Timber is the main valuable resource for the community in Baliem Valley, beside for housing and public construction it is also needed for wall in the farm land and fuelwood for daily livelihood needs. High extraction by the community which mostly illegal even though in their customary territories has implicates to the high degradations in the valley, scarcity of commercial woods and social conflict because of forestry law enforcement.

So making the timber would sustainably available for the community and development needs under clear rights protection and legal management scheme, the collaboration of Forestry Department of Jayawijaya District, Yayasan Bina Adat Walesi/YBAW (Local NGO Based in Wamena), Lorentz National Park Management Body and Lembaga Study Pembangunan Kampung/LSPK (local NGO based in Jayapura) are facilitating customary community rights recognition, institutionalstrengtheningandlandusesplanning.The worked was started in 2010 and now has mapped the boundary of 19 customary community groups and 3 which are now having the land uses and forests development plan.

The project was designed to bridge the gaps in the government and the communities about the expected sustainable management of Baliem Valley. For the forestry department and Lorenz National Park Management Units a key problem was the fundamental difference in the way that the national Forestry Department and communities view forest governance: for the forestry department nationally, the lack of proof that communities can manage forests sustainably is reason not to acknowledge customary ownership, whilst for the communities, the question of forest ownership is non-negotiable and is separate from the objectives of quality of the management of forest resources. YBAW also analyzed that the problems of timber management is strongly relates to the economic and social position of the traditional communities of the Baliem.

They believe that communities are increasingly marginalized within the economic and political life of the valley, and that the key to asserting in uence over the development process is recognition of their land and resource rights and, by association, the traditional leadership and decision making institutions.

This story was first published on project publication.