Private Forest Management in Tulang Bawang Barat

Community forests have important values for rural communities. The purpose of this study is to determine the social and economic characteristics of the community that affect community forest management in Tulang Bawang Barat Regency. The study was conducted for 2 months in August to September 2016 in the Tulang Bawang Barat Regency, Lampung Povince. Data was collected by field observations, interviews, and questionnaires. The total number of respondents in this study was 50 respondents of community forest farmers who were taken purposively. To describe the social and economic conditions of the respondents, as well as analyze the characteristics and practices of community forest management, the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that productive age, adequate level of education, extent of land tenure, social, ecological and economic motivations are factors that influence farmers' decisions to manage community forests. Farmers cultivate their community forest in a simple way, without using good community forest cultivation guidelines. Local government policies are very necessary to support the sustainability of community forest development, in order to achieve economic, ecological, and social needs obtained from community forest management. Keywords: social economy characteristics of community, participation, community forest farmers, rural community