Social Forestry: Conservation Meets Community Empowerment

Social forestry is an innovative approach to forest management. It involves local communities in the decision-making process, granting them rights to forest resources. This approach is gaining recognition as a powerful tool for long-term conservation programmes. Here, we explain what social forestry is and how SOS are involved.

What is Social Forestry?

At its core, social forestry is a partnership between government forest departments and local communities. It aims to transfer management rights of forest land to the communities living alongside these precious ecosystems, empowering them to utilise and conserve forest resources.

In Indonesia, the social forestry scheme plays a pivotal role in the nation’s strategy to promote sustainable forest management and alleviate poverty. The scheme is an integral component of Indonesia’s broader environmental and social development goals, aiming to balance ecological sustainability with community welfare.

The Benefits of Social Forestry

Social forestry licences can be issued in several ways, from allowing villages to manage state forest areas, to granting Indigenous communities rights to manage their ancestral forest lands.

Forest Conservation: By involving local communities in forest management, the scheme aims to enhance forest conservation efforts, reducing illegal logging and deforestation.
Poverty Alleviation: Providing communities with legal rights to manage forest areas helps improve their livelihoods through the sustainable use of forest resources.
Community Empowerment: Strengthening the capacity of local communities to manage and benefit from forests promotes social equity and resilience.

Challenges and Opportunities

Indonesia’s social forestry scheme has shown promising results in both forest conservation and community development. Over 4.4 million hectares have been designated for social forestry, involving millions of people in sustainable management practices. However, challenges remain, which we – alongside our frontline partners – are helping communities to overcome:

The licensing process can be very complex; we support communities to navigate this with guidance from Indonesian Social Forestry experts.
During the licensing process, we support communities to create a robust sustainable forest management plan, and once the licence is secured, enact that plan.
We help to ensure communities can develop sustainable livelihoods, such as through access to markets for their forest products.

Community-Centred Conservation

At the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS), we support our partners on the ground in Sumatra to provide a secure future for orangutans, people, and their rainforest homes. At the heart of our approach is a steadfast commitment to Sumatra’s rural communities.

We believe that forming open, genuine and long-lasting relationships with local communities is the key to protecting orangutans in the wild. We support community-centred conservation: an approach that listens to the needs of local communities and ensures they have a central role in programme planning and decision-making.

Social forestry presents a unique opportunity to create a win-win situation for people, wildlife and the environment. By investing in this approach, funders can enhance its impact, address challenges and scale up successful models. Ultimately, moving us ever closer to our vision of wild orangutans thriving in resilient forests.

A Note to Say Thank You

We’re grateful to our donors for supporting the complex and vital work that goes into achieving these results. Thank you to Size of Wales, ERM Foundation, Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust, European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA), and Paul Jennings and Jeanette Dunn Charitable Foundation.