Factors for participatory forest rehabilitation activities in East Kalimantan, Indonesia: Case study of T village, Samboja sub-district, Kutai
Kartanegara district
NAKAMA Eiichiro MASUDA Misa
1. Introduction
After the fall of the Seoharto’s dictatorship in 1998, the era of Reformasi started in Indonesia. Respect for democracy and human rights were encouraged and promoted. The Forestry Law of 1999 acknowledged the
existence of customary forest land Wollenberg Kartodihardjo, 2002. Local people supported by the NGOs took advantage of this law and claimed land rights that derived from traditional custom Hak adat
and the historical evidences of shifting cultivation andor settlement. They started insisting on their land-rights within state forests, such as Production Forest Hutan Produksi mainly for concession areas of
private logging companies andor estate enterprises, Protection Forest Hutan Lindung and Conservation Forest Hutan Konservasi including National Parks.
In addition, fiscal decentralization Law, UU No.25 and regional autonomy UU No.22 in 1999 transferred considerable authority over political and financial decisions to the district kabupaten from the center
Wrangham, 2002. This socio-economic confusion from political transition accelerated the degradation of forest lands.
Reforestation fund Dana Reboisasi, DR levied on round-wood production that had mostly been loaned logging companies before the fall of Seoharto. After decentralization, 40 of the DR budget was granted to
regional governments Governmental Regulation, PP No.35, 2002. The district level governments in East Kalimantan became responsible for large amount of budget of DR. Nevertheless, it was difficult to secure
lands for plantation due to the land-ownership conflicts. In order to solve this problem, local people who claim vested rights should be involved in the rehabilitation program. Community-based approach should be
undertaken to reduce potential fire sources and to enhance fire management activities. Toma, 2003. Participatory forest rehabilitation activities has been expected but not yet implemented well on the ground in
East Kalimantan. In 2000, Working Group for Forest and Land Rehabilitation KKRHL was organized by the forestry related
agencies such as local governments, universities, companies, NGOs and GTZ in East Kalimantan. KKRHL supervise the properly management of the DR program and the evaluation of the DR activities.
In this study, in order to identify the factors for participatory forest rehabilitation activities and also the barriers, a case study was conducted in one village where the forest rehabilitation project being implemented
by the villagers.
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2. Study site and Methods
