Sleman, 11–17 February 2018 – School on community organization and advocacy for customary forests policy and social forestry is a mentoring method that merges Involvement (INSIST) and SPHR (HuMa). The purpose of the school is to address post-designation challenges, permit opportunities, and the return of land to communities living within and around forest areas, under the social forestry and customary forest schemes. Participants in this school are selected individuals from community representatives of the coalition of customary forests, and individuals working in these institutions, who have been mandated by the Indigenous Chiefs/Village Chiefs and the Leaders of the respective Institutions, as a mandatory requirement before attending this school. This aims to provide responsibility and reaffirm the commitment of the participants since they are considered as bearers of the community mandate.

The school activities started in 2017, beginning with classroom learning program (in-class) for 1 (one) month from September 15 to October 15, 2017. The implementation of in-class was filled with speakers and facilitators from HuMa and INSIST members and implementing bodies, covering topics such as building attitudes and work ethics of social activist movements, social analysis, social and spatial mapping, deepening community organization, and developing follow-up plans (RTL) as a form of fieldwork to be carried out by participants.

 

Image Description: Samuel Bonatua (LBH Semarang) presenting the analysis results of his field activities conducted for 3 months in Surokonto Wetan Village

 

Following the completion of in-class, the participants were assigned to go to the field and accompany communities in 17 locations, spanning from Aceh to Sulawesi (referred to as the out-class program). The out-class program provides participants with the opportunity to develop and apply the knowledge and learning acquired during the in-class process, while also monitoring and advocating for customary forests and social forestry proposals as outlined in each participant’s RTL. Both the in-class and out-class processes are interconnected, thus requiring a final process to evaluate the overall activities conducted by the school participants.

For one week at the Perdikan Campus in Yogyakarta, the participants were accompanied by 4 facilitators: Tan Jo Hann, Roem Topatimasang, Tandiono Bawor Purbaya, and Noer Fauzi Rachman, who collectively observed and provided feedback on the fieldwork performed by the participants. One aspect that greatly interested the participants was engaging in organizational analogies through games. Tan Jo Hann chose this method because games were a way to alleviate fatigue and stimulate thinking from different perspectives.
 

Image Description: Participants cheering after winning a game proposed by Facilitator Tan Jo Hann

 

“This school is considered as one of the media or tools that will be beneficial for the community, as the majority of participants are young generations with good visions and strong commitments to engage in the field and nestle within the existing communities in Indonesia. In addition, participants are also expected to provide education and emphasize the urgency of customary forest and social forestry policies,” said Noer Fauzi Rachman. Roem Topatimasang added, “In the future, we will see these participants become candidates who can utilize any situation and form community