Community Participation In Forest Conservation At West .

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 473when there was an increase of forest from non-forestaround 5% of the total watershed area. The addition wasderived from changes in the use of shrubs, mixedgardens, mixed fields/orchards, and reeds. This situationis caused by several things, among others, most likelydue to the increased density of vegetation in mixedgardens due to clove plantations that have been left byfarmers and planting vanilla among clove plants. Besides,another cause is the result of the implementation of thereforestation program conducted by the government.According to Statistics of the North SulawesiProvince Forestry Service [3], in the Noongan, Kawatak,Soputan and Tumaratas areas in 1976/1977 and1984/1985 fiscal years, 757 ha had been successfullyreforested. From 1982 - 1999, the change from forest toother uses was relatively high, amounting to 5.63% of thewatershed area, compared to the change from other usesto a forest of 0.53%. The dominant pattern of change isfrom forests to shrubs, mixed gardens, and dry fields.This is caused by pressure from the population around theforest in the form of forest encroachment and illegallogging. Forest encroachment mostly occurred in the areaaround Lembean and Soputan mounts.In 2015, there were fires and forest destruction inseveral districts in Minahasa Regency, namely in theDistrict of Pineleng 200 Ha, Mandolang District 100 Ha,Kawangkoan Barat District 200 Ha, West Tompaso Kec100 Ha, West Langowan District 120 Ha, Kombi District40 Ha, East Lembean District 20 Ha and TombaririDistrict 20 Ha. Based on these conditions, the Minahasaregional government then banned all forms of mountainclimbing by nature keeper groups. The governmentprohibits conducting tree felling activities in forest areas,prohibitions on entering former fire forest areas to beturned into plantations and all kinds of activities becausethey can be dangerous. This decision was stated in theMinahasa District Instruction Number 409 / BM / X-2015dated October 8, 2015, to all SKPD Heads, district heads,village heads and throughout the Minahasa Regency to bepassed on to the general public.The regulation also prohibits destroying all types ofplants in forest areas, prohibits changing permanentlandscapes, prohibits conducting camp activities, andprohibits conducting animal hunting activities.Therefore, related to environmental issues,especially about this forest, this study tries to find outhow community participation in the District ofKawangkoan Barat in the preservation of the forest. Asperceptions, and participation elements of humanbehavior that will influence how a human acts [4]. Toensure the functionality of the forest ecosystem runningfor the environment as a whole in the KawangkoanDistrict area, an effective forest management policystrategy must be based on the principles of sustainableenvironmental management, namely management isconducted an integrated (integral) and holistic mannerrelated environmental aspects which include ecological,economic and social ipation is the active involvement of the communityor participation means the involvement of the processdetermining the direction of development policystrategies implemented by the government. Theimplementation of development should be a stimulusfrom the government for people in their participation tohave the motivation. According to Simatupang [5],provides some details about participation as follows: (a)Participation means what we do is part of a joint effortconducted hand-in-hand with our fellow countrymen andfellow citizens to build a future; (b) Participation alsomeans work to achieve a common goal among all citizenswho have diverse backgrounds of trust in our Pancasilacountry, or the same basic rights and obligations tocontribute to the development of a new future of ournation; (c) Participation does not only mean taking part inthe implementation, development planning. Participationmeans contributing to our understanding of ourdevelopment of human values and ideals regarding socialjustice remain upheld, and (d) Participation indevelopment means pushing towards development inharmony with human dignity. Social and national justicewhich preserve nature as a human environment for futuregenerations.According to Tilaar [6] participation is amanifestation of the desire to develop democracy througha process of decentralization in which efforts are pursuedamong others the need for bottom-up planning byinvolving the community in the process of communityplanning and development. Community participationaccording to Isbandi [7] is community participation in theprocess of identifying problems and potential exists in thecommunity, selecting and making decisions aboutalternative solutions to deal with problems, implementingefforts to overcome problems, and communityinvolvement in the process of evaluating changesoccurred.Participation made by each component of society,according to MacIver and Page [8] explained thecommunity is a system of customs, procedures, 19 ofauthority and cooperation between various groups,classification, and supervision of human behavior andhabits. Society is a form of life together for a long periodto produce a custom, according to Ralph Linton [8]society is any group of people who have lived andworked together long enough. they can regulatethemselves and consider themselves as a social unit withclearly defined boundaries while the communityaccording to Selo Soemardjan [8] are people who livetogether produce culture and they have a common area,identity, have habits, traditions, attitudes, and feelings ofunity that are bound by similarity.35

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 473Preservation in the Indonesian Dictionary comesfrom the word sustainable, which means it remainsunchanged forever. Then in the use of the Indonesianlanguage, the use of the prefix and suffix means to beused to describe a process or effort [9]. Therefore,according to Law no. 41 of 1999, the forest is anecosystem unit in the form of a stretch of land containingbiological natural resources dominated by trees in theirnatural environment, which cannot be separated from oneanother. Forests are classified as production forests,protection forests, conservation forests. The productionforest is a forest area that has the main function ofproducing forest products. Protection forest is a forestarea that has the main function as protection of lifesupport systems to regulate water systems, preventflooding, control erosion, prevent seawater intrusion, andmaintain soil fertility. Conservation forest is a forest areawith certain characteristics, which has the main functionof preserving the diversity of plants and animals and theirecosystems. Therefore, the main objective of thisresearch is to reveal community participation inpreserving the forest environment in the KawangkoanBarat sub-district.II. RESEARCH METHODSThis research was conducted in Kawangkoan BaratDistrict, Minahasa Regency, aimed at people who livearound the forest area. To get accurate data, there areseveral ways of collecting data obtained by interview,observation, and documentation. Analysis of the dataused is a descriptive qualitative analysis by collecting,managing, presenting, and describing the results ofresearch as they are. The data obtained will be analyzedusing diagrams and tables for the data can be read easilyto find out the answer to the problem.III.RESULT AND DISCUSSIONCommunity Participation in Forest Conservation atWest Kawangkoan District, Minahasa Regency1. Forms of Community Participation in ForestProtection at West Kawangkoan DistrictThe forms of community participation in forestprotection at West Kawangkoan District include thefollowing:a. Plant a replacement tree Forming study groups orcommunities within the scope of teachers, students,and students' parents; The people of WestKawangkoan maintain the preservation of forests dueto a part of their lives. The West Kawangkoancommunity, especially in the Upper and LowerTombasians, is a producer of high-quality woodenhouses (knockdown). In this case, it needs good andquality of wood. Therefore, to maintain the qualityand sustainability of wood, every community in theDistrict is driven by its own will and initiative to tryto manage and preserve the forest for thesustainability of the timber house business. Plantingreplacement trees such as nantu trees, cempaka treesare part of a form of community participation in forestprotection. Before taking a wood, the concernedshould firstly plant some similar trees in the locationspecified for each collection of one type of tree afterthe replacement tree has grown properly, the fellingmay be done.b. Obligation to Provide Information: Besides, localcommunities are also required to provide informationto local government, if there are people who aretrying to damage the forest carelessly. This is a formof community assistance for forest protection, namelyby providing information to the government, ifsomeone is cutting down wood in the WestKawangkoan forest area and there is a violation ofgovernment regulations. They are district and villagechiefs in the West Kawangkoan district.c. ObeyGovernmentRegulations:Governmentregulations regarding forest preservation in eachregion would be the same, except for regulationsrelating to culture. In this context, governmentregulations form a basic foundation in protecting andpreserving forests at West Kawangkoan District.However, there are some additional rules made by theWest Kawangkoan community, to supportgovernment regulations, namely: (1) No illegallogging, communities will not cut trees illegallywithout permission from the village chief. (2)Violations committed will be subject to sanctionsaccording to the level of violations committed.Violations in the form of taking wood or other forestobjects without the permission of the localgovernment, then the penalty or fine in the form ofwood products are confiscated or pay an amount ofmoney according to the agreement. Communities atWest Kawangkoan district know there is arelationship between their behavior in protecting theenvironment to influence the environment.Understanding at this stage, the community it WestKawankoan District in terms of quantity or quantityhas begun to decrease compared to the acquaintancestage. Among the people, it turns out that they onlyknow without understanding deeper the meaning ofenvironmental sustainability, especially forests. Manyof them are still indifferent to the condition of theirenvironment affected by exploitation. Loving theforest environment, where at this advanced stagepeople who know and understand in their thinkingand behavior environmental sustainability as animportant part of the community. West Kawangkoancommunity participation in the practical phase ofwhat they know and understand. Communities whounderstand more deeply about environmentalsustainability will have the movement in the form ofbehavior to preserve the environment by conserving,protecting, and obeying applicable rules.36

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 473d. Other Forms of Participation: Other types ofparticipation contributed by the community in theWest Kawangkoan district, as follows: (1)Participation of ideas, contributing thoughts ofexperience, knowledge in meetings that are heldregularly; where the community is active insubmitting proposals and those who participate inexploring ideas. The West Kawangkoan peopleconsidered their presence in meetings to provideinput, ideas and is important. This is in line with theopinion of [10] which states without the presence of aperson it is impossible to participate in planning. Inthis case, was concluded that community participationin conserving forest areas in West Kawangkoandistrict was quite good. All beneficiaries participatedin the implementation of the empowerment program.[11] Marwanti [11] explain community participationincreases sustainability, when people are involved indecision making, people feel they have and aremotivated to maintain it, but takes time, resources,logistics, and the organization is troublesome. Theresults of this study indicate the level of communityparticipation in West Kawangkoan district inpreserving forests and land at the level of actingtogether is quite good. The community participatesactively from the planning stage to theimplementation of the program. (2) Participation ofworkers, in various activities whose purpose is torepair or develop villages, help for others and so on.Along with the population, economic growth andindustrialization pressure on natural resourcesincreased. This is due to an increase in naturalresource requirements both quantity and quality. Theprotection of environmental conducting capacityincludes efforts through maintaining the quantity andquality of the environment. These efforts areconducted to preserve environmental functions andprevent environmental degradation or damage causedby human actions. The results showed the communityparticipated in efforts to preserve forest areas in WestKawangkoan district. Various backgrounds regardingthe importance of conservation of forest resources ona global to local scale demand a further explanation ofthe various considerations that need to be known asthe basis for establishing conservation areas.In general, it is necessary to involve the community ofWest Kawangkoan in the success of the environmentalpreservation program, which is carried out in severalstages: 1. Planning Planning is carried out by thegovernment as well as influential parties around theforest area in the West Kawangkoan sub-district. Thismeans that this planning is carried out to minimize thepossibilities that will occur in the implementation offorest conservation. 2. That the implementation ofprograms that have been carefully planned and thenapplied by involving the community around the forestarea in West Kawangkoan. Indeed, this has already takenplace, but due to diverse understandings, not allcommunities can participate in conservation activities.Implementation is monitored or monitored by the partiesresponsible for these activities, including the government.3. Evaluation Evaluation is carried out regularly by thegovernment and parties and community groups inKawangkoan Barat who understand the program. In thisevaluation process, areas that are indeed conserved andthose that are exploited will be compared.Then it will proceed back to the planning stage ordetermine an advanced program. Communities are notonly given information about the existence ofConservation Forests, the goals and conservation effortsundertaken, but furthermore, they are invited toparticipate in conservation activities and managementactivities, both directly and indirectly.Communities in Kawangkoan Barat sub-district knowthat there is a relationship between their behavior inprotecting the environment and influencing theenvironment. Understanding At this stage, thecommunity in Kawankoan Barat District in terms ofquantity or quantity has begun to decrease compared tothe acquaintance stage. Among the people, it turns outthat they only know without understanding deeper themeaning of what they know about environmentalsustainability, especially forests. Many of them are stillindifferent to the condition of their environment affectedby exploitation. Loving the forest environment, where atthis advanced stage people who know and understandinstill in their thinking and behavior place environmentalsustainability as an important part of the community.West Kawangkoan community participation in thepractical phase of what they know and understand.Communities who understand more deeply aboutenvironmental sustainability will have the movement inthe form of behavior to preserve the environment byconserving the environment, protecting the environment,and obeying applicable rules.2.Community Constrained Factors to Participatefor Forest Protection at West KawangkoanBased on the results of the interview, it is knownseveral factors which have become obstacles faced bypeople participating in forest protection include:a. Lack of community interference in the forests inWest Kawangkoan, especially heterogeneousforest types. Heterogeneous forest in WestKawangkoan district is overgrown by variouskinds of trees. While the tendency of thecommunity is more to maintain homogeneousforests, due to forest area is reforestation,greening, or the need for wood for themanufacture of typical Minahasa houses.b. Lack of assistance provided by the government.Assistance is expected by the community in the37

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 473form of assisting by presenting forestry police asa form to oversee the forests in WestKawangkoan. Besides, other forms of assistancethat are expected by the community areassistance in the form of seeds as well asfacilities and infrastructure assistance inpreserving the forests in West Kawangkoan.3.Efforts Made by the Government to increaseCommunity Participation of West KawangkoanDistrict Forest ProtectionBased on the results of an interview with one of thestaff in the Minahasa forest service, it is known theefforts made by the government in increasing communityparticipation in forest protection of Minahasa forest areain general are:a. Hold socialization, where this is a social processfor an individual gets the formation of attitudes tobehave according to those around him. As theresults of interviews, the efforts made by thegovernmentinincreasingcommunityparticipation are held socialization and meetingsabout the benefits of forests and their functions.b. The existence of routine patrols and integratedpatrols in protecting forest areas, where Minahasagovernment efforts to implement forestprotection as much as possible has been done.From the results of interviews, one of the currentgovernment efforts by assigning forestry policeto always maintain forest security in Minahasa,including in the West Kawangkoan district areaby conducting routine and integrated patrols forthe forest area is kept safe from those who willdo forest destruction, both those cut trees andother violations.c. The cooperation between the government and thecommunity is needed for the preservation of theforest. Due to the forestry police find it difficultto find people who do forest destruction/treecutting if it is not helped by the information orreports provided by the community related to theperson who committed the violation.IV. CONCLUSIONBased on the discussion, it can be concluded theforms of community participation in forest protection inWest Kawangkoan District include:1. Community participation in West Kawangkoandistrict is actively planting replacement trees, such asplanting nantu trees, cempaka trees are part of a formof community participation in forest protection. Otherparticipation in the local community also obliged toprovide information to local government if there arepeople who try to damage the forest carelessly.Besides, government regulations regarding forestconservation are followed by local communities.2. Some factors that become obstacles faced by peopleparticipating in forest protection include (1) Lack ofcommunity intervention in

Universitas Negeri Manado Tondano, Indonesia ellenpoli@unima.ac.id 2Fonny Rewah Geography Education Department Universitas Negeri Manado Tondano, Indonesia fonnyrewah@unima.ac.id 3Imanuel Ronald David Mongkau Publishing and Broadcasting Department Politeknik Negeri Media Kreatif Jakarta