SOIL CONSERVATION AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA
ABSTRACT
Land degradation and mismanagement of watershed in Indonesia have been worsened by increased population pressures on a limited resource, economic crisis, and lack of food supply. Converting forest or vegetation clearance to unsustainable land uses and failures in soil conservation are the worst management issues affecting the watershed environment. Inadequate soil conservation and watershed deterioration result in such negative impacts as erosion, vegetation degradation, salinisation and weed invasion, floods, high decrease in biological diversity, as well as high decrease sediment loads on rivers, canals, and dams. The declining condition of watershed leads to both of biophysical and socio-economic benefits. As a consequence, millions hectares of unproductive and critical lands spread over 39 Watershed Management Units.
It is not surprising that the Government of Indonesia has been strongly committed to improving watershed management by intensification of soil conservation. The Government has initiated policies, legislation, programs in relation to solving the watershed management problems and improving soil conservation across the country. Moreover, the Government has decided the main phases, approaches and field activities of soil conservation concurrently with watershed management which are suited for administrative and technical conditions in Indonesia. However, those problems have never been ending.
As a consequence, the Government should improve the current policy strategies and programs to overcome further problems in the implementation of soil conservation and watershed management. Criteria of critical land and watershed should be reviewed to decide the priority rank of watersheds according to their present conditions. Inputs of technology and subsidies for upland and lowland watershed should be in balance. Furthermore, Lessons learned from current problem and their solutions should lead to better policy strategies, program and implementations of soil conservation and watershed management.
INTRODUCTION
A watershed is a general water collecting area or a physiographic unit in the landscape that is drained by a particular body of water (Lal and Russel, 1981). If a lake, there is often one watershed with sub units for contributing streams. If a river, it may be defined for any point or all. The watershed offers various direct uses and indirect benefits: stores waters for irrigation, provides pasture for livestock and wildlife, and supplies natural resources. Therefore, a watershed supports livelihood for both upland and lowland communities in it.
Indonesia with 17,508 islands or 2,027,087 s.q. km of land consists of 615 watersheds. These watersheds are currently threatened by increasing problems in accordance with such condition as dense population and high rate of population growth, high rainfall and storm intensities, limited arable land in densely populated areas, forest degradation and the others. The problem and consequence of misuse and abuse of watershed are environmental degradation. The degradation has been resulting both ecological and socio-economic losses. On the basis of the facts relating to the watershed degradation, the national policies and programs of effective soil conservation and watershed management have gained precedence in the Government of Indonesia's (GOI's) development agenda. The programs are concentrated in improving the condition of 39 prioritized Watershed Management Units (WMU's).
This paper briefly overviews National Policies and Programs of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management implemented in the priorities WMU's, their progress and achievement. The overview is focused on describing the current soil conservation, watershed management and lessons learned in improving soil conservation and combating the degrading Indonesian watersheds.
CURRENT SOIL CONSERVATION AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
The biggest part of population occupies watershed areas because of the availability of waters and others natural resources. More than 75% of big cities and urban areas in Indonesia are developed along riversides in the watershed zones. Both upland and downland of watershed are facing problems due to misuse and abuse of land. Destructive activities such as mining, logging, improper road design, clearing of forestlands and their conversion to rainfed agriculture have greatly changed the natural protective vegetation of many upland areas, leaving the soil more open and prone to degradation. Erosion and sedimentation result in negative impacts to the well-being of the villagers and collectively the economy of the nation through processes as follows:
The continuous process of soil erosion causes the unproductive and critical land in the upper watersheds. The sixth five-year plan (1994 – 1999) recorded that there was about 33 million hectares of unproductive land including 11 million hectares of critical land distributed in 39 prioritized WMUs (Anon, 1995). To rehabilitate the critical land in the watershed and to improve the condition of unproductive land, the Government has accelerated the national program of Land Rehabilitation and Soil Conservation (LRSC). It can be understood that the watershed management problems are complicated. They include the technical, social, economical, administrative and institutional problems, even political issues. The central issue is whether the public interest in soil conservation should prevail over the private right of landholders to use and abuse land. It is an issue that has shown remarkable resilience given that soil, a non renewable resource, is of such fundamental importance and that the overriding public interest has been so widely expressed over 39 WMUs. Therefore, the problems should be solved comprehensively.
The urgency of the need to address soil conservation and management problems has been realized since 1969 in Indonesia when upland conservation project for solving watershed management problems was initiated and continued up to now. However, the orientation problem solving has led to tendency to designing and delivering policies and programs without analyzing and understanding the diversity and specification of problems. The GOI and Indonesian people aware that soil conservation has an important role in improving national economic development and watershed quality. Improvement in both technical and non-technical approaches, policies and programs for managing watersheds have been undertaken gradually.
POLICY STRATEGIES, PROGRAMS AND IMPLEMENTATION
There are physical and socio-economic factors have been identified that influence the adoption of soil conservation. First, one must have a clear idea of what problems are faced at the watershed level, and second, what problems are affecting the individual farmers. Finally, it is necessary to know what institutional constraints will influence the policy strategies, programs and implementations of soil conservation as essential matters of watershed management.
On the basis of watershed concept, the total area, regardless of size, contributes runoff water to the lower point. Land and water in a watershed are essentially required to produce food and fiber production systems such as agriculture and forestry (logging). More recently, soil conservation and watershed management in Indonesia have been recognized as the administration and regulation of the aggregate natural resources of a drainage basin for producing water, controlling of erosion, stream flow, and floods. For controlling erosion, or the stabilization of moving sands, or the reduction of flood damage, the natural vegetation should be protected from logging. When the importance of producing a maximum yield of usable water is introduced, however, it can not be assumed that the unmanaged land cover will be the most effective in contributing to the greatest amount of water.
As a result of population pressure, what can the best of soil conservation and sustainable watershed management do in the face of a number watershed problems. For answering this question, the GOI have considered that the watershed should be maintained and managed in a sustainable way. Soil conservation and watershed management in Indonesia should become efforts that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet this own needs. Therefore, the dual concepts of "Sustainability and Development" prescribed by Brundtland (1987) should be interpreted and applied in the watershed management (WCFSD, 1987).
At least three definitions of sustainability of watershed and development can be interpreted and applied in managing all types of watershed in Indonesia:
The extent to which any particular watershed area can satisfy any or all of the criteria suggested by these approaches is highly site specific and depends on the implementation of phases of watershed management. Four phases of watershed management have been recognized and considered in deciding the National Policies and Programs of watershed management in Indonesia. The first is the recognition phase, which involves a survey to determine extent, location, and severity of deterioration on critical or unproductive/misused areas. Secondly, the restoration phase which includes the correction of the unstable condition causing erosion and floods by vegetation or engineering methods. The third is the protection phase, which involves not only protection from fires or damaging agencies but also the maintenance of existing conditions. Finally, the improvement phase in which practices are initiated to increase the yield of water.
The fourth phase may involve various measures of different degrees of effectiveness as far as the yield of water is concerned. A storage reservoir with a drainage basin where the soil serves the reservoir. The recognition and protection phases of watershed management ordinarily involve no modification of existing forest and range-management practices.
Policy Strategies
The National Development Policy in the Basin Policy Guidelines 1994-1999 (GBHN, 1994-1999) have mentioned watershed management and critical land rehabilitation programs. The programs are under environment sector. The achievement of watershed management should meet the following objectives : (1) to minimize soil erosion and flood control; (2) to improve and sustain the function of forest, land and water resources in the watershed; (3) to increase and sustain agricultural productivity, particularly food crops by promoting conservation farming; (4) to strengthen social awareness on public participation and to increase understanding knowledge in natural resource conservation, protecting, and conserving forest, soil and water resources; (5) to strengthen the institutional capability and information system for watershed management at both center and regional/local levels.
The policy strategies of soil conservation and watershed management strengthens many field actions under Forest, Soil and Water Conservation Programs and other programs regarding with environment protection and forestry development. The use of WMUs as a management unit of land should also be viewed as a unit of economic and ecological development. It needs more public policy analysis rather than project policy analysis. Therefore, the project output and project outcomes are the best feedback for improving current programs. In other words, the projects should be programs orientation (Pasaribu, 1995).
Since 1961, a number of programs and projects have been undertaken by the GOI and International Agencies to store eroded areas and prevent to further land degradation and watershed deterioration. Then, in 1976, a national program called the Reforestation and Regreening (R&R) Program was initiated with funding the assistance of efforts of land rehabilitation and soil conservation to the local Government. The R&R program is currently under Environmental Sector and involving seven Ministries (Forestry, Home Affairs, Agriculture, Public Work, Finance, Environment, and National Development Planning Board). In addition, a separate organizational network called Land Rehabilitation and Soil Conservation Centers and their Sub-Centers which is structurally under the Directorate General of Reforestation and Land Rehabilitation (DGRLR), Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops (MoFECs), was established for planning, guiding, monitoring and evaluating the program with operational activities in each watershed especially programs of LRSC. At present, there has been 11 Centers and 39 Sub-Centers for serving LRSC. In the year of 1999, the institutions are going to be reorganized to become 26 Centers and 6 Unit of LRSC. These technical implementation institutions are located representatively through out the country. The MoFECs has also developed two Watershed Management Technology Centers (WMTCs) which are located in Solo and Ujung Pandang. The WMTCs provide technical input by conducting researches and development relating to watershed management and soil conservation aspects.
In line with organizational development, the LRSC program in Indonesia is becoming bigger and bigger. Besides the R&R program, the improvement of watershed policy strategies is made gradually through independent management system with assistance of fund from both countries and International Aid Funding Agencies. The strategies should include properties which can be applied to WMUs which with we might be concerned. The properties are productivity (system output); stability (constancy of production of output); sustainability (system ability to maintain output following disturbance); and equitability (evenness of distribution of output). These properties, in whatever chance or designed configuration, define the behavior or characteristic of watershed system, and are useful categories with which to improve the programs and implementation of soil conservation and watershed management.
Programs and Implementation
The GOI has prioritized certain watersheds of 39 WMUs in Indonesia to be managed sustainable. Under the sixth five - year development plan (beginning from 1994-1999), targets for watershed management programs were as follow : (1) Establishment of New Forest Plantation 250,000 ha; (2) Private Forest Establishment 250,000; (3) Coastal Zone Development 150,000 ha; (4) Critical Land Rehabilitation (the R&R) 3.5 million ha; and (5) Supporting Programs.
In term of soil conservation and watershed management in Indonesia, three stages of plan are required for reaching targets of soil conservation and watershed management in each WMU. First, the Macro Plan of LRSC is a long-term (15 year) plan to provide guidance on : land function/zonation for forest, soil and water protection; LRSC treatment; prioritizing sub-watershed implementation; socio-economic development of local communities, monitoring and evaluation of watershed. Second is the Medium-term (5 year) Plan. The Medium Plan is known as field Engineering Design of LRSC. The plan includes 7 aspects of LRSC for each sub-watershed area as follow : (1) erosion risk; (2) the LRSC techniques; (3) target of LRSC; (4) socio-economic analysis; (5) benefits-cost analysis; (6) the description of regional economic growth; and (7) organization and management. the Medium-term Plan of LRSC is primarily aimed as a planning reference for all agencies involved at the field level in order to avoid conflicts of interest, establishment of target beneficiaries, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination matters.
Thirdly, the five-year plan is operationalized into Annual Plan. In the past, the annual technical plan encompassed both regreening and reforestation. However, this plan is now divided into annual technical plan for regreening avtivities on private lands and annual technical plan for reforestation on state forestland. Both the Macro and the Medium Plans of LRSC represent the local government products. The former is prepared by a Team of related provincial agencies and is signed legally by the Governor, whereas the later is prepared by a Kabupaten Team of related agencies. As a consequence, all technical agencies under the local Government should follow these guidelines with full appreciation and having more sense of responsibility to implement and use them as references in soil conservation and watershed management.
The GOI has committed that the implementation of field activities of soil conservation and watershed management has to involve public participation and multi-sectoral approaches. Rehabilitation of critical land and watershed management activities include:
The GOI has also been applying an integrated watershed management to several WMUs. The implementation of integrated watershed management should be preceded by preparing the planning system. The system focuses on principle of "one river one plan". As a consequence, related agencies should formulae the watershed management integrally according to available funds and their capability (Pasaribu, 1995). On the basis of this principle, the formulation of integrated watershed management resulted in National Watershed Management and Conservation Projects. The projects are set up by the Government with funds and technical assistance from International, Multilateral, and Bilateral Agencies, such as FAO/UNDP, World Bank, USAID, IFAD, Jica, Dutch Government, AIDAB, etc. The activities in the project include a combination of : (1) civil engineering approach, which relies heavily on physical measures for erosion control; (2) vegetative approach by providing permanent crop cover to sensitive areas; (3) community approach which focuses on the involvement of the upland population in initiating conservation measures.
LESSONS LEARNED
In most watersheds in Indonesia, the relationship between upland soil conservation and downstream hydrology is not linear nor immediate. The most supportable objectives of any soil conservation plan (LRSC plan) are to increase rural income and sustainability of the uplands. For this reason, the objectives of soil conservation must be clearly defined before one can effectively go about improving matters.
The Indonesian Government has been becoming aware of the problems in administrating diverse watersheds and people with a highly centralized Jakarta-based soil conservation service. The government's programs for soil conservation face great diviculties dealing with lack of understanding of local climate, soils, suitable species of trees, traditional land rights, and farming systems of the villages downed such plan to failure. Therefore, in the year 1998, The Presidential Decree No. 62/1998 decentralizes the responsibility and authority of Government Agencies by formalizing institutions at district levels called "Forestry and Soil Conservation Services". Unfortunately, the new institutions have not yet been supported by further legislations such as Soil Conservation Law, Local Soil Conservation Act, etc.
Other problems faced in implementation of soil conservation and land rehabilitation are resulted from failures in coordination between government agencies, and in transferring soil conservation techniques to farmers. As a consequence the government should undertake such initiatives as : to improve coordination, to make use of rapid rural appraisal techniques, to emphasize on-farm and off-farm researches, to reappraise the role and value of demonstration plots, to stress community participation, to develop a simplified land classification and promote more extension.
Because of high increase in the threat of biophysical and socio-economic changes of watersheds, critical level of watersheds have been changing. Moreover, the GOI has not enough fund to finance the watershed management programs. Consequently, review of prioritization of WMUs should be undertaken. Chosen criteria for prioritizing WMUs are currently tried to be implemented in three WMUs, i.e. The WMU of Asahan Barumun, the WMU of Cimanuk and the WMU of Billa Wallanae. The trial are made to decide the newest methodology of critical land status and watershed prioritization. The new methodology will be used for examining all watersheds in Indonesia and deciding them in the priority rank. Finally, the new prioritized WMUs will become targets of soil conservation and watershed management in the seventh five-year development plan (1999-2004). In this five-year plan, there is 32,699,000 ha of very critical and critical land, which comprising 14,385,000 ha of land is outside the state forest border and 8,314,000 ha of very vritical and critical private land. The plan is targeting to regreen 2,799,000 ha of critical and very critical private land, as well as to reforest 1,320,000 ha of critical land and very critical state forestland.
On the basis of latest condition of watersheds, the GOI should review all current regulations in relation to watershed management and land use. The GOI also has to improve and to complete the current regulations comprehensively. National policy strategies and programs of watershed management should also be changing as legislative requirements and funding availability. The Government have been giving subsidies to upland farmers. The subsidies are used for adopting soil conservation technology in the upland farming system. However, the amount of subsidies and other infrastructure for upland farmers is less than that for lowland farmers. For this reason, the policies should be considering a depth of study which covers all aspects of subsidy such as the amount of subsidy, procedure (when and how), and what suitable activities and duration.
In the Sixth Five-Year Plan, the MoFECs has been planning to give credit facilities for upland farmers with target of conservation farming area about 35.000 ha. The farmers in the upland of watershed are expected to be aware of the benefits of receiving credit facility. The amount of credit is 2 Million rupiahs per hectare. In addition, the credit is soft with interest rate of 6% per-annum (sliding rate) so that it is affordable for upland farmers.
The farmers are generally not difficult to get this credit from the Banks because of the simple procedure. The Directorate General of Reforestation and Land Rehabilitation – MoFECs and President Directors of Provincial Development Bank make administrative agreement for undertaking the credit program every year. The banks are responsible as executing banks, while the MoF has to fund the program by saving credit guarantee in the banks. Up to March 1998, the MoFECs has funded about 47 Billion rupiahs of credit guarantee for conservation farming on upland watershed with developing area target about 23,500 hectares. In the Fiscal Year 1997/1998, the MoF planned to develop about 7,895 hectares of upland watershed by implementing this program; allocated about 15.7 Billion rupiahs of credit guarantee and saving it in 17 Provincial Development Banks across the country.
From the fiscal year 1998/1999, the credit scheme is proposed to be developed as the monetary and economic crisis, ncreasing price, and production cost of upland farming. The credit will be increased from two million rupiahs per ha up to three million rupiahs per ha. In the proposal, the farmers are facilitated to access enough capital, technologies, information and market. In addition, farmer groups who attend the credit program have to joint in an agricultural cooperation or other rural cooperation. The cooperation is expected to help farmers in providing agricultural production matters (such as seed, farming tools, fertilizer, herbicides/pesticides), and marketing their agricultural products.
CONCLUSION
There are 39 WMUs out of 615 watersheds in Indonesia under intense pressure of misuse and abuse of land. Consequently, the WMUs are prioritized to be mainted, rehabilitated and managed in a sustainable way. Current policies and programs of soil conservation sustainable watershed management undertaken by the Government are facing problems regarding to technical and non-technical aspects. Nevertheless, the Government have been learning from the related experience and initiating efforts to address these problems which include examining and reviewing present soil conservation and watershed management, reprioritizing 39 WMUs, intensifying and improving the National policy strategies and programs, and subsiding upland farmers, in accordance with sustaining watersheds.
BIBLIOGRAPHY