Gunung Walat, Sukabumi – Fieldtrip of Forest Management by the Forestry Study Club (FSC), Faculty of Forestry, University of Gajah Mada (UGM) Yogyakarta had been held on August 26-27, 2013 in Gunung Walat University Forest, Sukabumi.
This field trip activity lasted for two days including conservation learning and silviculture. The other activity was studying forest products such as utilization of pine resin and agathis.
“The impression for this forest is very pleasant and getting knowledge that many of them are social, economic, and ecological functions of the existence of GWUF” said Committee Chair, Jihan Taufik.
This field trip by FSC UGM was part of a comparative study with the educational forest they have, Wanagama. This is for sure a positive thing in the future in order to establish close cooperation in terms of education and forest management.
“The reason of we selected GWUF because, in here, it has been running independently. We will bring knowledge from here as a provision for Wanagama management to stand independently” explained Chairwoman of the FSC, Ardiani Kusumastuti.
“We thank all the GWUF staff because, in here, we get new things about managing a forest that is not just taking it as an object. We also have to pay attention to the components outside the forest that are closely related to forests, such as humans” he added.
“The management of NTFPs is very beneficial because even without cutting down the trees, we are still able to produce and keep the trees around us without utilizing the wood”, he explained.
“And related to social management, I have never found a community-based forest management before. This (Gunung Walat) is where the real community-based forest management really involves the community directly and the community feels appreciated because they feel the benefits directly the cooperation, such as the visitations of foreign guests who involve the surrounding community” he said.
This activity was concluded in an understanding that the forest management is not only seen from the products of its natural resources, but also other supporting components. In this case, the example is the edu-ecotourism.
“The impression for GWUF is extraordinary. We were warmly welcomed as the staff were very friendly and I saw here the management was very good. Here we find new things, such as edu-ecotourism, which is very interesting in our opinion. Let’s keep it good and if there is a shortage, let’s fix it together. The forest cannot be separated from human and forest life is our life” he concluded.
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