Sejak Tahun 2015 Pemerintah Indonesia menargetkan kebijakan pemberian akses legalterhadap pengelolaaan hutan negara seluas 12,7 hektar melalui program perhutanan sosial(Hutsos) untuk meningkatkan kesejahteraan masyarakat sekitar hutan dan mencegahdeforestasi. Tulisan ini menelusuri desa-desa penerima Hutsos dan membandingkannyadengan desa-desa yang memiliki hutan yang tidak menerima Hutsos di tiga pulauSumatera, Kalimantan dan Sulawesi di Indonesia. Dengan pendekatan mixed method,penelitian ini berusaha menjawab pertanyaan apakah dengan memberikan akses legalkepada masyarakat yang dikelola oleh lembaga ekonomi lokal dalam program perhutanansosial dapat meningkatkan pertumbuhan usaha di desa dan menekan laju deforestasi.Analisis secara empiris mengunakan metode Instrumental variable dan untukmemperdalam faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi outcome tersebut dilakukan in-depthinterview dengan stakeholder. Temuan studi ini menunjukkan bahwa keberadaan Hutsosbelum berdampak signifikan kepada pertumbuhan jumlah usaha dan deforestasi.Penyebab belum berdampaknya program Hutsos terhadap pertumbuhan usaha di desakarena lahan yang terbatas akibat restriksi peraturan pasca penetapan hutan sosial,kapasitas wirausaha sumber daya pengelola hutan, belum terintegrasi program hutansosial dengan program desa dan rendahnya modal dan pemanfaatan teknologi pengolahanhasil hutan. Sementara, Hutsos belum berdampak pada deforestasi karena rendahnyakualitas perencanaan pengelolaan hutan dan intervensi kebijakan terkait penanamanhutan di lahan kritis yang belum optimal.

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Since 2015 the Government of Indonesia has targeted a policy of providing legal access

to the management of state forests covering an area of 12.7 hectares through the social

forestry program (SFP) to improve the welfare of forest communities and prevent

deforestation. This paper traces village SFP beneficiaries and compares them to villages

that have forests that did not receive SFP on the three islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan

and Sulawesi in Indonesia. With a mixed method approach, this study seeks to answer the

question whether providing legal access to communities managed by local economic

institutions in SFP can increase business growth in villages and reduce the rate of

deforestation. The empirical analysis used the Instrumental variable method and in-depth

interviews were conducted to deepen the factors that affect the outcome. The findings of

this study indicate that the existence of SFPs has not had a significant impact on the

growth in the number of businesses and deforestation in both protected and production

forests zone. The reason why the SFP has not yet had an impact on business growth in

villages is due to limited land due to restrictions on post-determination of social forests,

the entrepreneurial capacity of forest managers, not yet integrated SFP with village

programs and low capital and utilization of forest product processing technology.

Meanwhile, SFP has not yet had an impact on deforestation because of the low quality of

forest management planning and policy interventions related to forest planting in critical

land that has not yet optimal.