COMMUNITY-BASED FOREST MANAGEMENT PROJECT GUNUNG PALUNG NATIONAL PARK BUFFER ZONE

Jointly administered by
the Directorate General of Forest Utilization in the Department of Forestry and Plantations of
The Republic of Indonesia and the Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Harvard University

Project Brief

A Pilot project for community-based management of sawn timber production from an area of approximately 8,000 hectares in Kabupaten Ketapang, West Kalimantan. The project area serves as a buffer zone to Gunung Palung National Park (GPNP), and project includes conservation activities that will also enhance the conservation status of the national park.

Overall Goal / Development Objectives

Develop a technical model for community-based production forest management that is ecologically, economically and socially sustainable. Key objectives include the development of appropriate community institutions capable of managing the timber management enterprise and providing an alternative, legal, source of timber thus reducing pressure from illegal logging on GPNP.

Project Purpose / Immediate Results

1. Establishment of a community-based forest management plan in the project area.
2. Establish a community-managed sawmill facility capable of selling sawn timber on the international market.
   
3. Establish the appropriate community organisations capable of supervising and managing the community forest management plan and the community enterprise.
   
4. Develop and provide appropriate skills training for community members needed to manage enterprise.
   
5. Develop working relationship between local communities involved in the project and the Gunung Palung National Park Staff.
   
6. Develop and provide appropriate forestry extension and education on sustainable forestry and park conservation.

Outputs / Results

1. Technical Model for Community-Based Production Forest Management
   
2. Community Organization Structural Model
   
3. Buffer Zone Model for Conservation
   
4. Indonesian Human Resource Development

Target Groups

Local illegal loggers that currently log in Gunung Palung National Park. However, all community members will benefit from income from the project and it's institutions.

Key Documents

1. Memorandum of Understanding between Ministry of Forestry - Directorate General Forest Utilization and Harvard University dated 15 January 1998.
2. Comprehensive Plan of Operation that accompanies the Memorandum of Understanding between Ministry of Forestry -Directorate General Forest Utilization and Harvard University dated 4 March 1998

Project Site

Pilot project location of 8000 Ha is located along the northwest border of GPNP in Kecamatan Simpang Hilir, Kabupaten Ketapang, West Kalimantan. The 8000 ha is comprised of approximately 5000 Ha previously-logged swamp forest, about 400Ha of mixed lowland forest, and about 2600 Ha of previously-logged swamp forest that burned in October 1994 and again in 1997. The proposal to use this specific 8000 Ha site was endorsed at the meeting of the Coordinating Committee for the project held at Manggala Wanabhakti on November 28, 1996.

This location was chosen because :

• Of its proximity to large numbers of people currently involved in illegal logging.
  
• Still has high level of extractable and valuable timber.
  
• Conservation of the area of forest will benefit GPNP by increasing the total area of protected forest.
  
• The strategic location and could function for controlling management activities for GPNP

The project is currently working with the communities of 14 dusun from 4 desa in the Kecamatan Simpang Hilir and Sukadana.

 

CBFM Model

The community-based forest management plan that is being carried out is designed to be replicable in other areas of forest in similar conditions. The key elements of the forest management plan are:

• A polycyclic rotation of about 50 years (the exact plan has yet to be produced) allowing annual cutting blocks of 100Ha
  
• Forest Stewardship certification will allow the project to sell the timber at premium prices on the international market, thus;
  
• A wider selection of timber trees can be harvested economically than can be if only the local market is used, increasing the volume of valuable timber available per hectare.
  
• Initial harvesting will take place in areas of the forest little impacted by the commercial or illegal logging of the last 20 years, allowing these areas to regenerate.
  
• Low impact logging techniques will be employed to minimise incidental damage to the forest. Logged areas will be replanted with important timber species to aid regeneration of the forest and ensure a future crop.
  
• Monitoring of the environmental and social impact of the project will be continuous to track the effects of the project on the community forest area, GPNP and local communities.

Business Development and Income Generation

The project's primary goal is to create a small-scale, community-owned and operated logging operation by:

• Transferring the rights to cut, process and sell timber from a former, privately-owned and large-scale logging concession to local communities in the Gunung Palung National Park (GPNP) buffer zone;
• Working with legal and illegal "hand-loggers" (who also extract timber from the Park) from nearby villages who are currently supplying larger scale operations;
• Placing a sawmill in the project area and training community members in its operation and maintenance; and
• Marketing certified sawn timber internationally.

This operation will provide direct employment and income for at least 100 households and income from the project will also be available to the community organization to distribute, thus benefiting the communities as a whole.

Activities

Following the signing of the MOU in January 1998 the project activities have been geared towards community building and preparing the forest for forestry operations. This has included:

• Conducting a census of the villages involved in the project to determine population size and levels of income.
• Working with Bina Swadaya foundation to develop local community groups (kelompok swadaya masyaraka) that will become the forest management organization.
• Starting an environmental education program in conjunction with GPNP staff.
• A primary inventory of the forest area. A 4% inventory of all trees over 40 cm DBH, to determine the potential volume of timber available, to develop a management plan and choose the location of the first area logging operations.
• Building a field camp as a base for the inventory and forest ecology research.
• Preliminary observations into the diversity of animals and plants, indicating that the forest is surprisingly diverse and home to rare animals such as orang-utans, sun bears and storm's stork.
• Train local community members in timber inventory and socio-economic survey census methods.

The project has aimed to provide alternative employment to local men who would otherwise be involved in illegal logging.

Partners

Directorate of Forest Utilization of the Ministry of Forestry and Estate Plant of the Republic of Indonesia
Harvard University Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology
Local Communities
Bina Swadaya Foundation
Biodiversity Conservation Network
Gunung Palung National Park

CONTACT INFORMATION

LTFE Gunung Palung CBFM Project, PO Box 1120, Pontianak, West Kalimantan 78011, Indonesia; Fax 62-561-32757; e-mail LTFE@pontianak.wasantara.net.id

Harvard University LTFE, Peabody Museum, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Fax: 1-617-496-8041

Direktorat Jendral Bina Program PH, Gd. Manggala Wanabakti Lt 11, Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto Jakarta.

BCN (Jakarta Office): Jl. Madium No. 3, Menteng, Jakarta 10320, Indonesia; Phone/Fax: 62-21-392-6584; e-mail: bcordes@cbn.net.id

	1997 Fact Sheet
	What's at Stake?
1997 Update
Successes and Challenges
"OK...So What?"

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