The CBNRM MCAI grant project title is “Increasing access and utilization of forest ecosystem services for sustainable forest rural communities in North Lombok, East Lombok and Kolaka” proposed by the Konsorsium Pendukung Sistem Hutan Kerakyatan (KPSHK) cooperating with partner institutions consist of KONSEPSI Mataram, YAPPI Sultra and LaPAK Sultra.
Proposed core activities in this project are participative forest management in the area of forest community. The people’s livelihood in North Lombok and East Lombok still depends on the agricultural sector, both rice field and dry land agriculture. The agricultural land ownership is relatively very limited, around only 0.5 ha per household. While in Kolaka, the expansion of community farming area for seasonal plantation dominates land use pattern. Limitations of rice field, fulfilling the needs of household economy, land conditions and farming area expansion have been encouraging people to use the forest as a source of livelihood. The calculation result using Hansen data, in the period of 2001-2013 indicates the loss of forest cover in East Lombok District reached 1,050.33 ha or 80.79 ha per year, or 118.79 ha per year, 1544.30 ha per year in North Lombok District and in Kolaka District reached 55,587.66 ha or approximately 4,275.97 ha per year.
Based on community economic conditions in forest border and forest use practices in the three districts of project location, the goal of the project is to improve the quality of forest ecosystem services for forest border community welfare. The expected result of this project intervention are: (1) increasing access and utilization of forest products by the community; and (2) improving community based forest governance on the principle of sustainable forest.