Forest management and development
The management and development of community forests need to be increased in productivity so that community welfare is expected to increase. Some analysis of problems that often arise in the management and development of community forests include the following:
1. Problems Decreasing soil fertility in community forest areas
One way that can be done to overcome this problem is the management of soil fertility in the area owned by farmers and the application of soil and water conservation techniques. Learning from what has been done in the past and the consequences felt at this time, what needs to be done is to reformulate the soil conservation efforts with new policies and adapted to the current conditions.
The central government program in the field of forestry and alternating land conservation was launched by the central government starting from the National Movement for Forest and Land Rehabilitation (Gerahan) launched by the government since 2003, followed by the Small Planting Program for Harvesting and finally the Million Tree Planting Movement and the One Person One Man One Program Tree. However, the policy has not yet touched on the issues raised (Bonjohson on Understory Pasture in A Silvopastoral Agroforestry System Journal).
The scarcity of fertilizers and the high cost of artificial (inorganic) fertilizers can now be overcome by policy
the development of organic fertilizer in the form of manure and other organic fertilizers such as the use of bekasi, the use of organic material and fermented manure and accelerated the decomposition process through the help of EM4 microorganisms and the like. However, until now bekasi fertilizers and various other types of organic fertilizers that are already widely on the market have not been able to replace the benefits of artificial fertilizers so that the dependence of farmers on artificial fertilizers is still quite large.
The use of manure is commonly practiced by farmers but is currently needed in relatively larger amounts to be able to maintain soil fertility. The problem is the lack of capital owned by farmers so that farmers generally do not implement fertilization.
Some technical approaches that can be taken to overcome this problem are:
a. Completion of community forest agroforestry patterns by intensifying the planting of binding plants
Nitrogen between rows of plants
b. Enabling the use of crop residue mulch as organic compost with more techniques
practical like Vertical Mulch Technology.
c. Enrich the nutrient content of organic fertilizer produced so that it can replace the role
inorganic fertilizer (artificial fertilizer).
2. Problems with potential data on community forests that are not yet accurate
To overcome this problem, efforts are needed to accurately re-establish the condition and existence of community forests to find out their true potential so that appropriate development planning can be made. Accurate data is needed to be able to draw up proper planning. In this case, effective public forest inventory methods are needed. The current forest inventory method is still based on the inventory method in natural forests. The method of inventorying natural forests needs modification to be applied in community forests because the condition of community forests is very different from natural forests.
3. Problems relating to the preservation of community forests
To preserve community forests, it is necessary to start with planting techniques aimed at forming stand structures that approach normal forests consisting of various age classes. Without the structure of the stand, the community forest will not be guaranteed its sustainability because at any time it can change its designation. Changing farmers' habits from an ordinary planting system to a planting system by constructing a stand structure is not easy. For this reason, it is necessary to pilot community forest development techniques with stand structures that approach normal forests both on vacant land and on land that already has plants through enrichment with certain techniques. These pilot activities need to be formulated in the form of policies that enable the sustainable development of community forests.