Achmad Pribadi
Head of Statistics Data Processing
Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops
Indonesia
INTRODUCTION
Background
The tropical rain forest in Indonesia is well known as the third largest tropical rain forest (after Brazil and Zaire) in the world. It contains a great variety of biodiversity and many kinds of forest products. According to the Forestry and Estate Crops Planning Agency the total forest area is around 147.5 million ha. Thirty-six million ha are categorized as a production forest providing timber and non-timber products.
As other tropical countries, Indonesian forest soils is very fragile. It is very susceptible to erosion due to high-density raindrops and a very thin layer of top-soil. Once the forest cover is widely opened (caused by uncontrolled harvesting), then it will be difficult to recover. Therefore, to enable harvesting the forest product sustainably, a proper forest management is very needed. A good forest management which is usually called Sustainable Forest Management is defined as a sustainability of production, social function and also environmental aspect.
In order to support SFM practice, a good record of harvesting forest products and all relevant information which reflect social and environmental sustainability should be handled systematically and professionally. To improve the quality of data and information, Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops (MoFEC) has developed electronic information technology. At present MoFEC has developed a web sites: http://mofrinet.cbn.net.id. On the level of echelon I, the Ministry have also installed Local Area Network (LAN), INTRANET and e-mail. Meanwhile at the Provincial office, e-mail facilities have been available.
Data and information which relates to forest utilization is mostly processed by Directorate General of Production Forest Management (DG-PFM).
The next chapter will discuss more detail about the implementation of recent forest information system in Indonesia. This will include a discussion on how various data and information is collected and served in Indonesia. The last chapter will emphasise the problems and constraints faced in processing data and information.
OBJECTIVE AND GOALS
This paper provides an overview of forestry data collection and dissemination. One of its goals is to elicit suggestions from the workshop participants. It is hoped that the workshop will be useful for improving the forest information system implemented in Indonesia.
Forest data collection and dissemination
To give a general idea of how forest data and information is processed, the first discussion in this chapter is a general description of Ministry of Forestry organization and followed by data collection and dissemination mechanism.
The Structure of Organization
The MoFEC leads 8 echelon I units namely :
Directorate General (DG) of Land Rehabilitation and Social Forest
DG of Nature Protection and Conservation
DG of Production Forest Management
DG of Estate Crops
Forestry and Estate Crops Planning Agency
Forestry and Estate Crops Research and Development Agency
Inspectorate General
Secretariat General
Every echelon I leads its echelon II; Echelon II leads its echelon III and every echelon III leads its echelon IV/group coordinator who is supported by some staff. Since most of forest product information is handled by DG of PFM, our discussion will focus on the organization that is responsible for recording such information.
Data Collection
Primary data that are collected and compiled by the MoFEC focus on timber and non-wood products potentials (rattan, resin, tengkawang nuts, etc.). Secondary data are continuously recorded and include:
Log production
Production and export of processed wood
Production and export of Non timber
Forest product provision and reforestation fund
Timber plantation development
Progress of Forest Surrounded Village Development (social aspect)
Progress of silviculture treatment
Data and information flow
Primary Data
Primary forest data are collected by the Centre for Forest Inventory (echelon I of Forestry and Estate Crops Planning Agency). After the Centre has completed a particular survey, the work of data processing is begun (for spatial data processing, GIS is used). When the work finished, such data is transferred to the Centre for Data Processing and Mapping. Some of the data is showed in the web sites and the rest will be disseminated or filed for other relevant purpose.
Secondary Data
The types of secondary data as mentioned above usually come from forest companies that harvest certain forest product. The Mechanism of how the data is transferred from the companies to the Centre for Data Processing and Mapping are described in the following steps:
First, the data from companies are sent to District Forestry Office (via post) every month (maximum the first 10th day of the month has been sent). As the companies are not far from the District Forestry Office, the data will receive two days later.
The District Forestry Office will compile the data from all the companies in the District region and then it will send the data to Provincial office (also sent by post). The data should be received by the office by the last day of the month.
The Data from all District forestry office (of the same province) then will be transferred by post to DG-PFM in Jakarta. The data should be received early in the following month. From there the data is transferred to every relevant Directorate (Echelon II in DG-PFM), depending on the types of the data.
Every Directorate will collect and compile data received from all of the Provincial forestry offices, then transfer the data to Evaluation and Report unit by using LAN facilities.
The unit will then compile all of the secondary data from every Directorate. When it accomplished the data will transferred by e-mail to Centre of Data Processing and Mapping. Some of the data will be showed in the web sites and the rest will be disseminated or filed for other relevant purpose.
From the above description, there appears a two-month time lag of data dissemination. For example data log production in April logging, can be delivered to the user two month later. This condition is caused by:
The long bureaucratic procedure
Reliance on the postal service
Since the data flow is delayed to deliver, the government is developing the e-mail facilities to District Forestry Office where telephone facility has been installed. Hopefully this would accelerate the data processing.
Types of data and information that need improvement
According to our evaluation the following data and information need some improvement and correction.
1. Non-wood product data potency
The data of non-wood product potency is under estimate and not complete. This is because some provincial offices have not carried out surveys or focus data collection only on a limited number of non-wood products.
2. Forest plantation database
The improvement of plantation development database should be carried out in such ways:
Collecting data of the progress plantation development for every tree species planted
Collecting forest plantation quality
Such data together with maintenance treatment record should be collected correctly from the plantation companies. If the data can be compiled correctly, then some projection of the annual planted forest production can be set up.
3. Data of wood domestic consumption
The data of domestic consumption is less accurate, because the calculation of the consumption is based on the amount of registered industrial capacity. While a lot of the unregistered industries actively operated are not counted.
4. Data on silvicultural treatments and Forest Surrounded Village Development
Such data that has been collected and compiled is under estimate because many companies have not sent the data consistently.
5. Involved Institution
Some institutions which have been involved in forest data collection and data dissemination are as follows:
Centre for Statistical Bureau
Ministry of Industry and Trade
Ministry Of Agriculture
National Agency for Export Development
ITTO
CIFOR
The involvement of the above Institutions has enriched the availability of forest data-base.
PROBLEMS AND CONSTRAINTS
Based on the previous description, we can assume that less complete and less accurate data processing and data dissemination is caused by a major constraint, namely most forestry officers have not accorded data and information a high priority. They are less concerned about the importance of the accurateness and the completeness of the forest data and information. This has led to the following conditions:
Forest information system in Indonesia is less developed.
The officers are less disciplined in collecting and compiling data and information.
Data processing operators (especially those in the provincial offices) do not have a high motivation to develop their skill. Therefore the availability of an e-mail facility in the provincial office is not used optimally.
Lack of law enforcement especially against companies that do not send (or delay sending) the data required to forestry office.
