Society Empowerment and Its Relation with the Productivity of Hutan Tanaman Rakyat (HTR)-Based Production Forest in Indonesia

Abstract

One of six prioritized policies of forestry development in Indonesia is Revitalization of Forest Utilization and Forest Industry. The development of plantation, both industrial plantation and people plantation are a kind of way to satisfy the national wood industry needs. Hutan Tanaman Rakyat or HTR (Hutan Tanaman Rakyat, in Indonesian, or Plantation Forest Folk) is a plantation developed by a group of people in regard to improve potencies and qualities of production forest by applying silviculture which assures the forest resource preservation. HTR policy is Governmental policy aiming at alleviating poverty (pro-poor), creating job vacancy (pro-job) and improving growth quality though proportional investment between economic agents (pro-growth). This study aims at exploring society empowerment and the productivity of production forest products in HTR. This study employs survey method. This study is located in area of HTR throughout Indonesia, distributed in 26 Provinces in Indonesia starting from Aceh to Papua. Population in this study is region/ Regency implementing HTR development in Indonesia. Total population is 127 regions/regencies. Analysis unit (respondent) is Head of Forestry Service and Head of Society Empowerment, Market, Cooperative, and SME (to be noted, each region has different office name). Data analysis technique used is Cluster Analysis, Chi Square Cross Tabulation, and Factor Analysis. The result show The result of cluster analysis by Non-Hierarchical Cluster with Euclidean Distance showing 68 regencies classified in low productivity, 28 regencies classified in moderate productivity, and 31 regencies classified in high productivity. There is a relation between society empowerment and forest productivity. If the regency is able to implement society empowerment program well, it can produce good forest productivity. In contrast, if the regency cannot implement society empowerment well, forest productivity surely cannot be produced well. Factual data based on the table above proves it. Based on the empowerment variable, indicator of authority is the most dominant one as success or failure measurement of society empowerment. The authority states that forest group/society is given authority to change attitude or spirit (work ethics) to be their own. Therefore, they think that the change performed is the result of product of their willingness to achieve better change.

Keywords: Society Empowerment, Productivity, HTR