Configuration of resource access explaining the performance of community forest farmer groups in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta

Abstract

After more than 10 years managing state forestland under a social forestry program, community forestry’s farmer groups in Gunungkidul have shown differences in terms of their performance quality. The resource accesses (defined as the ability to benefit from certain resources) as stated by the theory of access (Ribot and Peluso, 2003) could affect their performance and subsequently their overall benefits from the social forestry program. This study aims to understand which configurations of resource access affecting the performance quality of forest farmer groups. In-depth interview and observation were carried out on the six forest farmer groups, covering the different degrees of success. The data were collected to measure the level of conditional variables (resource access) and outcome variable (the performance). The level of performances are indicated by forest conditions, institutional and business aspects. This paper applied Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with a four-value fuzzy set methodology to conduct a systematic cross-case comparison using fsQCA software to analyze the relationship between the condition and outcome variables. The results showed that two configurations of resource access profoundly explained the successful performance of the farmer groups. The first combination consists of access to knowledge, technology, financial, market, and social capital which can be found in Sedyo Rukun and Sido Maju II. Each of the access in the first combination contributes 30% towards the performance. The second combination consists of access to knowledge, technology, financial, labor, and social capital which explained the condition of Sedyo Lestari, Sedyo Makmur, dan Sido Dadi. Each of the access contributes 56% towards the performance. The prime implicant for successful quality performance is found in access to knowledge, indicating that farmer-to-farmer learning and extension services from third parties are required to be encouraged in social forestry programs.