Village Vision Workshops: Local Communities Discuss Benefits of Social Forestry
Written by Yayasan Sangga Bumi Lestari team
As part of the social forestry project implemented in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan, Yayasan Sangga Bumi Lestari, AidEnvironment’s team in Asia, held a series of workshops to surface input from local communities. One of the goals of the social forestry project is to work with local communities in achieving their ideas of using social forestry for public welfare.
For this purpose, Yayasan Sangga Bumi Lestari has chosen five villages to initiate this cooperation at the local level: Beringin Rayo Village, Tanjung Beulang Village, Nanga Tayap Village, Mekar Raya Village, and Sepakat Jaya Village. In order to gather input from voices within the local communities and relevant stakeholders, a series of “Village Vision” workshops was conducted in the first two villages, Beringin Rayo Village and Tanjung Beulang Village, from 29th April to 1st May 2023. Similar consultations in the other villages will follow in the upcoming months.
Village Vision Workshop in Beringin Rayo Village
Along with raising the awareness of relevant stakeholders regarding social forestry, the project centers local communities by letting them decide on the suitable schemes to maximize the benefits from the forest for public welfare. The purpose of the workshops is to understand the needs of the local communities including the availability of resources, potential business units, and strategy. This knowledge can be integrated into a village development plan. The intended outcome of the workshops is a mutual agreement between stakeholders to create a plan to achieve public welfare through managing social forestry.
Village Vision Workshop in Tanjung Beulang Village
Some key takeaways from the workshops:
1. In Tanjung Beulang Village, the people already have some
basic knowledge regarding social forestry. The village also manages a village-owned enterprise that has been integrated into village development. However, there still needs to be a push to establish a new business unit from the social forestry scheme.
2. In Beringin Rayo Village, people’s understanding regarding social forestry is still considerably lower than the neighbouring villages. The village is still planning to develop a village-owned enterprise, which then will be facilitated by experts to establish village regulations following the creation of the enterprise.
Yayasan Sangga Bumi Lestari plans to move forward with the knowledge gathered from the workshops by maintaining communication with experts and village assistants. The next steps will be to develop village-owned enterprises in Beringin Rayo and Tanjung Beulang Village, capacity building for people managing the enterprises, developing business plans, and helping the village to develop village regulations to accompany the execution of village-owned enterprises.
