My Ideas and Stories About PAPUA

Making the rich and beautiful resources in Papua become the social economic strength for Papuan has become the long home works. Many people believe that the early start to find the answer is by understanding how Papua looks like, their communities and their special strength. And it can be realize by directly in touch with them. This blogs provides you chance to touch and gets insight ideas, trends and stories about Papua.
  • Stories About Beautiful Papua

    Every Single Place In Papua Have Its Stories To Be Shared To Build Other People Understanding About This Island

  • The Last Frotier Primary Forests

    With 42 Million ha of forests, Papua play crucial rules in Indonensia forests development targets.

  • Women and Natural Resources

    Forests or land right are not only about Man. So understanding the roles women and the impact of forests changes to women are also crucial

  • Our Traditional Value

    Papuan Community Have Been Living for Centuries with Their Knowledge and Wisdom in Managing Natural Resources and Practice Best Conservation

  • For Papuan Generation

    Every Works We Do Now Must Be Dedicated To The Future Papuan Generation

  • Dependency to Forests Resources

    Practicing Good Forests Governance in Papus About Understing the Right of Indigenous People and Their Dependency to Natural Resources

  • All Are Wonderful

    You Will Get Good Scene That You May Not Able Somewhere Else - Only In PAPUA

  • Bitter Nut Is Papuan Favorit Gums

    Bitter Nut or In Papua We Call 'Pinang' Is The Local Gum You Can See In Every Corner of the Cities. Papuan People Love To Chewing It. Sometime People Consider It As Contact Material When You Travel to The Village

  • Papuan Traditional Conservation Practices

    For Centuries, Papuan Has Practicing Local Wisdom to Sustainaible Use of Natural Resources. They Have Traditional Education System to Teaching Them How To Interact With Human, Spiritual Power and Understanding The Words Of Nature

Kamis, 31 Maret 2016

Tambrauw Conservation and Customary Right Recognition Drafts Regulation Were Publicly Disccused

About 70 participants representing village leader, customary community groups, district government institution, sub-district chief, resorts police and army commander  joined one full day discussion of two draft of District Regulation about conservation and recognition and protection of customary rights. This two draft are part of the initiative regulation that the parliament of Tambrauw is prioritizing this year to support the political commitment of current Bupati about mainstreaming conservation as the development code and support the protection and recognition customary rights in Tambrauw. On his opening remarks the Bupati of Tambrauw pointed out the real development challenge in Tambrauw is how to put in balance the interests and targets on spatial development, regional and community economic growth, protection the rights of people and sustainable environment. This to regulation are part of his commitment to realize that. Gradually the government and all stakeholders are actualization their commitment on (1) non massive destructive investment such as mining and oilpalm and (2) develop the green investment pilots such as micro hydro for electricity and (3) supports the customary meeting in each sub-districts.
Opening Panel; Photo: Yunus Yumte 

Moderated by the legislative division head in the Tambrauw Parliament Mr. Petrus Yewen the discussion was went well and robust with active comments, inputs, correction and suggestion from the audiences. One keys messages on his speech was "Mainstreaming conservation to realize the objective of protection the forests covers and it natural function is by integrating 'frezzz" academic conservation mainstream into more dynamic and local specific to makes community have a legal certainty to be the main conservation action to their 1,2 million ha of forests and land". Four resources people were includes: Nonette Royo - the Executive Director of Samdhana Institute shared the core thinking of rights recognition and appreciation to the Bupati of Tambrauw, Yunus Yumte showed the indicative mapping results, Yance Arizona from Epistema Institute presented the substance of customary rights recognition regulation draft and Jhony Marwa from Papua State University shared the substance of conservation regulation draft. 

In summary there were 4 points comes up during the review and discussion: 
  1. There are remaining a lot of missing substantial information and data about clans, tribes and family and how their autonomy of rights and decision making are works. Which of the customary structure are holding the basic authority in lands usage? Both facilitator and community representative agreed sharpening the academic script of the regulation that appropriately legally regulate the rights and its elements are the next steps after the discussion. 
  2. Positioning the core intention on recognize, designates and governance among customary knowledge with the official government regulation are crucial to enable conservation and rights recognition pathways could works in the on going development platform be understood and implemented by all the actor  in Tambrauw. 
  3. Reviewing and re-analyzing the substance of conservation regulation drafts that mentioning the legal binding and criminal sanction should be undertaken to make sure that the regulation would not banning community for their illegal activities to fulfill their livelihood needs. 
  4. Concrete supports and sharing resources to supports the improvement draft to the finalization process are important to accelerating the public discussion until legal approval. 
Most of the participants were criticized the content of conservation from the perspective of low conflict and accommodate local development needs and livelihood of community. Make sure that Tambrauw with its vision and regulation are not taking the frozen step in interpreting and implementing conservation are crucial to connects the content of local rights, spatial plan and conservation needs. Keys recommendation as next steps were appeared such as: supports the gradual community meeting in each sub-district discussing the rights and development, continues supports to customary boundary mapping and gradual discussion on the substance of legal draft before legally approval are came up at the ending summary of the meeting.
 


Rabu, 30 Maret 2016

2 Peta Wilayah Adat Indikative Suku di Tambrauw Dipresentasikan ke Pemda

Sausapor, 30 Maret 2016. Menjadi salah satu Narasumber dalam konsultasi publik sehari Naskah Akademis dan Legal Draft PERDA Kabupaten Konservasi dan Perlindungan-Pengakuan Hak Masyarakat Adat, Yunus Yumte - Papua Program Manager the Samdhana Institute memberikan laporan akhir pekerjaan pemetaan wilayah adat Indikative 2 suku di Kabupaten Tambrauw yaitu Suku Miyah dan Suku Abun. Selain ini, hasil pemetaan indikative ini, telah juga membantu wilayah adat Moi Kelim mendapatkan revisi peta wilayah adatnya untuk bagian yang berbatasan dengan suku Abun. Dalam presentasi-nya Yunus mengatakan bahwa "hasil pemetaan Indikative Wilayah adat yang dilakukan secara bersama oleh tim Aka Wuon, UNIPA, WWF, Samdhana Institute dan PEMDA Tambrauw telah memperkuat studi-studi antropologis sebelumnya bahwa kabupaten Tambrauw 100% berada didalam wilayah adat suku-suku yang secara de facto mengklaim hak adat atas ruang dan sumber daya didalamnya". 
Final Draft Peta Indikative WA Suku Miyah Abun dan Moi di Tambrauw 

Abun dan Miyah bersama dengan suku Moi Kelim, Mpur, Ireres dan Biak-Karon secara antropologis membentuk satu kesatuan kekeluargaan dalam adat yang kuat karena terhubung dengan beberapa sejarah seperti pertukaran kain timur, perkembangan pendidikan dan agama serta perkawinan. Tidak hanya dengan suku-suku di Internal Tambrauw hubungan kultur yang kuat juga terjadi antara masyarakat adat di Tambaruaw dengan beberapa suku di Kabupaten Lain yang berbatasan seperti Suku Mare di Kabupaten Maybrat dan Suku Aifat di Kabupaten Maybrat. Secara proporsi wilayah Miyah dan Abun menguasai hampir 60% dari total wilayah administrasi Tambrauw, dimana suku Miyah berdasarkan pemetaan indikatif memiliki luas 209,250 ha dan suku Abun seluas 404,352 ha. Hubungan sosial yang kuat juga ditunjukan dengan bagaimana sebaran marga di kampung-kampung yang secara adat bukan wilayah adat-nya. Mereka tidak hanya tinggal tetapi juga mendapatkan ruang kelola yang terbatas untuk memenuhi kebutuhan hidup-nya. 

Koneksi antara klaim hak, nilai adat dan pola ruang pemanfaatan sumber daya didalam masyarakat adat Abun dan Miyah sangatlah kuat. Hasil pemetaan indikative ini juga telah berhasil menangkap banyak informasi, data dan fakta tentang tempat penting dan pola ruang yang telah tumbuh dan dipegang kuat oleh masyarakat adat di suku Abun dan Miyah. Suku Miyah misalany, berdasarkan hasil pemetaan di temukan pola zonasi seperti: 
-        Hutan: Wiam mase (hutang rimbah), Sre  (sejenis  hutan gambut yang ada di daerah perbukitan   namun daerah ini cukup rata dan luas), ruf (daerah yang sangat rata dan luas),Etiam ( Bekas Kebun yang lama)  Tein ( bekas kebun baru) dan Ora ( daerah perkebunan baru )  adalah tata pembagian ruang berdasarkan fungsi menurut nilai-nilai adat secara turun-temurung oleh suku miyah.
-    Tempat Berburuh: Ramen tempat atau jalan tempat binatang burun bermain, Rmoy dan Fim tempat dimana semua binatang datang meminum air dan mencari makan, Wilayah berburu secara terbatas.
-    Ritus Budaya: Sorwon, Totor, Arbouw, Etkunyah dan emos, adalah wilayah keramat menirut tatanan spiritualitas masyarakat adat suku miyah yang harus dilindungi. 

Sebelumnya, pada tahun 2014/2015, WWF Kantor Sausapor bersama beberapa fasilitator Kampung Suku Abun, telah juga melakukan pemetaan dan kajian tempat penting untuk wilayah disekitar pantai penelurun penyu. Hasil yang sama juga mereka dapatkan bahwa masyaakat adat secara kuat sudah memiliiki Zonasi adat yang apabila di paduserasikan dengan pola dan struktur ruang harusnya bisa menjadi kekuatan pembangunan dan tata kelola konservasi di Tambrauw. 

Dalam point-point penutup-nya, Yunus memberikan rekomendasi bahwa

  • Konsolidasi di tingkat suku dan marga secara berkala dan terstruktur perlu dilakukan secara serius. Langkah-langkah untuk membangun kekuatan kelembagaan adat bisa kemudian dibangun.
  • Mematangkan pemetaan detail tentang tata guna lahan dan ruang dalam upaya untuk pengaturan dan penataan sumber daya alam berkelanjutan berbasis masyarakat harus dilakukan bersama untuk memastikan pengaturan sumber daya alam yang bermartabat dan rendah konflik.
  • Pemetaan wilayah adat di tingkat marga harus dilanjutkan terus untuk mengklarifikasi kepemilikan ruang dan konsolidasi pengaturan pengelolaannya di tengah perkembangan pembangunan yang ada saat ini.
  • Pengembangan peraturan daerah untuk mengakui, melindungi dan menata keberadaan masyarakat adat di Tambrauw menjadi penting untuk dilakukan oleh pemerintah dan legislatif untuk memberikan kepastian hokum bagi masyarakat adat beserta visi dan rencana pengelolaan dan penataan ruang yang dimiliki.
  • Dalam hal tata ruang dan pembangunan konservasi, posisi hak adat bersama dengan tempat penting dan asset sosial masyarakat adat didalamnya harus menjadi komponen data penting dalam penentuan detail pola dan struktur ruang. Langkah ini perlu diambil untuk meminimalisir konflik kepentingan ruang yang mungkin terjadi karena kompleksitas hak dan klaim ruang yang ada di masyarakat saat ini.
  • Membangun system administrasi untuk fasilitasi identifikasi, inventarisasi, pendataan, pendaftaran sampai dengan instrument pengaturan ruang menjadi penting untuk dimiliki pemerintah daerah dalam rangka resolusi konflik ruang. Serta memberikan ruang legal arbetrasi bagi masyarakat untuk mendapatkan layanan hukum dan administrasi terhadap objek hak yang dimiliki.


Rabu, 23 Maret 2016

Alarm....... Manokwari Darurat Sampah.................

"Menjaga kebersihan dan kepedulian terhadap lingkungan selalu mudah dimasukan menjadi slogan dalam gaung megah-nya program pembangunan, tetapi tidak mudah untuk di implementasikan ternyata. Kira-kira kapan kita akan betul-betul sadar akan pentingnya menjaga lingkungan yang bersih?"

Sore itu hujan tidak terlalu deras, mendung kabut dan jalanan agak padat di Kota Manokwari - Papua Barat dengan hiruk pikuk lalu lalang kendaraan. Perjalanan saya dari Amban yang tadinya akan menuju Cafe Calais di Jalan Borobudur pun kemudian berubahan menjadi sebuah perjalanan photo sore. Kali ini object yang menjadi perhatian saya adalah 'sampah'. Sampah dalam tulisan ini mengandung pengertian adalah material sisa dari manusia yang berbentuk padat umumnya didonimasi oleh limbah rumah tangga, bahan plastik dan material sisa berwujud padat lainnya. Yang material-material ini yang terus mengganggu indahnya kota Manokwari dan juga menggangu perjalanan saya hari ini. Saya pun memutuskan untuk terus melakukan perjalanan menuju pasar sanggeng yang setiap minggu-nya saya pun membuang sampah rumah tangga kami - itupun karena disitu ada bak sampah milik pemerintah yang kata-nya selalu rutin diantar ke TPA (tempat pembuangan akhir).

Singkat kata, singkat cerita, dalam photo session sore ini, saya mengabadikan potret-potret sedih kota Manokwari yang alam dan keindahannya betul-betul dikotori oleh masyarakatnya sendiri. Jejeran sampah yang saya potret mulai dari jalan Makalo-Amban, Makalo - Sanggeng sampai dengan Pasar Wosi dan Pantai di Pasar wosi merupakan potret lingkungan yang kotor akibat ketidakpedulian kita terhadap nilai keindahan dan kesehatan lingkungan yang kita tinggali. Ya.... Lihat saja photo pertama ini yang merupakan potrets yang saya ambil di Sungai kecil yang melintas dari dalam SMP N 3 menuju Borobudur, bagaimana tumpukan sampah botoh, sampah rumah tangga dan sampah-sampah padat lainnya sudah mencemari sungai dan menutup arus aliran airnya.
Gambar 1. Tumpukan sampah di Kali Kecil dekat jl. Borobudur Manokwari.

Menariknya sebagian besar dari penduduk disekitar sungai ini masih menggantungkan kebutuhan air bersih untuk masak, mencuci dan mandi dari sumur-sumur bor/galian yang sudah bisa kita bayangkan kira-kira gimana kualitas airnya apabila aliran permukaannya sudah kotor seperti ini?

Saya pun melanjukan perjalanan saya menuju Pasar Sanggeng. Ya, yang saya sini salah satu lokasi yang selalu menjadi tempat buangan akhir, karena ada bak sampah disitu. Saya pun sejak akhir tahun 2014 selalu membuang sampai di tempat ini. Sebelumnya jujur saya pun buang sampah-nya di bak-bak umum bahkan pernah dengan sangat merasa berdosa harus membuangnya ke Jalan malam-malam. Ya, itu harus dilakukan dari pada sampah menumpuk dirumah makin membuat saya dan keluarga terganggu kesehatanya.

Sanggeng juga adalah pasar yang menjual sayuran segar, ikan dan kebutuhan pokok lainnya untuk penduduk kota manokwari. Bersama dengan pasar wosi, keberadaannya sangat memegang kendali utama perekonomian masyarakat lokal di Manokwari. Tetapi nampaknya pengaruh-nya secara ekonomi tersebut juga membuat tempat ini menjadi lumbung pembuangan sampah. Lihat saja gambar 2 dibawah ini, Tampilan selokan besar disamping pasar sanggeng yang harus-nya bersih karena saluran buangan air menuju laut, tetapi sekarang pemandangan kumuh dan kotor-nya sangat menggagu dan sangat mengganggu mud berbelanja sayuran segera yang dijual mama-mama di pasar sanggeng, Uniknya sepanjang saluran ini berjejer ratusan bangunan megah yang kalau dilihat saluran pembuangannya juga menuju ke selokan ini. Coba lihat gambar 3 dibawah.

Gambar 2, Tumpukan sampah di saluran sungai-selokan samping Pasar Sanggeng

Gambar 3. Saluran air di samping pasar Sanggeng. Tampilan satu bak sampah yang di Pasar Sanggeng
Sedih bukan? Ketidakpedulian yang disengaja, entah apa yang sebenarnya dipikirkan orang pemerintah bersama warga tentang sampah, Sudah jelas-jelas ini persoalan serius, tetapi masih tetap diabaikan. Pasar, jalan, saluran air dan laut yang seharusnya menjadi tempat-tempat penting bagi publik berubah menjadi tempat pembuangan sampah yang tidak dikelola dan dibiarkan menjadi kotoran dan sumber penyakit.

Laut sudah pasti menjadi perhatian saya yang lain. Mulai dari penampakan pantai pasar Wosi sampai dampaknya ke Pantai Pasir Putih yang setiap minggu-nya menjadi pilihan utama masyarakat manokwari untuk berlibur, rekreasi, bercengkrama dengan keluaga melepas penat-nya kesibukan pekerjaan. Laut yang juga mensupply protein bagi kita pun ikut tercemar berbagai bentuk sampah yang dibuang. Lihat saja gambar 4 dan 5 dibawah. Gambar 4 adalah potret kotor pantai di pasar Wosi, sedangkan gambar 5 adalah potret pilu pantai pasir putih yang selalu menerima dampak dari kotor dan buruknya rasa empati terhadap lingkungan dengan membuang sampah disembarang tempat.

Gambar 4. Pantai pasar wosi yang indah sebelumnya, berubah menjadi gudang sampah yang kemudian dibawa obak ke laut dan mengotori laut.

Gambar 5. Serakan sampah di pantai pasir putih yang dibawa ombak dari pembuangan di kota.

Kira-kira bagaimana Manokwari bisa keluar dari persoalan ini? Bagaiman agar tugu Adipura yang baru saja selesai pembangunannya didepan Kantor Kejaksaan Tinggi Manokwari - Polda Papua Barat itu bisa benar-benar layak berdiri sebagai wujud penghargaan terhadap upaya manokwari menjaga kebersihan kota-nya? Siapa yang harus bertanggung jawab terhadap urusan sampah ini? Bagaimana warga juga bisa berkontribusi dalam menjaga kebersihan kota Manokwari? Apa saja sich kendala-kendala sehingga pengelolaan sampah tidak bagus-bagus juga? Mau sampai kapan sech persoalan-persoalan ini dibiarkan? Haruskah sampai ditemukan kasus besar dan masal akibat sampah baru kita sadar dan menyesalinya? Saya kira pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini bersama dengan pertanyaan lain yang mungkin muncul dikepala2 kita adalah pertanyaan penting yang harus dijawab untuk membangun Manokwari menjadi kota sehat melengkapi gaung-nya sebagai Kota Injil,



Minggu, 20 Maret 2016

Aliansi Mahasiswa dan Pemuda Adat Papua Barat Tuntut Penetapan PERDASUS PILKADA


Demonstrasi didepan kampung UNIPA-Manokwari, Papua Barat. Photo: Yunus Yumte

Manokwari, 21 Maret 2016. Dari depan gerbang kampus Universitas Negeri Papua Manokwari lebih dari 30 Pemuda dan Mahasiswa yang tergabung dalam Aliansi Mahasiswa dan Pemuda Adat Papua Barat berorasi menyampaikan aspirasinya agar draft PERDASUS tentang Pemilukada (Pemilihan Umum Kepala Daerah) Papua Barat segera ditetapkan. Orasi kemudian dilanjutkan dengan long march menuju Kantor DPR-PB. Tuntutan ini disampaikan kepada DPR Provinsi Papua Barat, MRP-PB, Menteri Dalam Negeri (Mendagri) dan Pemerintah Provinsi Papua Barat. Salah satu orator mempertanyakan dimana draft Naskah Akademis dan Rancangan PERDASUS-nya sebenarnya sudah siap dari tahun 2015? Kenapa masih di tahan-tahan di DPR-PB penetapannya? Padahal seyogya-nya Draft PERDASUS ini sudah harus ditetapkan sebelum proses pendaftaran calon Gubernur Provinsi Papua Barat di laksanakan.

Penetapan Rancangan PERDASUS ini dinilai krusial di suasana kerasnya politik saat ini sebagai wujud implementasi dari UU No 21 Tahun 2001 Tentang Otonomi Khusus Papua pasal 29 yang menyebutkan bahwa hak pemimpin Tanah Papua adalah milik orang asli Papua. Aliansi Pemuda dan Mahasiswa Adat Papua Barat dalam orasi-nya kembali menegaskan bahwa mereka siap memberikan dukungan kepada MRP-PB dan DPRPB dalam percepatan finalisasi sampai penetapan Rancangan PERDASUS ini apabila kendala yang terjadi adalah pada kendala teknis. Mereka juga mengawal para pemimpin politik untuk lebih dewasa menghormati Otonomi Khusus Papua sebagai kekhususan bagi Orang Asli Papua untuk memimpin diata tanah-nya.

Salah satu orator sedang menyampaikan orasi-nya didepan demonstran Aliansi Pemuda dan Mahasiswa Adat Papua Barat. Photo: Yunus Yumte

Rabu, 16 Maret 2016

Mapping Customary Right; for Forests and Land management in Baliem Valley

Timber is the main valuable resource for the community in Baliem Valley, beside for housing and public construction it is also needed for wall in the farm land and fuel-wood for daily livelihood needs. High extraction by the community which mostly illegal even though in their customary territories has implicates to the high degradation in the valley, scarcity of commercial woods and social conflict because of forestry law enforcement. So making the timber would sustainably available for the community and development needs under clear rights protection and legal management scheme, the collaboration of Forestry Department of Jayawijaya District, Yayasan Bina Adat Walesi/YBAW (Local NGO Based in Wamena), Lorentz National Park Management Body and Lembaga Study Pembangunan Kampung/LSPK (local NGO based in Jayapura) are facilitating customary community rights recognition, institutional strengthening and land uses planning. The worked was started in 2010 and now has mapped the boundary of 19 customary community groups and 3 which are now having the land uses and forests development plan.

 Small plots of timber in covers coffee plots in Baliem Valley. Photo: Yunus Yumte

The project was designed to bridge the gaps in the government and the communities about the expected sustainable management of Baliem Valley. For the forestry department and Lorenz National Park Management Units a key problem was the fundamental difference in the way that the national Forestry Department and communities view forest governance: for the forestry department nationally, the lack of proof that communities can manage forests sustainably is reason not to acknowledge customary ownership, whilst for the communities, the question of forest ownership is non-negotiable and is separate from the objectives of quality of the management of forest resources. YBAW also analyzed that the problems of timber management is strongly relates to the economic and social position of the traditional communities of the Baliem. They believe that communities are increasingly marginalized within the economic and political life of the valley, and that the key to asserting influence over the development process is recognition of their land and resource rights and, by association, the traditional leadership and decision making institutions.

Livelihood and landscape assessment conducted by IUCN, Samdhana and Partners in 2008 – 2010 identified the steps forward to dealing with the landscape degradation, community rights and economic development problems. Customary boundary mapping, customary community land uses and forests management plan and legal recognition of rights and its management scheme are the sets of activities been recommended and implementing until now. YBAW with their social expertise been working on social customary boundary mapping, while LSPK then continue it with in-depth social-land-forests data collection until institutional development. Both are backed up with the technical and legal supports from Forestry Department. As a pilot in Witawaya (1 customary group has mapped) a reforestation program been initiated to test the effective implementation of modified customary community groups institution in managing the land forests resources.


Sketching the customary boundary in Social Mapping. Photo: Yunus Yumte

19 customary boundary maps produced. They cover 192,000 ha of forests, land and water body in Belliem Valley or about 65% of total districts areas. The maps had stimulated the discussion at government level to revise the administrative boundary that currently full of conflict. For forestry they helps to appropriately recognize the owner and keys stakeholder they will involving in the forestry program. LSPK with their works in 3 groups of 19 has produced a full sets of basic social-land uses and forests data bases. They have also helps these 3 community in establishing a modified customary institution for effectively manage their resources and socio-communal relation. The recently started reforestation program in Witawaya has plant 5000 seeds of casuarina and will be spread to each community member. A legal draft and academic script of customary right protection and recognition were developed and now ready for further discussion and improvement before it goes for final approval by the parliament.

Government particularly forestry department of Jayawijaya district believes that current collaboration among government, CSO/NGO in Baliem Valley and customary community groups are a great foundation and momentum to move forward with their legal plan on timber plantation. The new established FMU in Baliem will then found easy ways to develop a plan and partnership arrangement with the community. Timber scarcity will then easily to be solved with the customary community reforestation.

Understanding the right, culture, tradition of community and their interaction to natural resource is the best start to create low conflict, legal and sustainable approaches on natural resources management. Because illegal logging is beyond cutting the tree without legal permission. During the projects implementation in Baliem valley we learned that: 


  • Community are mostly needs suitable friends to escape from their social-economic and environment problem. With limited capacity and minimum access to any positive information that could inspire them, a friend they expected should able to fill the gaps they had. Having someone or organization that understand local context with enough capacity to works with community was the project main attention when started. But then we found that most of the partner are also need to develop their capacity to handle all the technical-social and environmental issues they will working with community. So building a training of trainer program are one keys recommendation we should take in the next steps of projects
  • Government are mostly don’t brave enough to take a deeply action to solve the community problem but they do have an intent to do that and would provide a financial support when they see the impacts of the issues been pushing at community. So investing resources and human capacity in several pilot sites should be a priority to build field based evidence in which clarification of customary rights, legal recognition, complete land uses plan and strong customary institution will lead to the legal, benefit and sustainable management of natural resources – include timber
  • Holistic livelihood and landscape development approaches should be applied to bridge the gaps between community and government in the Balliem valley. The ongoing partnership among government-CSO/NGO and community that the project has successfully built should be maintained to the further works. But it is necessary for them to seat and talk about a long term target they will achieve in Baliem Valley though this collaboration.

Technical mapping preparation; develop gps tracking plan for boundary mapping. Photo: Martin Hardiono

Selasa, 15 Maret 2016

Building Synergies to Develop Community Primary Forests Enterprise in Indonesia

Timber harvesting by Esania Community in Kaimana - West Papua Province. Photo: Mnukwar Papua

March 15th 2016, one full day workshop and round table discussion in Hotel Orie Jakarta was organized by Samdhana Institute, AMAN and Rainforests Alliance talked about finding the ways to creates community forests enterprise in Indonesia Natural Forests. Taking cases from Messo-Amarica region such as Guatemala, Mexico and Peru where indigenous community have moving on sustainable, legal and benefits management of their forests resources. The meeting has brought together NGO, Facilitator, community forestry right holders, keys forestry officers and one representative from private sector. They presented three scheme of Indonesia forests management with their progress and challenges. These three schemes are: (1) customary community based timber management in Papua, (2) private forests management - cases from Lampung and (3) village forests- a social forestry program in Riau. Highlighting the importance of community participation in managing their forests resources, mainstreaming business perspective and advocating legal regulation are the cores issues the discussion had.

On his opening speech Abdon Nababan, General Secretary of Indigenous People Archipelago Alliance (AMAN) says that this is remain the big home works for us to show the cases where customary community raise and organize them self to managing their natural forests. He then emphasized that self-reviving means all the projects are getting approval and legal certification not because of money from charity donors but from the money they get from managing their forests resources. Learning from almost 25 years experiences working on this community forestry issues he noted that there are 4 major issues that we should preparing to make the community forests enterprise are working: (1) clarity of land tenure rights over the forests, (2) how institutional development and arrangement are working properly, (3) how to makes sure the current living forests community products are remain a core priority and attention and (4) capacity of the manager and all community member of the economic body on the ground. With currents change in the forests development pathway which taking social forestry as the national development target he encourages all the facilitator, donors and community to strategically looking at this opportunity to bridge the gaps in natural forests community enterprises. Supported Abdon points, Nonette Royo the director of Samdhana Institute says that current changes in Indonesia politics and policies orientation are the opportunity but also the challenges to us. So having a collaboration work to sharing knowledge, skill and resources are the steps we have to counting soon.

Complexity challenges and problems of the community forests enterprises in Indonesia are varying in each region. The participant and resources person pointed out them as follow:
  • Papua is now having a problem in the legal approval of their norms, standard, criteria and indication of customary community based forests management. As addition the limited capacity of the community in understanding the robust technical and business requirement in the CFE and social problem to clarifying and social consolidation among community have put the huge challenges for all forestry actor in the island to make the schemes is working properly
  • Sumatera, Sulawesi, Papua and Kalimantan with their social forestry program such as Village Forests, Community Plantation Forests and Community Forestry are facing the problem in local government commitment and supports from the preparation to the implementation of the scheme. The conflicts of claim and interest on huge money driven development are another issues they been fighting for. Technical capacity and social issues are also emerged together with a markets for forests products they produce from these legal social forestry program.
  • Private forests management. The example from South Konawe in Sulawesi, Kulon Progo in Central Java and GMWT in Lampung have shown that bringing community into real business room is another challenges after a licenses. Institutional arrangement and strong capital to compete with current big business power. They emphasized that working on timber/ forestry business is beyond having a sustainable certificate. Many ghost riders across the long chain of timbers transport and supply are influencing the amount of benefits they received
Despite their complexity of challenges and problems it is acknowledging that demand in timber from community concession are increasing. In Lampung, about 70% of total timber been supplied in the town are harvested from community concession. With it legal problem the un-planned logging in the Biak Island has contribute to 90% of timber needs in the city. These facts have previously confirmed in the 2006 report by Dudung Darusman (Forests Economic Professor in IPB) that the contribution of community forests industry are enormous high in the total timber supply in the country. Where about 39,4million m3 on 1,5 million ha are records as the potency of community timber industry.

Globally there are increasing number of community managed their forests resources. And it mostly successfully maintaining the functions, ensuring the benefit flows and has successfully reducing poverty lines. Indonesia government are also now aware that make forests valuable for the people are by giving them rights and access to manages it. The long history of big logging concession capture the forests resources has left the negative impact from high deforestation and degradation to social conflict in the community. 12,7 million ha for social forestry for example are part of the shift steps to balancing the allocation to community controlled and managed forests resources. Wiratno – the director of social forestry area preparation at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry on his presentation highlighted the current concern on pushing high allocation to community. PIAPS (social forestry indicative maps) are then developed to sets up national optimistic targets for community forestry. Funding, technical capacity and legal support are parts of the efforts the government is consistently will do in the presidential periods. He added there are many challenges needs to be answered to achieve those targets particularly with the increasing demand on non-forestry investment plan such as oil palm and mining that more often influenced policy makers not to support the development of social forestry program in their regions.

Cases from Latin America where local communities in country like Mexixo and Guatemalla have successfully manage their natural forests provides a good learning sites for Indigenous communities in Indonesia. In the Maya Biosphere Reserve of Guatemala, for example, nine community concessions co-manage more than 400,000 hectares of highly commercially valuable forest. Development of enterprises among these concessions has resulted in timber and non-timber forest product sales of around $10 million annually, generating thousands of jobs and financing investment in local infrastructure and social development. Significantly, over the last 15 years, deforestation rates in concessions have been significantly lower than in adjacent “core zone” protected forest says Ben Hodgdon – from Rain Forests Alliance. He underlying the challenges been facing in Indonesia are also same with what they have in latin America. Having a community consensus and consolidation to works together within good institutional arrangement are the keys in community forests enterprises.


Connecting resources and facilitator across the archipelago to supports emerge initiative at the community to take control over their forests are an important step to take. Focusing on create one good models on primary forests should be emphasized now. Learning from other country experiences with the same cases are to fulfill the gaps we don’t have in Indonesia. Bani Susilo as a representative of private sector in Papua noted that in cases like Papua, the challenge is to make sure that in the beginning of 2 – 3 years, community forests enterprises program are survives and could do good business arrangement even though they only reach local markets.

Timber measurement by the community in Esania - Kaimana West Papua. Photo: Mnukwar-Papua

Rabu, 02 Maret 2016

Building Papua Partners Ability to Writes down Their Knowledge



As part of Samdhana Institute Papua Program concern in developing partners capacity to documenting their lesson learn, process and results in a form of any related publication the writing workshop is organized. This 2016 workshop is focusing on helping 14 partners whose activities in 2014 - 2015 were funded by the Samdhana institute to writes down their knowledge and ideas includes lesson learn that they felt important to share to the targeted audiences. 17 peoples are involved and be facilitate by Fajar and Ridzky from Mongabay, Jalu from gerakan desa membangun and Martua from Samdhana.

The workshop will be conducted in 4 days, stated Marc 2nd until 5th. 3 main outputs are putting as the targeted are (1) each partner paper/publication material, (2) common recommendation on how to optimizing the information technology communication in the works of networking and (3) having a draft of policy brief in related to customary rights, land uses and forestry development in Papua. Grand Abe Hotel in Jayapura is selected as the venue to host this workshop. Combination between those whose part of the project designer, implementer with young new capacity are enriching the workhsops.

In 2014 and 2015 Samdhana institute had funded 14 institution in both Papua and West Papua Provinces on working on the issues of customary rights recognition, community organizing, community based forests management and consolidation among CSO/NGO. They are spread from Sorong and Tambrauw in the bird head of Papua, Wamena in the highland, Biak with the island landscape until Merauke in the south with swamp and low land landscape.

Samdhana is expects that each participant could taking home the ability in developing the papers and knowledge in public media communication so the could then start to develop they on portal on sharing information from their works. Some of them who has developed their website could then found a national networking to connects the message they could convey about Papua and its complexity of issues, problems and also any success story from the community that inspiring to be shared.