Oyos Saroso H.N.
West Lampung
One evening at the end of July, about 10 people from Sumberjaya district arrived at a modest wooden house in Simpang Sari village, West Lampung. It was the secretariat of Watala, a non-governmental organization in Lampung that has assisted forest farmers for over a decade. The visitors were the chairmen of farmer groups associated in Warung Rembuk Tani Hutan (Warem Tahu), a discussion forum for farmers.
The Warem Tahu members were dealing with various problems related to HKM implementation. Actually, the forum has its own meeting place, a big building beside the secretariat, but it cannot be used during the night because it has no lights. Yet its members are seen as the figures behind the success of West Lampung's community forest program.
Despite the absence of a formal organizational structure, Warem Tahu is respected by forest farmers and prominent figures in West Lampung regency. It is these Warem Tahu negotiators who led to the granting of the 25-year forest management license. They were also actively involved in the birth of the regional bylaw on community-based natural resources and environment management.
The farmers and groups that are granted the 25-year license -- previously a five-year provisional permit -- are first screened by Warem Tahu. Erfan, a high school teacher in West Lampung and a Warem Tahu activist, said the forum had no leaders. "Its chairman is the member who hosts the meeting, so the post is alternately held," he added.
According to him, the discussion group was formed at the end of 1990 to strengthen the bargaining position of farmers, who had for decades been made scapegoats in the cases of forest fires, squatting and illegal logging in protected areas. When the reform period started, a lot of people around the forest took revenge by converting forested land into coffee plantations.
"The situation could not be left unchecked as the forest would have been destroyed by the locals. We sought a middle path by providing advocacy for residents whose huts were burned down by security personnel, while also trying to jack up their bargaining power. We convinced the regional government and councillors that farmers could cooperate in forest conservation as long as they were given the concession to manage the forest," he said.
As a win-win solution, the government launched the HKM program in 2000, enabling the farmers living near protected and production forest zones to manage the areas for plantations. However, continued Erfan, farmers remained wary of their future. "It's because the management license lasted for five years, meaning that they had to give up the fruits of their toil only after one coffee harvest. So we urged the West Lampung regent to issue the 25-year license," he recalled.
In the HKM forest in West Lampung, farmers are now engaged in coffee agroforestry, combined with areca nuts, sonokeling (hardwood) and durians for conservation. Watala director Rama Zakaria acknowledged that Warem Tahu activists had improved farmers' business deals.
"The long-term license is one proof. Warem Tahu is effective in its advocacy for being close to farmers and cooperating with regional officials. Farmers are not necessarily always opposed to the government," Rama said.
Along with the village chief, the regency natural resources management board, the forest unit head and the relevant NGOs, Warem Tahu makes annual reports on the results of its monitoring and evaluation groups of farmers under HKM program licensing. Apart from training some 6,000 farmers to manage 40,000 hectares of critical forested land, Warem Tahu also teaches residents around protected areas to grow multiculture crops.
"It's in fact a mutual learning process to achieve a common goal. We wish to see farmers in our forest live in prosperity and the forest environment better conserved," Erfan said.
Source: The Jakarta Post, Sept. 10, 2007
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