Agroforestry farmers’ resilience in social forestry and private Forest programs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created impacts on various aspects of life and caused a shock to all sectors, including agriculture. The Indonesian government continues encouraging access for communities to be involved in forest management through social forestry programs Minister of Environment and Forestry Regulation No. 9 of 2021 on Social Forestry Management is Indonesia’s latest policy regulating social forestry. For Java Island, the social forestry program is regulated by the Minister of Environment and Forestry Regulation No. 39 of 2017. Traditional agroforestry has been carried out by farmers throughout Indonesia for a long time, both in state forest areas through social forestry programs and on private land dominated by woody tree species called private forests. This research aims to examine the resilience of agroforestry farmers in social forestry areas and private forest during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. This research was conducted in Garut and Bandung Districts, West Java Province, Indonesia, from May to July 2022. Interviews were performed with 219 respondents from six farmer groups: four groups that obtained social forestry permits through the recognition and protection of forestry partnerships (pengakuan dan perlindungan kemitraan kehutanan/KULIN KK) scheme and two groups in a private forest. The household livelihood resilience approach was used to analyze the agroforestry farmers’ resilience, comprised of financial, human, social, physical, and natural capital. Data were processed with a Likert scale (1, 2, and 3) and visualized using a spider diagram to compare and distinguish the five types of capital. The results showed the COVID-19 pandemic affected both social forestry and private forest farmers, where there was a decrease in agroforestry product prices and an increase in production input prices. These excluded private forest products, specifically cardamom, which has increased prices. Agroforestry farmers in the private forest have higher resilience than social forestry. These results highlight the need to increase financial capital, which has the lowest value for increasing household resilience. The level of resilience is influenced by the characteristics of farmers, especially their level of education, land ownership, and income. Based on the results, capital assistance, market access, and training related to post-harvesting are strategies for improving resilience. The results also contributed to efforts needed to increase the resilience of social forestry and private forest farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is needed to determine the resilience of agroforestry farmers in social forestry and community forests after the COVID-19 pandemic.