Peningkatan Kapasitas Sumber Daya Manusia dalam Manajemen Hutan Adat dan Literasi Perdagangan Karbon (Carbon Trade) di Nagari Koto Malintang

Abstract

The Koto Malintang Village Forest, located within the Lake Maninjau watershed, holds substantial biomass in its tree stands as a natural carbon sink. However, local forest management groups, including the GILA Aren Forest Farmers Group (KTH GILA Aren) and traditional village institutions, face limitations in human resource capacity, particularly regarding customary forest governance and the understanding that standing forests generate stored carbon that can be monetized via carbon trading mechanisms. This community service program aimed to enhance human resource capacity through training on customary forest management and literacy on carbon trade concepts. The participatory methodology involved education on sustainable forest governance, knowledge transfer on carbon sequestration and carbon trading fundamentals, and contextual simulations on the economic value of tree stands. Program effectiveness was evaluated using pre-test and post-test assessments administered to 42 targeted respondents. The evaluation results demonstrated a substantial increase in community cognitive understanding: comprehension of carbon trade business opportunities rose by 48 percentage points from a pre-test average of 44% to 92% on the post-test, while comprehension of customary forest management governance increased from 45% to 92% (+47 percentage points). In aggregate, participants' understanding surged by 48 percentage points (from 44% to 92%), successfully exceeding the 80% performance target. This capacity building serves as an essential foundation for the self-reliance of customary communities in preserving and governing sustainable forests.