Watershed areas are the most appropriate landscape units to manage natural resources, writes Edi Purwanto, Director of Tropenbos International’s Indonesia Program in an article in the Jakarta Post which looks at how a new village law in Indonesia will help to facilitate this.

Watershed boundaries would make it easy to analyze the interrelationships between upstream and downstream areas, among ecosystem components such as soil, water, land and forests, and between on-site and off-site impacts, says Purwanto.

In the tropics, rainwater tends to fall with high intensity over a short period of time, meaning much of it is transported downstream ‘destructively’ through overland flow.

“To enhance the water retention capacity of the recharge areas, reduce erosion, sedimentation and flooding, all development actors in the watershed should have the same vision on managing development and natural resources.”

Purwanto explains how villages – the smallest development units – are the core unit for sustainable natural resource management at the watershed or landscape level. In Indonesia, a new law gives village governments greater control in managing their natural resources. This is aimed at creating strong, developed, independent and democratic villages that can improve their welfare. They hold full authority to define their own development.

This new law “should be considered a golden opportunity for better sustainable natural resource management at landscape level,” says Purwanto, adding that government, NGOs and others will still be needed, (especially over a 2-year preparation period) to enhance village capacity.

In particular, villages will need assistance in areas such as development planning, formulating regulations to protect natural resources, developing inter-village collaboration (particularly between upstream and downstream villages) and in administering the greater portion of funds they will receive from the national budget.

Read the full story: New village law and natural resources