Gender and Income Equity in Social Forestry Programs

Java is only 6% of the total area of Indonesia but it is inhabited by 70% of the 230+ million Indonesians. More than 60% of the rural communities in Java depend on agricultural activities as their main source of income. Most of the rural communities are poor and live on the forest margins with an average land holding of less than 0.5 ha per household. This situation has hampered socio-economic development of the forest margins.

Available land for agriculture in Java is limited. More than 50% of its forest is managed by PerumPerhutani(State Forest Company). Farmers have limited access to this land. Nevertheless, due to economic pressure and lack of governance during the krismon(monetary crisis) period, farmers’ communities around state forest land opened up the areas. This led to conflict between Perum Perhutaniand farmers’ communities in many parts of Java.