Background

Government plays a key role in establishing land and forest tenure laws and in supporting related access, rights and use. This can lead to resource protection and set incentives for inventors to promote the growth of sustainable small and medium enterprise.

Government can create a foundation for social forestry, which can help people, especially those living in and around forest areas, gain access to forests, utilize forest resources and resolve conflicts. Conceptually, social forestry represents a major shift in increasing access and rights for communities to improve community welfare and to close the gap between forestry companies and communities, which can lead to sustainable forest management and poverty alleviation. But the challenges for the development of communities living in and around forested areas remain to be resolved, including fully exploring potential areas for productivity development, reducing economic vulnerability, accessibility to industries and markets, protecting resources and balancing the ecosystem.

The Indonesian government is committed to redistributing 12.7 million hectares of forested lands through community forests, customary forests, private forests, community forest plantations and village forests.

Objectives

The parallel discussion on the subtheme “Community Forestry” at the 3^rd Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit (APRS) will discuss:

1. Enhancing access of local communities to forest land resources
2. Social forestry, community-based wood production and inclusive business models
3. Economic opportunities from community forest management
4. Women’s rights and gender in forestry
5. Promotion of sound land-use planning and clarifying tenure and use rights

Expected Outcomes

The expected outcomes of the “Community Forestry” parallel discussion are:

1. Exchange of knowledge and information on community forestry management
2. Improved economic opportunities from community businesses
3. Recommendations on how to increase benefits and women’s rights, and how to tackle challenges associated with social forestry
4. A commitment to take real action to promote land-use planning and tenure and use rights

Agenda

•  Social Forestry in Indonesia
•  National policy for enhancing social forestry access and forest management
•  Successful land use management in Asia-Pacific: Start with a landscape approach
•  Community forest management for livelihoods improvement
•  Strategy of FMU development to support Social Forestry
•  Social forestry, community-based wood & NTFP production and inclusive business models
•  Fostering the social forestry program: Inclusive business models (IBMs) in community-based wood & NTFP-based production
•  Updated research and study on Community Forestry
•  Coordination, information sharing and lessons from regional approach in social forestry – AWG-SF Conference and Meeting
•  Social forestry & roles of women: Experience from Indonesia