Evaluating the multiple aspects of the new era of social forestry in Indonesia

Abstract

Social Forestry (SF) is a scheme to achieve sustainable development in the forestry sector. SF in state forests is mainly implemented using an agroforestry pattern, where government-owned wood plants are combined with agricultural plants owned by farmers. SF in Indonesia has been managed under the Minister of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) Regulation No. 9 of 2021 concerning SF Management. In addition to those regulations, the MoEF Regulation No. 4 of 2023 concerning SF in Forest Areas with Special Management (KHDPK) is marking a new era for SF in Indonesia. This paper examines the performance of SF in the last ten years (2013-2023). The method used is a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), with the literature sources from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases. The study results show that SF performs well in ecological and economic aspects, especially regarding SF as a source of income and livelihood for SF license holders. Meanwhile, there is a balance between low and high performances regarding social aspects, access, and technology. Many existing problems give institutional and policy aspects the lowest performance compared to other aspects. These findings alarm policymakers and related stakeholders to evaluate existing policies and whether they have tackled problems in SF implementation.