Membangun Peradaban Bersama Rakyat

In 2017, the Minister of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia, Siti Nurbaya Bakar issued the Decree of the Minister of Environment and Forestry Number 22/2017. One of those regulated in it is the Indicative Map of Social Forestry Areas (PIAPS). North Sumatra, out of 33 regencies/cities, 25 of them have PIAPS with a total of 550,887 hectares. However, from this figure, only 36,966.06 have been realized.

This was raised in the Agrarian Dialogue on Farmers’ Rights to Land held by the Bitra Indonesia Foundation, the Pijer Podi Foundation and the Ate Keleng Foundation, Monday (24/9/2018). The Head of the Tenure and Customary Forest Section, the Center for Social Forestry and Environmental Partnerships (BPSKL) for the Sumatra Region, Bresman Marpaung, has a reason why the numbers are still small.

According to him, the figure of 550,887 hectares issued by the Minister is not a number that must be achieved, but only potential.

“The target for us does not have to be like that. But which one is the most prepared? For example, how the conflict. If you only rely on BPSKL, it certainly will not be achieved because there are only 24 employees. That’s why we involve other parties such as Walhi,” he told Medanbisnisdaily.com, Thursday (27/9/2018).

He said, the requirement for applying for Social Forestry (PS), the land must be free of conflict. In fact, in Indonesia, North Sumatra and Kalimantan are two areas with high conflict. PS, he said, was born for the settlement process.

He explained that past land reform experiences have not been concrete in providing access to natural resource management. PS is one of the forest management models, also seen as a soft agrarian reform strategy, in which community groups are given access to management for 35 years while still paying attention to the preservation of forest functions.

In addition to providing access to management, the government intends to be able to resolve various forms of social conflict related to unequal land tenure between large-scale permit holders and the community, peacefully and promote dialogue.

Regarding PS, the North Sumatran Walhi People’s Management Area Program Manager, Antonio Sipayung, made a note. In Ministerial Regulation Number 83/2016 concerning Social Forestry, the community is given the right to manage forests, both protected forests and production debts for 35 years. But in the draft regional regulation (ranperda) forest management, both protected forest and production forest in North Sumatra is only 10 years.

“It’s a bit confusing because the higher regulations, namely the Regulation of the Minister of Environment and Forestry, are 35 years. But in the regional regulation it is only 10 years. So, is that whether the difference is like that or can it still be changed because the Ranperda has to look at higher rules,” he said.

According to him, community management rights have not been taken seriously. It can be seen that the Hak Guna Usaha (HGU) or rights for company rights, for example, in forest tenure can be up to 25 years or even 100 years.

“And it is very different from the community’s rights in forest management for only 10 years. There is a big difference even though they live around forest areas as their livelihood,” he said.

Separately, the Advocacy Manager of the Bitra Indonesia Foundation, Hawari Hasibuan, assessed that so far, quite a lot of farmers’ land has been lost and no steps have been taken to solve the problem. Therefore, efforts are needed to protect the rights of farmers. The Director of the Legal Defending Advocacy Agency (Bakumsu), Manambus Pasaribu, said that Farmer’s Day, which is always commemorated on September 24, is a moment to strengthen a united commitment to fight for farmers’ rights to their land.

“I see that there are still three problems, namely the Constitutional Court Decision No. 35/2012, the mechanism of Social Forestry and Land for Agrarian Reform Objects (TORA). Why is that, because this conflict keeps happening. The government has to solve it from the bottom up, meeting with the people so they know what the people want,” he said.

Reporter: Dewantoro. Editor: Sasli Pranoto Simarmata.

Source: http://www.medanbisnisdaily.com/news/online/read/2018/09/27/52384/perhutanan_social_di_sumut_baru36_966_ha_dari_target_550_887_ha/

Illustration: https://www.atrbpn.go.id