Identification of incetives to develop rural community participation on forest and land fire management in South Sumatra

In Indonesia almost every year occurs hazardous forest and land fire during dry season. Research results indicated that most of forest and land fire in Indonesia are anthropogenic and closely related to the land use activities. It means people play important role in the cause of forest and land fire. In order to control and manage forest and land fire, the Indonesian government should work together with community and other related stakeholders. Since rural communities are key stakeholders and play important role in the sustainable management of land and forest resources, including the management of the risk of fire, so that involvement of rural community into forest and land fire management is very crucial. Development of economic activities of rural community is regarded as incentive which can support the development of community participation on the forest and land fire management. The objectives of the research are: (1) to identify the role of rural community in the forest and land fire management and (2) to identify the socio-economical activities preferred by rural community in the forest and land fire management. This research was a survey which we conducted in Musi Banyuasin District, South Sumatra Province. Two villages (Bayat Ilir and Mangsang) were selected as sample villages. Primary data and information were gathered through participatory method using Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Respondents are selected purposively; consisting of male farmers and female farmers. Number of selected respondent was 118 persons consisting of 85 male farmer and 33 female farmers. In each sample village the FGD was conducted twice with male farmer respondent group and with female farmer respondent group. Major findings of the survey are: (1) community in the sample villages is still highly dependent on farming activities which employed fire in the process (slush and burn farming), especially to get staple food (rice); (2) rural people are willing to participate in the fire and land fire management and even change their farming system into more environmental friendly system if the government could give alternative systems and support them in the process; (3) development of oil palm plantation and rubber plantation in the sample villages are the first and second rank of potential economic activities which are preferred by the respondents through the method focus group discussion. Oil palm and rubber plantation is a type of permanent farming system which employed fire for land clearing only in the beginning of plantation establishment.