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View all search resultsCentral Sulawesi farmers seek legal certainty to manage forest
An NGO has called for social forestry permits for communities who cultivate protected forest areas while also working to protect the environment to protect them from alleged encroachment in state forest.
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Woman farmers in Popisi village, Banggai Islands regency in Central Sulawesi, harvest 'ubi banggai', a local yam variety native to Peleng Island and a key social forestry commodity for the village on May 11, 2026. (Courtesy of Kemitraan/Ferdinandus Eko)
In the lush forest of Banggai Islands regency in Central Sulawesi, Piatar Dayang, 50, tends to around 200 coconut trees on a plot of land uphill from Mata village where he lives. He has cultivated the land for more than two decades but only learned two years ago that the forest is categorized as a protected one that belongs to the state.
Despite lacking legal ownership of the land, Piatar said he felt responsible for safeguarding the forest, where water springs usually used by local residents are located.
“If others try to cut down trees, I stop them,” he said on May 9 on the sidelines of a press trip organized by the Environmental Fund Management Agency (BPDLH) to Central Sulawesi.
“I always remind them not to do anything that could harm the forest and springs,” Piatar added. “For the sake of our community and our future, we can’t let it be damaged.”
As they depend on the land while also working to conserve it, farmers across Banggai Islands like Piatar are seeking to obtain social forestry permits, which would allow them to legally manage the land for up to 35 years without destroying the forest.
The provincial spatial plans drafted in 2013, the first one issued after the establishment of Banggai Islands regency in 1999, showed that some of the protected forest in the regency overlapped with areas that have turned into farms owned by local residents around several villages, including Mata. The overlaps remained in the spatial plans after it was updated in 2023.
