Strategies to enhance small-scale commercial tree-growing inside state forests in Indonesia
Creators: name: Adiwinata Nawir, Ani
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Small-scale forestry
subject: Timber Economic aspects Indonesia
subject: Community forestry Indonesia
subject: Sustainable forestry Indonesia
subject: Community forests Economic aspects Indonesia

description: Wood supply shortages are evident in Indonesia's forestry sector in both high-value products, and commodity products, such as pulpwood. Small-scale tree-growing can fill some of these gaps, while enhancing local livelihoods. Focussing on degraded forest area, much of the potential land on which small-scale commercial tree growing can take place is inside state forests. Two current schemes in this context are the community forestry (Hutan Kemasyarakatan) and community-company partnership (Kemitraan) schemes. This research seeks to inform policies to enhance the implementation of small-scale commercial tree growing inside state forests by addressing four research questions: 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two current schemes? 2. What are the benefits and costs, in both social and economic terms, of the two existing schemes in comparison to other investment options using the same lands? 3. How does this analysis suggest policies and schemes to promote small-scale commercial tree-growing in Indonesia should be designed? 4. How does this information and analysis inform decision makers on the potential contribution of timber from small-scale commercial tree growing to the wood production strategies in Indonesia? Questions 1 to 3 were addressed by analysing case studies relating to community tree-growing in the Sumbawa and Bima Districts (West Nusa Tenggara), and to the community-company partnership in Jambi (Sumatra) and Sanggau (West Kalimantan). Question 4 was addressed through a desktop analysis of demand and supply data and projections. Both schemes were developed initially to reinforce the status of state property suffering from encroachment and illegal logging. Despite their effectiveness in containing these pressures, the active involvement of the community under the two schemes remains a last option for communities, in part because of actual and transaction costs. Developing tree-growing inside state forests is complicated in comparison to tree-growing that is more commonly developed on privately-owned land. The commercial viability of these schemes has generally been unconvincing, and financial analyses suggest the conditions in which these schemes are likely to be sustainable. Social capital from the collaborative arrangements under the two schemes has allowed community access to state forests and to benefits from timber plantations, as well as a way to generate other capitals required. Wider implementation of the schemes is hampered by inconsistencies between policies and regulations in force at the national and district levels. The national policy is more important to partnership schemes, since it provides secure access and flexible management opportunities, whilst the regional autonomy exercised by the district government has provided advantages for community tree-growing. Increasing the competitiveness of returns from tree growing compared to other investment alternatives should be achieved by increasing timber productivity to the optimum level. Analysis at the national level suggests that there is a large and continuing gap between industry capacity and wood supply from Indonesia's forests. Scenario analysis suggests that the different smallholder tree-growing schemes can contribute a wood supply that is many orders of magnitude greater than the industry requirements.