
96,450Forestas %Land Area
48
10
17

6,645,625

686,775

1,498,500
53,721,675
18,757,575
7,848,175
41,405,500
191,342,425

374,400
39,644,025
11,192,950
5,790,800
35,192,725
117,191,550

ForestChange1985-1997(Ha)- 6,508,525
595,075- 19,750

ForestChange(%)

Land Area(Ha)

Forest Cover(Ha)

47,574,550
13,315,550
563,150

16,430,300
1,869,675
76,700Forestas %Land Area
35
14
14

10

6,639,925

450,4507- 236,325

- 34

25
74
60
74
85
61

1,497,525
53,721,225
18,753,025
7,846,600
41,403,850
191,315,400

9,850
29,637,475
7,950,900
5,820,975
33,382,475
95,682,800

1
55
42
74
81
50

- 364,550- 10,006,550- 3,242,050
30,175- 1,810,250- 21,562,750

- 97
- 25
- 29
1
-5
- 18

- 28
47
- 20

Source: 1985 forest area are GFW estimates based on UNEP-WCMC, “Tropical Moist Forest and Protected Areas: The Digital Files Version 1.”(Cambridge: World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Center for International Forestry Research, and Overseas Development Administration of the Unitied
Kingdom, 1996), 1997 forest area are GFW estimates based on the digital dataset developed by the Ministry of Forestry, Government of Indonesia and theWorld Bank (Jakarta, Indonesia: GOI and World Bank, 200). CD-ROM.
Notes: The apparent increase in forest area in Java between 1985-1997 is probably owing plantation establishment. The poor quality of the spatial data forplantation in Java did not allow verification of this assumption. For further information on calculation of forest area and problem associated with “no data”
areas, see Annex 3: Technical Notes, Table 2.3. (In: (FWI/GFW. 2002).

Decreasing forest coverage was pushed by government policies and forest management
practices that neglected or less considered the sustainability of land production and functions.
It has been occurring rapidly since the implementation of forestry policy to exploit the naturalforest resources in the seventies. In this era, Indonesia with the assistance from foreigncompanies (the involvement of the companies was possible due to Foreign Investment Law in1967) has become the biggest log exporter in the world. In 1983, 560 private companies held
the Forest Concession for about 65.14 million ha of the forest area, exceed the total area of
production forest as allocated in the Forest Land Use Allocation. Forest degradation in Jawa

3

was occurred long time before that policy implemented, that was begun in 19-century when
the colonial government opened the forest to be converted into large estate.
Log export restriction policy introduced by government in 1980 to promote plywood industry
development was successful and Indonesia become the biggest producer in the world forplywood and fulfills 75% of the world market demands at the time. However, forest resources
overestimate, weaknesses in the management and law system, and the plywood industries
overcapacity caused even higher acceleration rate of primary forest exploitation [6].
The policy to establish the industrial timber plantations (HTI) as a means of supplying
Indonesia’s booming demand for pulp and taking pressure off natural forests. Nearly 9
million ha of land, much of it natural forest has been allocated for HTI. This land has alreadybeen cleared or will be cleared soon. Yet only about 2 million ha have actually been plantedwith fast-growing species, mostly Acacia mangium to produce pulpwood. The implication: 7
million ha of former forest land are lying idle [3].
By the end of 1997, nearly 7 million ha of forest had been approved for conversion to estate
crop plantations, and this land has almost certainly been cleared. But the area actuallyconverted to oil palm plantations since 1985 is about 2.6 million hectares, while newplantations of other estate crops probably account for another 1-1.5 million ha. The
implication: 3 million ha of former forest land are lying idle [3].
The transmigration program that relocated people from densely populated Jawa to the outerislands was responsible for about 2 million ha of forest clearance between the 1960s and theprogram’s end in 1999. In addition, illegal migration and settlement by pioneer farmers at themargins of logging concessions, along roads, and even in national parks has greatly
accelerated since 1997. Small-scale farmers through shifting cultivation practices are
estimated be responsible for about 20 percent of forest loss about 4 million ha between 1985
and 1997 [3].
Large-scale plantation owners have turned to the use of fire as a cheap and easy means ofclearing forest for further planting. Deliberate fire-setting, in combination with unusually dry
conditions caused by El Niño events, has led to uncontrolled wildfires of unprecedented
extent and intensity. More than 5 million ha of forest burned in 1994 and another 4.6 million4ha burned in 1997-98. Some of this land is regenerating as scrubby forest, some has beencolonized by small-scale farmers, but there has been little systematic effort to restore forest
cover or establish productive agriculture.
Numerous forest-dependent communities, sensing the weakening of central power, have
erupted violently against logging and plantation operations that they consider to beplundering their local resources. Longstanding problems of unclear land tenure rights are theroot cause of many such conflicts. The government is no longer willing to protect corporate
interests as it once did, but neither does it appear to have any coordinated plan for dealing
with the problem.
Indonesia is moving rapidly toward a new system of “regional autonomy,” but the provincial
and district governments that will benefit from decentralization are largely without thecapacities or funds needed to govern effectively. Raising short-term revenue will be a toppriority and, as a result, intensified exploitation of forest resources is already occurring inmany regions.
WATER SUPPLY
Water supply in a region (watershed) for a certain purpose is determined by the amount ofwater input (precipitation) and the watershed function to transform precipitation into utilized
water that fulfill the requirement of that utilization purpose, quantity, quality and timing ofavailability.
The watershed function in precipitation transformation is strongly influenced by the land use
and management. Many researches show forest degradation, and inappropriate soil
conservation practices to influence directly on the water supply decreasing. To figure theeffects of the deforestation explained above on water supply quantitatively in Indonesia ishard, due the lack of climatic and hydrological data.
A figure of decreasing water supply analyzed from long-term rainfall and river discharge(1896-1994) of the Upper Citarum Watershed (6,000 km2) indicated the decline of the annual
rainfall at a rate of 10 mm/yr, accompanied by 3 mm/yr reduction in basin run-off andincreased fluctuation of extreme events [13]. Present condition of watershed hydrology in5Indonesia is characterized by frequent occurrence of extreme flood and drought, highsediment/pollutant loads in the water bodies. The changes of land covers and its managementof watersheds affect not only the long-term hydrologic regime but also the precipitation
amount and pattern [14, 15].
Ministry of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure figures the availability of water inIndonesia as the total amount of river water discharge of about 1,957 million m3 which is
distributed unequally spatially and temporally. More than 83% is concentrated in Kalimantan,
Papua, and Sumatera islands, and about 17% in Jawa, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara where
densely populated. About 80% available in wet season (5 months) and 20% in dry season (7months) [10].
Based on that water availability, the national water needs for domestic utilization, industrial,
and agriculture could be fulfilled, even for the year 2020 (constant water supply withincreasing water needs based on population growth) but actually there are some regions
deficit (Jawa, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara) and the other surplus [10].
The figure of the global quantitative water availability actually does not figure the accuratesituation of water supply without considering the water quality, and management especiallyin water distribution. Recent facts from the news, the deficit of water frequently occurs
almost in the whole country. Every year, the draught is often followed by flood. In somecities the people often difficult to get the health water even in the wet season. Jawa island in
1995 and 2000 deficit water of about 32.347 and 52.809 million m3 respectively, and in 2015
the deficit is predicted of about 134.102 million m3 [12].
Number of reservoirs (lakes) in Jakarta-Bogor-Depok areas is decreasing from about 218 in1970 to less than 100 in 2003. Sedimentation rate in the big lakes are very high reducing thestorage capacity. Sentani Lake in Papua since 1999 silting up of about 5 m/yr, Tondano Lakein Sulawesi, the deepest level in 1970 was 50 m, now only 10 m [2].
Big cities experienced severe ground water level decreasing. In Bandung city, intermediate
ground water level (< 150 m) decreases 0.12-8.76/yr, while deep ground water level (>150m) decrease 1.44-12.48 m/yr. In Jakarta (the areas around Cengakareng, Grogol,
Cempaka Putih, and Cakung), ground water level decrease of about 17 meter. In other6

regions of Jakarta, decreasing ground water level forms a cone, where the deepest point reach40-50 m below sea level. The area of cone increase by time. The land subsidence almost
occur in whole area of Jakarta of about 10-100 m. In Semarang, Middle Jawa, and Nganjuk,
East Jawa the gorund water level decreasing is about 2 m/yr and 1-5 m respectively
especially in dry season [2].
Spring discharge is also decrease. Spring discharge utilized by PDAM (Municipal Water
Supply Enterprises) Bogor up to 2001, decrease 4–15% [16].
WATER UTILIZATION
Water utilizations are categorized as agricultural, domestic, and industrial uses. Water used
for irrigaton in 1990 was about 74.9 x109 m3/yr and increase by year of about 6.7%. For
domestic and industrial uses were 3.1 x109, and 0.7 x 109 m3/yr respectively and increasingneed per year estimated of 6.7%, and 12.5%. [2].
Irrigation
Total area of irrigated paddy fields in Indonesia is 4.14 million ha. That is about 91% of
total developed tersiery areas (4.529.292 ha). Comparing to potential irrigated areas (7.59
million ha), ratio of irrigated area and its potential is about 54%, but if it is compared toirrigated command areas (12.335.823 ha), the percentage of irrigated area is only 34%(Ministry of Agriculture, 2003 [9]). Those data shows the efficiency of water utilization ofdeveloped irrigation infrastrcture/network is low.
Domestic
Most of households utilize water for domestic uses originated from shallow groundwater(74%), the rest are from river (3,4%) and other (1,4%). The percentage of households
in water utilization for domestic use based on water sources is presented in Tabel 3. Those
figure is excluded the housholds supplied by piped water from PDAM (Municipal Water
Supply Enterprises). At the end of 1994, only 36 percent of Indonesia’s urban population of
about 67 million had access to piped water. Water supply of PDAM is derived from surface
water sources (60%), springs (25%), and ground water (15%) [8].

7Tabel 3. Household percentage in Water Utilization for Domestic Uses 2002
No.

Region

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Sumatera**)
Jawa
Bali
Nusa Tenggara
Kalimantan
Sulawesi
MalukuPapua
TOTAL

Ground *)
70,24
80,52
47,84
75,63
27,87
71,73
55,70
74,21

Water SourceRiver
Rainfall
5,28
7,20
0,67
0,40
2,06
2,06
3,35
3,35
27,89
27,89
2,43
2,43
18,44
18,44
3,42
2,78

Other
1,04
1,69
2,45
0,54
0,67
0,94
0,00
1,42

Source: BPS-Statistic Indonesia, 2000 in Kementerian LH, 2003
Notes: *) Shallow ground water and spring **) Nangroe Aceh Darussalam Province excluded

Industry
Industries mostly utilize the ground water. This is due low quality of surface water to fullfill
the industrial water quality requirement. Water use for Indistries is relatively small compare
to agricultural and domestic use, but the increasing and uncontroll ground water use forindustrial causes the decreasing of ground water level and land subsidence [2].
BIOPRODUCTION
Indonesia experienced as a food/rice self sufficience country in 1984. Although in arroundthat years, Indonesia was being lossing other bio-production through abundant timber
harvesting. In the following years of the food/rice self sufficience year, Indonesia’s
bioproduction decreasing and now become the big agricultural products importer country.
Land use changes regionally and globally caused anomally regional and global climatechanges. Anomally climate occured in 1991 and 1994 forced Indonesia to import rice of
600.000 ton and more than 1 million ton respectvely [4]. Tabel 4 shows the paddy field areas
influenced by climatic and hydrologic behavior which is believed correlated to the regionaland global land use changes.
WATERSHED AND WATER MANAGEMENT
Watershed resources management requires an integrated and comprehensive approaches.
Top down policy without involved the stakeholders in watershed resources management
often results less comprehensive and partial approaches, further result less effective (failure)and inefficient works.

8

Table 4. Paddy Field Areas Influenced by Flood and Drough, and Idle area in
1988-1997 [7, 18]
Year
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997

Flooding***
130.375
96.54066.90138.00650.36078.480132.975
218.144107.385
58.974

Drought430.170
87.37336.14354.125867.99742.40966.992544.42228.58059.560504.021Idle***
44.04915.29019.163198.054
16.88247.259194.025
51.57150.649102.254

Notes
El-NinoLa-Nina
NormalNormal
El-NinoNormalNormal
El-NinoLa-Nina
Normal
El-NinoThe degraded land rehabilitation programs that was actually initiated since 1930 in Jawa, andmore intensive since 1976 when FAO supported loan for Upper Solo Watershed Management
and Upland Development project, and the availability of Aforestation and Reforestation
Grant through Presidential Instruction No. 8/76, 1976 are more focused on direct reduction of
surface run-off and erosion through physical measures approaches such as trees planting,terraces, check dams and other constructions development, but less attention to find and solve
the root problems causes the deforestation and inappropriate land uses itself. Top down
policy, where government deliver a package of a project without or less consider the needs ofpeople resulted the grant dependency of people to rehabilitate the land, in many cases, thesuccess story was only during the project period; during the post project periods people
conducted the usual practices even destroyed the results of the project, due to the projectcontent actually out of their interest. This approach also required abundant government fund,therefore the capacity to rehabilitate degraded land is much less than the degradation rate, andlow success story of projects result the rate of land degradation is still increasing, evenaccelerated.
The weakness or unavailable incentive system that provides reward for the success agentsand punishment or disincentive for the fail, or attractiveness scheme to practice agriculturalconservation are needed more attention to create the initiatives to protect/maintain productive
land and rehabilitate the degraded land.
The development of water supply infrastructures and water (bodies) management also often
run in partial way without considering the sustainable programs for maintenance and9rehabilitate the upland that hard influence the water and its infrastructure to store anddistributions of water. Considering the fiscal constraints, GoI has initiated to set up water
service fee based on the economic good principle rather than the currently active sociopolitical concept that treats water as a public good [5]. Potential fees generated from wateruses are not schemed clearly yet to possibly cross administrative boundaries funding systemin the watershed management framework.
THE ROLE OF AGRO-ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Agro-environmental education is necessary and important to understand the ecosystembehavior in relation to resources utilization to produce bio-products. Agro-environmental
education is necessary and important to be delivered to everyone since beginning, formally inschool or informal delivery through extra curricular activities. Formal education inelementary school till senior high school is still limited to Basic Natural Science, less focus
on agricultural practices related to human life, and less practical education to introduce oridentify the “real world” through for example out door activities. In the higher education,
especially in the undergraduate levels and master degree where the graduates are prepared to
be a middle manager or to share in decision making, fragmentation among natural processes
approaches in one side and social (economy, policy) approaches cause less comprehension inunderstanding the underlying factors of a natural phenomena. This situation is easy toidentify the policy content on a natural phenomena. A technocrat with less background insocial knowledge will simply decide to solve the natural phenomena by introducing thetechnical approach. In the situation where the specialists are coordinated well, then theunderstanding of a phenomena and solving the problems could be better.

10

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