Land and tree tenure rights on agro forestry (parak) system at communal land in West Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

Land and forest degradation in Indonesia tends to increase yearly due to lack of society participation in planting and maintaining of trees, especially in communal lands. In West Sumatra, where the land is generally communal, the success of tree planting for this purpose should be considered from land and tree tenure. The incentive system which is uncertain, leads to reluctance in planting trees on communal lands and the state. Therefore, this study aims at creating incentive system based on tree tenure rights in communal and state lands in West Sumatra. The finding indicates that on communal land, the tree rights basically vary according to local rules and the objectives of tree planting. The individual rights are basically high, but limited by the communal rights. Thus, for income purposes, farmers prefer planting a non-timber producing trees. Therefore, as an incentive, the clarity between individual rights and communal needs to be known as it generally happens that the communal interest dominates the individual interest. While on the state land, the clear purpose and usage for individual gets less emphasis, but there is more indirect achievement when usage is communal. Key words: Agro forestry, communal land, incentives, land tenure, tree tenure, West Sumatera.