Bandarlampung, Ekuatorial – Officials found violation on community forest practice in Ulubelu subdistrict, Tanggamus district of Lampung recently, where local people planted coffee and other crops instead of hard woods.
“If they don’t immediately plant hard wood, it’s possible that their permits will be revoked and be given to other communities suitable to manage the area,” said Miftahun Ulum, field officer of Tanggamus Forest Protection during field inspection.
“You have gained benefits from the forest but along the way, we barely see any hard wood,” Ulum said referring to the total of 499.63 hectares of area located in Register 30 given by the government to be managed to local people through community forest or Hutan Kemasyarakatan.
One of the requirements to obtain permit community forest is to plant 400 hard trees, for instance durian or nangka, in one hectare. Instead, at least 365 people joined in Gapoktan Sumber Rejeki planted coffee.
“We realized that we have yet to implement community forest as required by the government. But, we will immediately recover the state of the forest,” said Aminullah, head of Gapoktan Sumber Rejeki.
Aminullah recalled that they were granted the permit back in 2007 after long history of encroaching the forest. They obtained the permit for 35 years and can be extended.
“We used to run this forest in fear. Seeing men in uniforms, we just threw our coffee and ran to avoid being caught,” he said. “But, after getting the permit, we can do farming at ease.”
Novriansyah, director of Kawan Tani Lampung, criticized that nearly 100 percent damages contributed from community forest.
“There should be a routine evaluation, what’s wrong with this community forest. We can’t let the image of government legalizing forest damages in critical areas,” he said adding that a total of 30,344 hectares, located in Register 25, 27, 28, 30, 33, and 39, were managed by 11,048 families or 18 Gapoktan in Tanggamus district. Eni Muslihah