THE IMPACTS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FLEGT (FOREST LAW ENFORCEMENT GOVERNANCE AND TRADE) PROJECT IN THE FOREST MANAGEMENT PROCESS AND THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE BUKIT BULAN VILLAGES, SAROLANGUN REGENCY

• Main Authors: , Erri Hari Wibawa, , Dr Ogenis Brilhante
• Format: Theses and Dissertations NonPeerReviewed
• Published: [Yogyakarta] : Universitas Gadjah Mada 2012
• Subjects: ETD
• Online Access: https://repository.ugm.ac.id/118436/; http://etd.ugm.ac.id/index.php?mod=penelitian_detail&sub=PenelitianDetail&act=view&typ=html&buku_id=58388
• Institution: Universitas Gadjah Mada

Bukit Bulan Sarolangun Regency is a hilly area that consists of five villages (Napal Melintang, Meribung, Mersip, Berkun and Lubuk Bedorong) and is surrounded by forest. Even though Bukit Bulan has great potential of forest, it has still faced problems in forest management. Low level of transparency and accountability, limited involvement of community, NGO and private sectors, as well as lack of law enforcement in forest management lead to a low level of trust of the community to the government, so that the community has participated in forest management in low level. Other problem in Bukit Bulan is its community welfare. The high number of poor households, women with economic vulnerability, and improper housing are some problems. In 2006 FLEGT project was established in that area using co-management approach The project was focused on coaching and empowerment of the communities at the village level in forest management regarding the principles of good governance. It has not been clear whether the FLEGT project has improve the local forest management and socio-economic condition in Bukit Bulan. The aims of the research is to find out if the implementation of the FLEGT project has improved the management of the Bukit Bulan indigenous forest and the social economic conditions The assessment of the project implementation used the framework of comanagement principles namely building trust (Gindl and Wukovitsch, 2003), sharing of power and responsibility (Pomeroy and Williams, 1994) and equity and togetherness (Feyerabend et al, 2000), and socio-economic impact was assessed using the framework given by Gilfin (1995) and Edwards (2005). The type of research was descriptive and the research strategy used was survey. The data were collected through fieldwork and analyzed using the framework mentioned. This research found that the FLEGT project conveyed a positive result as the project improved local forest management. Three of indicators namely trust building, sharing power and responsibility, and equity and togetherness were used to show that there was improvement. Generally, impact of the project carried positive benefits on socio-economic condition of the community. It is indicated by five out of seven indicators namely income, education, institutional relation, social class gap and conflict, and strengthening local wisdom. Two other indicators were not significantly influenced. The final conclusion of this research supports the hypothesis that the implementation of FLEGT project has improved the local forest management and the socio-economic of the community in Bukit Bulan Sarolangun Regency.