Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world, with 17,000 islands of varying sizes and elevations, from lowlands to very high mountains, stretching more than 5000 km eastward from Sabang in Aceh to Merauke in Papua. Although occupying only 1.3% of the world’s land area, Indonesia possesses the third-largest rainforest and the second-highest level of biodiversity, with very high species diversity and endemism. However, during the last two decades, Indonesia has been known as a country with a high level of deforestation, a producer of smoke from burning forests and land, and a producer of carbon emissions. The aim of this paper is to review the environmental history and the long process of Indonesian forest management towards achieving environmental sustainability and community welfare. To do this, we analyze the milestones of Indonesian forest management history, present and future challenges, and provide strategic recommendations toward a viable Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) system. Our review showed that the history of forestry management in Indonesia has evolved through a long process, especially related to contestation over the control of natural resources and supporting policies and regulations. During the process, many efforts have been applied to reduce the deforestation rate, such as a moratorium on permitting primary natural forest and peat land, land rehabilitation and soil conservation, environmental protection, and other significant regulations. Therefore, these efforts should be maintained and improved continuously in the future due to their significant positive impacts on a variety of forest areas toward the achievement of viable SFM. Finally, we conclude that the Indonesian government has struggled to formulate sustainable forest management policies that balance economic, ecological, and social needs, among others, through developing and implementing social forestry instruments, developing and implementing human resource capacity, increasing community literacy, strengthening forest governance by eliminating ambiguity and overlapping regulations, simplification of bureaucracy, revitalization of traditional wisdom, and fair law enforcement.

This paper’s working hypothesis is that the indigenous farming practices of Timorese farmers are those most suitable and adaptable with regard to these farmers’ circumstances. Intensive farming and the acceleration of land conversion in Java lead to a reduction in favorable cropland and the degradation of soil biology. To meet the demand for food production, unfavorable areas outside Java, including marginal semi-arid areas on Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara province, have become an important option. Unfortunately, the national crop production policy has paid less attention to the specific biophysical characteristics of the region and how local people have adapted to the diverse marginal environment. We review the literature in the areas of soil nutrition retention and soil biology, vegetation/crop diversity, and farming practices/management, including local wisdom on soil management. This paper highlights that the values of the chemical parameters of the soils in question are varied, but generally range from low to high. The existence of beneficial micro-organisms is important both for improving soil fertility and due to their association with local vegetation/crops. Traditional farming practices, such as the local agroforestry of Mamar, have effectively preserved the existence of micro-organisms that promote conservation practices, crop/vegetation diversity, and sustainable agriculture. We recommend that the expansion of croplands and crop production into marginal semi-arid areas needs to be considered and adapted while taking into consideration sustainability and environmentally sound traditional practices.

This study investigated the land cover changes, carbon storage dynamics and their underlying socio-economic processes before and after a community forest permit in Bleberan village, Gunungkidul, Indonesia, during 1999-2018. We used a combination of the forest canopy density model, carbon conversion and socio-economic related data to analyze land cover classes in the periods of 1999-2003, 2003-2009, and 2009-2018, representing the phases of several years before community forestry permit, initial phase of community forestry establishment and several years after community forestry permit, respectively. Results showed that at baseline (1999), where illegal logging was started on the ground, the condition of the 40 ha investigated area was dominated by non-forest in the form of open land by 54% with an amounted carbon storage of 1352.62 ton. In the phase of before community forestry permit (1999-2003), when there was continuous illegal logging, the open land rise quickly achieved to 83%, with only 312.09 ton of carbon storage remaining. In the initial phase of community forestry establishment (2003-2009), when the government issued a legalization of community forest, the mixed dryland agriculture shifted to dominate the area by 55%, with the carbon storage being increased to 1840.94 ton. The last phase, several years after community forestry permit (2009-2018), which characterized by active engagement of the community in forest rehabilitation, the area was altered to fully stocked teak plantation forest by 82%, with a carbon storage enhancement of 3379.16 ton or two times higher than that at baseline. Such results are important for the forest community authority and related stakeholder for designing appropriate forest-related policies and supporting REDD + implementation.