The Impact of Community Forestry schemes on rural livelihoods. Evidence from Gunung Kidul regency, Java, Indonesia.

Abstract

Community Forestry (CF) has received much attention from academic scholars and policy-makers as a method to tackle the widespread forest degradation and related poverty issues in forest villages. Enhanced knowledge on the effectiveness of CF-schemes is vital for improved policy and implementation of the CF-schemes. This research focuses on two different types of CF-schemes in Gunung Kidul regency on Java, Indonesia. These are Hutan Rakyat (HR), which is Privately Owned Forests (POF) and Hutan Kemasyarakatan (HKm), which is a state-led Community Forestry Managment (CFM). The first research aim is to further investigate the impact of CF-programs on rural livelihoods, including both CF-members and non-members. The second aim is to understand the threats and opportunities that lie ahead in reaching poverty alleviation through CF-schemes. Special attention is paid to the impact of community forestry programs on the food production in the research area.