Abstract
A pandemic, last seen a century ago, has reappeared in 2019 under the name of Covid-19. Poor forest communities are also especially affected by this pandemic. The qualitative method through literature and case study is used to explain the connection between the emergence of COVID-19, forest destruction, and its impact on the lives of people in forests in Indonesia. Two cases are going to be models of forest communities in Pemalang, namely LMDH Rawa Sakti and KTH GGL. The program was established by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to create a supportive atmosphere for forest communities’ survival to overcome the Covid-19 crisis. We use the new institutionalism concept introduced by Victor Nee (2003) to understand how the coupling within the affirmation concept was developed at micro-level in Indonesia. The result shows that there are unique and complex situations, especially between the social groups, the members (as the individual), and other actors that are not examined by new institutionalism, which are important to reach collective action or influence the situation. In the KTH GGL context, Juragan (as the other actor) determines the commodity although many members want to plant ginger that aligns with the Ministry of Environment and Forest’s suggestion. On the other hand, trust issues become a more important aspect for members of LMDH RS to do the group’s activity.
Highlights
Humanity has been facing various pandemics since 5,000 BC, such as the Hamin Mangha flu in China (ForestDigest, 2020)
We focus on the local context of communities that manage social forestry, especially the two communities categorized by the Social Forestry and Customary Forest Business Development or Bina Usaha Perhutanan Sosial dan Hutan Adat (BUSPHA), as a part of the Directorate General of Social Forest from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry as the model of the forest community in Indonesia
At the end of the paper, an opportunity will be presented for the challenges faced by communities around forests in Indonesia from the Covid-19 pandemic, which may require the attention of various parties concerned
Summary
Humanity has been facing various pandemics since 5,000 BC, such as the Hamin Mangha flu in China (ForestDigest, 2020). Concerns about the occurrence of an influenza pandemic have been raised by Garrett (2008) and it was estimated by the World Bank that such crisis would result in hundreds of billions of dollars in losses and kill tens of millions of lives. This concern first appeared in China in December 2019 with an increasing number of infected people in various parts of the world (Allam, 2020; Gorvett, 2020). These two communities are Gunung Gajah Lestari Forest Farmer Group (KTH GGL) in Gongseng Village and Forest Village Community Rawa Sakti (LMDH RS) in Gambuhan Village, located in Pemalang, Indonesia
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