Economic Analysis of Local People's Involvement in Community-based Forest Management (CBFM) in Desa Ciomas, Indonesia

Abstract

Local people's involvement in forest management in Indonesia was studied in a context of a community-based forest management program named Pengelolaan Hutan Bersama Masyarakat (PHBM), which emerged from the state-owned forest company, Perhutani. On Java Island, this program has been spreading since 2003 and it was hoped that it would help to increase local people's income by giving them access to the forest, to assist in the thinning process and to cultivate intercropping. This study aimed to observe the impacts of people's involvement in the PHBM program on their economic wellbeing. The study was conducted over three research phases, in 2005/2006, 2006/2007, and 2008/2009, in Desa Ciomas village, Bogor District, West Java Province and through follow-up research performed in 2016 to observe more recent conditions and establish the continuity of the previous research. The results showed that local people in Desa Ciomas were highly interested in PHBM and the benefits that it offered, with an expectation of additional income. The optimal income was not realized in some cases, including when large-scale farming necessitated farming system that replied on hired labor which is known to be less productive than family labor. PHBM should be able to contribute to local people's income by empowering them with respect to both on- and off-farm activities.