Assessing Drivers of Forest Conservation in Simancuang Village Forest, West Sumatra

Adelina Chandra,Satrio Adi Wicaksono,Dimas Fauzi,Fadhilla Husnul Khatimah

doi:10.1007/s11842-021-09489-2

Abstract

This study empirically assessed Social Forestry program implementation in Simancuang Village Forest or locally known as Hutan Nagari (HN) Simancuang in West Sumatra, Indonesia. We performed two analyses using primary and secondary data, namely propensity score matching to estimate the effects of the enactment of HN Simancuang in 2012 on forest cover loss and ordinal logistic regression (OLR) to predict the determinants of conservation awareness. The results of the forest cover analysis showed that forest cover loss in HN Simancuang between 2012 and 2019 was 0.038 percentage point lower than the adjacent protection forest. The relatively small impact was meaningful because although HN Simancuang is located much closer to settlements which increases the pressure on the forest, it could still maintain lower tree cover losses than the adjacent protection forest. This result indicated a certain degree of conservation awareness among HN Simancuang members, which prompted us to conduct a survey to 111 individuals from different households. To do this, we used the Ecosystem Services framework to conceptualise conservation awareness in HN Simancuang. Our OLR results showed that regulating and provisioning services of forests are the strong determinants of conservation awareness among the individuals in our sample. Our study indicates the need to implement social forestry program monitoring and evaluation, improve access to facilitation, and enhance agroforestry practice as the means to increase conservation awareness among forest-dwelling communities.

Highlights

Forests play a vital role in providing natural resources, supporting rural livelihoods, and supplying environmental services (de Groot 1992; Maryudi and Krott 2012; Elis et al 2019)
Our analysis shows that Hutan Nagari (HN) Simancuang is generally higher, than the adjacent protection forests in Alam Pauh Duo
This article aims to understand the impact of Social Forestry policy implementation in HN Simancuang, West Sumatra, Indonesia on curbing deforestation using forest cover loss as a proxy and how we could tap into community’s conservation awareness to optimise forest protection efforts in Social Forestry areas

Summary

Introduction

Forests play a vital role in providing natural resources, supporting rural livelihoods, and supplying environmental services (de Groot 1992; Maryudi and Krott 2012; Elis et al 2019). Deforestation and forest degradation threaten rural populations, whose livelihoods depend on forest-based resources (Sunderlin et al 2005). To reduce such pressures, community-based forest management (CBFM) has been promoted globally to reduce forest destruction while simultaneously improving rural development (Persha et al 2011; Resosudarmo et al 2014). With the growing view that involving local people to control forests proved to be effective in reducing both environmental degradation and poverty (Pokharel et al 2007; Kanel and Acharta 2008; Ojha et al 2009; Maryudi et al 2012), Social Forestry was introduced to achieve this dual-goal by legally democratizing forest management to local communities

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Discussion

Conclusion