Proposed land tenure to save community forests

Evi Mariani

Katrina Kuni Kii, recently received the prestigious Kalpatra award from the president of Indonesia. The award was in recognition of her effort to plant thousands of sandalwood trees among other crops on her plantation in Sumba. However, she does not posses title documents for her plantation.

Conflict over land ownership may lead to increasing deforestation. A recent study by Forest Trends in collaboration with ICRAF has proposed land tenure reform to specifically determine ownership.Local forestry activists attest that small-holders engaged in agroforestry are more dependable in preserving the forests, compared to the private sector or the government. The findings are contained in a report titled 'Strengthening Forest Management in Indonesia through Land Tenure Reform: Issues and framework for action' For full report of the study largely conducted by Arnoldo Contras-Hermosilla (FT) and Chip Fay (ICRAF)