Access to Social Forestry Recognition: How the Uelincu Community in Central Sulawesi Maintains Its Managed Area

For years, the Uelincu Village community has depended on the forest for its livelihood through the utilization of non-timber forest products such as forest honey processing, pine resin tapping, rattan processing, resin, and other forest products. Uelincu Village has an area of ​​approximately 101,48 hectares inhabited by a community of 422 people. Uelincu also has a forest area of ​​8.393,8 hectares with Limited Production Forest (HPT) status which has the potential for very diverse forest resources such as rattan, candlenut, honey and pine resin. Of this area, approximately 70% or 5.819,89 hectares has been controlled by wood and pine resin processing companies and mining companies whose management permits have never been discussed with the community.

This has resulted in increasingly limited space and access to forest resources for communities in their managed areas. This situation has prompted the birth of a collective initiative by the Uelincu Village Community, assisted by the Panorama Alam Lestari Foundation (YPAL), to encourage recognition of the managed area through a social forestry permit scheme as a legitimate community-managed area by the state, allowing them to access the forest resources within it without any threats. Furthermore, this initiative also seeks to build landscape-based solidarity with Kuku and Panjoka Villages, which have already obtained Community Forest (HKm) and Village Forest (HD) permits. It is hoped that this will have an impact on forest protection while strengthening the community's economy from the potential of forest resources such as rattan, honey, and other non-timber forest products.

To support this, YPAL together with the Uelincu Village Community has carried out a series of activities such as group management training, business management, participatory mapping, community formation and meetings with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) to encourage the proposal of social forestry in Uelincu Village. As a result, the Uelincu Community has successfully mapped 1.200 hectares and experienced increased knowledge about participatory mapping to mark the areas managed by their people, group management, business management and marketing as well as Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) which focuses on the role of women in the village.

For management purposes, the Uelincu Village Community has also established a Village Forest Management Institution (LPHD) in January 2025. Documents in the form of spatial data and other required documents have also been coordinated with various parties and have been proposed. The communities of Uelincu Village, Kuku Village, and Panjoka Village also attended the People's Managed Area (WKR) Festival on May 28, 2025. The festival also served as the launch of the Poso Regency Social Forestry Roadmap 2025-2029. The WKR Festival was attended by representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs), related agencies, and social forestry groups in Poso Regency. Although it has not fully guaranteed the rights of the Uelincu Community, it has at least been able to temporarily guarantee the livelihoods and living space of the community that have been threatened.