Communities living around forests lost access to forests and their cultural roots were rooted out; violence against forest communities, including women and children, happenedJakarta (ANTARA) - The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has called for active women's involvement in dialogues related to forest use conversion plans.
"The participation of women, including indigenous women and women living near forests, to be actively involved in the dialogues of forest conversion plans is important," the commission's member for supervision, Bahrul Fuad, said here on Thursday.
According to him, so far, the government and stakeholders have only involved more men in the decision-making process related to forest conversation plans, thus, women's aspirations have not been accommodated yet.
"Whereas women are the group that is the most attached to forests, plants, and water," Fuad pointed out.
Further, massive development has contributed to forest degradation, he highlighted.
Illegal logging, forest fires, the conversion of forests into plantations, and the development of infrastructure, settlements, and industry have the most impact in terms of damage or threat to natural forests, he pointed out.
He said that those activities have a huge ecological impact, not only in Indonesia but also at the global level, including on the availability of clean water for the community.
In 2022, Komnas Perempuan received 16 cases related to natural resources and spatial planning that hindered the fulfillment of women's rights, he informed.
"Communities living around forests lost access to forests and their cultural roots were rooted out; violence against forest communities, including women and children, happened," he said.
Forest conversion also targets customary forests, he added.
Just 148,488 hectares of forests were designated as customary forests in Indonesia as of 2022.
"That figure is very small compared to the map of indigenous territories submitted by the Ancestral Domains Registration Agency (BRWA) to the government, which reaches 12.4 million hectares," he said.
One of the efforts made by the government for increasing communities' access to forests has been the social forestry program.
Meanwhile, the Director of Business Development for Social Forestry and Customary Forests at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Catur Endah Prasetiani, said that the social forestry program is not only limited to community development but also aims to sustain community businesses.
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Translator: Anita D, Kenzu
Editor: Sri Haryati
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