Clear land ownership and community involvement in managing forests are key determinants in securing sustainable land management. A recent study in Lampung in the province of Sumatra, Indonesia revealed that, even with the use of military force, forest policy and management has largely failed to protect forest resources when local communities were not involved. In contrast, with less government intervention but more secure land rights (as perceived by farmers), local communities have successfully rehabilitated degraded land, including that designated as state forest area, through establishment of coffee based agroforestry. The main incentive for local communities to manage land more sustainably was the expectation of secure land rights on state forest land through which livelihood and income could be realized. The study indicated that under such circumstances there is room for negotiation between the government forestry department and local communities to better manage state forest land. This not only can generate income for local communities but can also improve the overall environment through reduction of fire incidence. This indicates that legal land use rights for local communities on state forest land could be used as a 'reward' for upland farmers for their role in maintaining environmental services of forest land.
Local communities in developing countries are often forbidden to earn their livelihood from stateowned forests, but nonetheless local people commonly manage these lands and depend on them to survive. In these places, community participation is the key to successful conservation programs intended to rehabilitate environmental functions and produce environmental services for beneficiaries outside the area. This paper reviews the relationship between poverty and environmental services and briefly discusses the main ways in which approaches that rely on payment for environmental services are thought likely to alleviate poverty. It also discusses the poverty profile and inequality of upland dwellers in the Sumberjaya watershed in Indonesia's Lampung Province, using income, education, and land-holding indicators. Data related to these three indicators were collected from intensive household surveys and interviews and used via Gini decomposition to measure inequality. In addition, analysis of data on stem at breast height and horizontal root diameter of coffee and other noncoffee trees planted on coffee farms showed that index of root shallowness could be used as an estimator of environmental services. This study revealed that state forest land in Lampung Province, Indonesia, not only provides important income for poor farmers but also leads to a more equitable distribution of income and land holdings. These farmers have also successfully rehabilitated degraded land by establishing coffee-based agroforestry. As found in other recent studies, these findings show that coffeebased agroforestry can perform watershed service functions similar to those of natural, undisturbed forests. This supports the argument that poor farmers who provide environmental services through their activities in state-owned forests should be rewarded with land rights as a policy to alleviate poverty.
This study indicates that land right delivered to poor farmers as one type of reward for environmental services is not only important as income sources but also necessary to improve equity in income and land holding size. This study supports policy to hand over land right to poor farmers who provide environmental services and considers such initiative in favor of poor people under the state land management. Land right award for upland poor farmer is a win-win solution in respect to the interest of forest conservation and poverty alleviation. Reward mechanism for environmental services is not widely applied in Indonesia, although similar initiatives have been carried out at lower levels. Key words : watershed, rewarding for environmental services, protective garden, income equity, Lampung ABSTRAKPenelitian ini menunjukan bahwa pemberian imbalan jasa lingkungan berupa hak kelola atas lahan (land right) kepada para petani miskin tidak hanya akan mengurangi kemiskinan tetapi juga akan meningkatkan pemerataan pendapatan dan penguasaan lahan. Hasil penelitian ini mendukung kebijakan pemberian imbalan jasa lingkungan bagi petani miskin sebagai kebijakan yang berpihak pada masyarakat miskin. Selain itu pemberian imbalan jasa lingkungan kepada petani miskin juga merupakan winwin solution antara kepentingan konservasi hutan dan peningkatan kesejahteraan petani miskin di sekitar hutan. Walapun di Indonesia mekanisme pembayaran jasa lingkungan belum berkembang dengan baik, namun telah banyak dilakukan inisiatif-inisiatif dalam skala kecil. Kata kunci : daerah aliran sungai, Imbalan jasa lingkungan, kebun lindung, pemerataan pendapatan, Lampung PENDAHULUANKemiskinan merupakan permasalahan yang besar dan mendasar yang banyak dihadapi oleh negara-negara berkembang, termasuk di Indonesia. Tingkat kemiskinan di Indonesia turun dari 40,1 persen pada tahun 1976
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