Tenganan Pegringsingan Prepares Customary Forest Management Plan
In 2019, the Tenganan Pegringsingan Customary Forest was designated as a Customary Forest through the Social Forestry (PS) scheme. This status was determined by the Decree of the Minister of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia No. SK. 1546/MENLHK-PSKL/PKTHA/PSL.1/2/2019 dated February 28, 2019 for an area of 591 hectares. One of the important follow-up activities carried out by indigenous communities whose forests have the status of Customary Forest through the PS scheme is to prepare a Customary Forest Management Plan. This management plan includes an institutional strengthening plan, forest utilization plan, business work plan, and monitoring and evaluation plan. Currently, there are six forest areas in Bali that have the status of Customary Forest under the Social Forestry scheme.
The activity of preparing the management plan for the Tenganan Pegringsingan Customary Forest was carried out on June 20-21, 2024, as part of the Village Customary Economic Strengthening program supported by The Samdhana Institute. The activity was facilitated by Mr. Edi Suprapto from Arupa Yogyakarta, also present as speakers were Mr. Made Maha Widyartha from the Bali Provincial Forestry and Environment Service and Mr. Awan Siswanto from the Bali and Nusa Tenggara Region PSKL (Social Forestry and Environmental Partnership) Center.
Based on the presentation delivered by the KLH Service, Bali has a forest area of around 131,000 hectares or 22.69% of the total area of Bali. However, this does not mean that all of it is forest cover or an area covered by canopied trees with a variety of vegetation and animal species. Some are actually “production forests” of the monoculture type and can be cut down when they are ready to harvest. In fact, the total forest area according to the Bali Provincial KLH Service decreased drastically in 2019 due to a spike in timber sales in Bali.
Another fact is that there are areas covered by forest (in the true sense) that are not included in the 22.69% area because they do not have the status of state forests, but rather APL (Other Use Areas). Thus, the government encourages forests in the APL area to become Customary Forests with a Social Forestry scheme to increase the amount of forest cover in Bali. Forest resources are expected to be managed sustainably through area management and forest management (management of forest production, ecology, and social) in the form of developing social forestry businesses. Businesses that can be developed are timber forest product businesses, non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and environmental services, as well as land use under stands. Through the businesses that are developed, it is hoped that the community will become economic actors, business groups will become independent, a commodity marketing network system will be built, and an economic growth center will occur. These businesses will later be managed by the Social Forestry Business Group (KUPS).
Related to this, the Tenganan Pegringsingan Customary Forest will not develop a timber forest product business, in accordance with the awig-awig (traditional rules), especially those related to forest management. The types of businesses that will be developed are HHBK and environmental services businesses. The HHBK business is planned to be a business of the BUPDA (Baga Utsaha Pedruwen Desa Adat) Tenganan Pegringsingan. Likewise with environmental services, such as ecotourism, this business will also be part of the BUPDA. In the discussion it was known that the institution and management of the BUPDA are under the Customary Village under the authority of the Governor of Bali, in contrast to the KUPS which is under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (LHK). Therefore, further discussion is needed regarding the Customary Forest in the APL which means it is fully managed by the Customary Village. However, another reality is that the Customary Forest is part of the PS scheme, so in general it is necessary to coordinate with the PSKL Center as an extension of the Ministry of LHK.
The RKPS generally contains the following:
- General description
- Location (administrative boundaries and area functions)
- Physical conditions of the area (land cover conditions, topography, slope, altitude, and dominant tree species)
- Socio-economic conditions (population demographics, educational facilities and infrastructure, health facilities and infrastructure, regional infrastructure)
- Regional potential
- Activity plans
- Institutional strengthening (formation and strengthening of KUPS)
- Forest utilization (area utilization and environmental services, utilization and collection of wood and non-wood forest products)
- Business development and marketing
- Management plan map containing forest utilization activities
The most important thing in compiling this RKPS is its function as a reference for forest management, and for now it will be agreed upon and implemented internally by the Tenganan Pegringsingan Traditional Village.