19 transfer of forest land to local people is proceeding more slowly. In 1997, the Philippines set a target of allocating 9 million
ha of land to local communities by 2008. By 2013, only 45 percent of this target area had been allocated DENR, 2013. Community forestry programmes in Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar will need to be scaled up if national targets are to
be met.
Table 8: Forest area managed by local people with official community forestry agreements, 2013
2.4 Social forestry models
The ASFN considers social forestry to be an integral part of sustainable forest management because it aims to improve the standard of living and well-being of local people.
27
The ASFN recognizes that social forestry is a cost-effective way to: support sustainable local livelihoods through income generation;
• balance economic use and ecological conservation of forests;
• build the capacity of forest communities to practise land stewardship and reduce forest degradation and destruction;
• combat illegal logging;
• share the benefits from forests among local communities;
• build upon the potential of local communities to manage forests sustainably; and
• promote democratic and transparent governance practice.
The participation of local people in forest management has become a feature of national forest policy in most ASEAN countries over the past 20 years. Social forestry models share similar objectives of encouraging sustainable forest
management, improving forest condition, governing local use of forest resources and improving the social and economic conditions of forest-dependent people. Despite shared common objectives, social forestry models in the ASEAN region have
notable differences. Some models prioritize community management, while other models are based on local partnerships between communities and local councils or business license holders. Different social forestry models also exist depending
on the type of forest such as production forest, protection or conservation forest and purpose commercial activities, reforestation or conservation.
23
Land under HKm community-based forest and hutan desa village forest.
24
Statement by Indonesia’s Director of Social Forestry Development at the Asia REDD+ Regional Working Group, January 2013 CFI, 2013.
25
The Forest Sector Strategy to 2020 reports that 8.2 million ha of forest land was allocated to villages and households through the Land and Forest Allocation Programme MAF, 2005. However, village forests only exist as a land use category; few community forest lands have received formal land use titles to date
RECOFTC, 2013.
26
Data on social forestry in Malaysia is limited. A 2006 report estimates that 40,654 ha 1.5 percent of forest management units of land had been set aside for social forestry projects in Sabah, of which 7,000 ha was managed by the Sabah Forest Department and 33,654 ha by sustainable forest management
license holders Toh and Grace, 2006. There were no recent data on active social forestry projects in Sabah state or for Malaysia as a whole.
27
Consolidation of the working group discussion in the ASEAN Workshop on Social Forestry, in Madiun, East Java, Indonesia, 28–30 March 2005 available at www.dephut.go.idinformasiUmumKLNConsolidation.htm.
Cambodia Indonesia
Lao PDR Malaysia
Myanmar Philippines
Thailand Viet Nam
Total
2010–2029 2011–2016
na na
2001–203031 1997–2008
na 2006–2020
-
9 5
na na
4 45
na 95
69
2 million 2.5 million
24
na na
919,000 9 million
na 4 million
15,919,000
1.8 0.11
Not available Not available
0.13 26.12
2.23 25.08
3.5
183,725 143,065
23
Not available
25
Not available
26
42,148 4,128,212
500,000 3,809,320
8,806,470
Country Area covered by official agreements
Target area achieved
in 2013 ha
forest land ha
Target period
20 The majority of the land allocated under social forestry programmes has been degraded forest. For example, in Viet Nam,
75 percent of the forestland allocated to local people under the Community Forestry Management Pilot Programme was bare land or poor-quality forest RECOFTC, 2010. Most community forests are designated for the purpose of production
and the protection of soils and water resources. The transfer of management and use rights in conservation forests and protected areas has been less common, even when permitted under national law. Recently, Cambodia began to develop
mechanisms to engage local people in the management of protected forest areas RGC, 2010; Oberndorf, 2010. Indonesia and Viet Nam are exploring co-management or collaborative options to improve the management of protected forests
under pressure from human activity Mulyana et al., 2010; Swan, 2008; Nguyen et al., 2012.
2.5 Forest tenure
