Community-based forest management is failing to fulfil its promises: community forests and people’s timber plantations in Boalemo, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Since the political reform of 1998, the Government of Indonesia has increasingly incorporated the approaches ofcommunity-based forest management (CBFM) in its forestry policies with the purpose of giving local communities better access to land and forestry resources and, therefore, contributing to the alleviation of local poverty. CBFM was prioritized in the 1999 Forestry Law (Article 3), providing legal, financial and market access to local communities. Recently, the Government of Indonesia has committed to a rapid agrarian reform process aiming to bring at least 12.7 million hectares of the state-forest zone under CBFM. Among policies and programs developed by the Government are several state sponsored schemes, including Community Forest and People’s Timber Plantation, that were stipulated by Government Regulation no. 6/2007 (Urano 2013)