The Development of Local Community Institutions for Community-Based Forest Management
Abstract
The problems of exploitation on forest management in Indonesia are complex. There are lots of reasons that lead to forest
exploitation. First of all, economic reasons such as increasing gross national product which leads to the Indonesian government
to exploit the forest for gaining foreign exchange. Secondly, social and cultural reasons, forests have been utilized by either local community or any stakeholders for social and cultural purposes. For instance, the phenomena of slash and burn where the farmers burn the forest areas and then live in the field for several years until the soils exhausted, after that they will move on to other areas. As a result, there are several problems on deforestation in Indonesia. In terms of economic issue, Human Rights Watch said that Indonesia government lost income nearly 2 billion dollars per year in 2006 because of illegal logging activities
As a solution, the government, as demanded by civil society, has created a forest policy which is called the Community-based Forest Management (CBFM).