Application of Indigenous Community-based Environmental Service
Fees in the Availability of Clean Water in Jayapura City, Papua
Province
Anwar Saragih
Universitas Cenderawasih, Indonesia
Keywords: Clean Water, Compensation for Environmental Services, Environmental Politics.
Abstract: The availability of clean water is an absolute, non-negotiable element in the life of households or individual
communities. There are fundamental problems related to water resources that have been used by the Regional
Drinking Water Company (PDAM) of Jayapura City which has been damaged by illegal logging, forest
encroachment, land conversion, and illegal mining. So that there was forest destruction in the Cyclops
Mountain area of Papua which resulted in the destruction of the watersheds (DAS) that flowed 11 points of
water sources in Jayapura City. This study aims to solve the problem of the difficulty of clean water in
Jayapura City due to environmental damage. The research method is qualitative with a critical paradigm. The
results of the analysis of this scientific article are to find the concept that you want to offer related to the
implementation of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) based on indigenous communities in Jayapura.
In simple terms, Payment for Environmental Services is a concept of payment for environmental services or
services in the form of incentives offered to the community for their commitment and services in protecting
the environment. Where the stakeholder sector provides compensation to indigenous communities through
customary leaders (Ondoafi) in each customary area in Jayapura to protect the forest and not to change land
functions in the upstream area of clean water resources that affect the availability and quality of clean water
managed downstream Regional Drinking Water Company of Jayapura City.
1 BACKGROUND
The availability of clean water is an absolute and non-
negotiable element in the life of households or
individual communities. So that the main focus of
every government policy in the era of regional
autonomy related to the development and utilization
of water resources must emphasize the principle of
sustainable management in order to meet the needs of
clean water for the community (Qodriyatun, 2015).
Although in its implementation related to water
resource management, it often encounters complex
obstacles, both in terms of accessibility, service
standards, equity, supervision and support from every
stakeholder (Phillips, Rhonda and Robert H. Pittman,
2008).
This problem has also been faced by the people of
Jayapura City, Papua Province in the last 10 years
having difficulty accessing clean water (Jubi.co.id.
25/2/2020). In addition to the reasons for
development and population growth which reaches 2-
3% per year which is automatically directly
proportional to the increase in the need for clean
water in Jayapura City. There is a fundamental
problem related to water resources that have been
used by the Regional Drinking Water Company
(PDAM) of Jayapura City which has been damaged
due to illegal logging, forest encroachment, land
conversion, and illegal mining (kabarpapua.co,
13/8/2019). As a result, forest damage occurred in the
Cyclops Mountain area of Papua which resulted in the
destruction of the watersheds (DAS) that flowed
through 11 points, namely Anafre, Bhayangkara,
Ajend/Kolfkamp, Kali Kamp, Entrop, Borgonji,
Kojabu, Wolker Camp, Korem, Buper and Pos 7
Sentani. Where these points are the main source of
water discharge which has been channeled by
Regional Drinking Water Company Jayapura to
residents' homes.
This means that in an effort to maintain the
availability of water in Jayapura City, protection is
needed through social, cultural, political and
economic approaches to the Cyclops Mountain Area
Saragih, A.
Application of Indigenous Community-Based Environmental Service Fees in the Availability of Clean Water in Jayapura City, Papua Province.
DOI: 10.5220/0011823700003460
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 2022) - Human Security and Agile Government, pages 405-410
ISBN: 978-989-758-618-7; ISSN: 2975-8300
Copyright
c
2023 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
405
and Watershed (DAS) as a source of clean water for
Regional Drinking Water Company of Jayapura City.
Where the series of management does not stand in
one direction but involves a reciprocal relationship
between Natural Resources and local communities
with efforts to overcome environmental damage
while increasing people's welfare. One of the
concepts to be offered relates to the implementation
of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) based
on indigenous communities in Jayapura. In simple
terms, Payment for Environmental Services is a
concept of payment for environmental services or
services in the form of incentives offered to the
community for their commitment and services in
protecting the environment (Wunder, 2013).
Where the stakeholder sector provides
compensation to indigenous communities through
customary leaders (Ondoafi) in each customary area
in Jayapura to protect the forest and not to change
land functions in the upstream area of clean water
resources that affect the availability and quality of
clean water managed downstream by Regional
Drinking Water Company, Jayapura City.
Meanwhile, Ondoafi or traditional leaders in Jayapura
have great authority, rights, duties and
responsibilities with the consequence of power over
forests, rivers, seas, lands and natural resources,
socially, economically and politically. Ondoafi has
the authority to resolve disputes that occur in his
customary territory as well as have the responsibility
to protect and protect the community from all
problems. In short, in an effort to overcome forest
damage and damage to watersheds through the
application of Environmental Service Fees, it actually
looks at Ondoafi and the indigenous people in
Jayapura. Therefore, a research proposal with the
title: "Implementation of Indigenous Community-
Based Environmental Service Fees in the Availability
of Clean Water in Jayapura City, Papua Province"
becomes very important in completing a series of
research related to the Politics of Water Supply in
Indonesia.
2 RESEARCH METHOD
Methods This research uses descriptive analytical
with a qualitative approach. The use of this method is
intended, referring to Creswell who said that the
phenomena that occur can be focused on the attention
of researchers on problems or phenomena that are
actual at the time the research is conducted, then
describe the facts about the problem being
investigated as it is accompanied by a rational and
accurate interpretation. This method will help
researchers to understand the reality that occurs in the
field. The collection of research data is also carried
out through a process of reviewing the results of
interviews as primary data for stakeholders,
especially traditional leaders or Ondoafi in Jayapura
related to overcoming the problem of damage to the
Cyclops Mountain area in Papua and the Alisan River
area (DAS) which is the upstream source of clean
water managed by Regional Drinking Water
Company of Jayapura City.
Then the secondary data of this research was
obtained by the author from journals, books and
documents or reports related to the research focus.
The author then analyzes the case phenomenon
inductively related to the problem of decreasing water
discharge managed by Regional Drinking Water
Company of Jayapura City due to environmental
damage. At the end the author recommends
conceptual steps related to the formulation of
compensation for the application of Environmental
Service Fees and the economic benefits obtained by
the Jayapura indigenous community in the
application of Environmental Service Fees in the
availability of clean water in Jayapura City.
3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Environmental Service Fee
Concept
Since the 1990s, Payment for Environmental
Services (PES) has become a popular policy tool for
managing natural resources in more than 60
countries. In general, Payments for Environmental
Services have been applied to four ecosystem
services: biodiversity conservation, watershed
services, carbon sequestration, and landscape beauty.
Hundreds of Rewards for Environmental Services
programs have been implemented around the world.
Environmental Services Program) follows a similar
payment approach in terms of beneficiaries, payment
methods, and mechanisms.
Thus, the existing Rewards for Environmental
Services program only focuses on three main
ecosystem services: water, biodiversity, and carbon.
There are main categories of Environmental Service
Fee mechanisms including direct payments based on
voluntary agreements between recipients of
environmental services and suppliers of
environmental services (Hieu, Thuy & Nam, 2020)
There is a growing anthropocentric understanding
of natural resources providing flows of services that
ICOSOP 2022 - International Conference on Social and Political Development 4
406
provide economic value. Environmental services that
benefit society include carbon sequestration,
watersheds, maintenance of biodiversity, and
environmental beauty. Payment for environmental
services (PES) is a policy tool that is championed to
provide market incentives for the maintenance of
natural resources by the private sector that provides
environmental services to downstream users.
Payment for Environmental Services is defined as a
voluntary agreement between a buyer and a seller in
which payment is provided depending on the
environmental services provided adequately.
Many advocate the adoption of a Pay-for-
Economy scheme to develop new market-based tools
to combat deforestation and promote forest
conservation in developing countries rather than
alternative policy tools. In the absence of this
Payment for Environmental Services mechanism,
land users will gravitate towards commercial land
uses, often involving deforestation for agricultural
purposes, resulting in the destruction of natural
resources as humans have no way of realizing the
benefits of providing non-marketable services.
Payment for Environmental Services refers to the
principle that with clear property rights and low
transaction costs, bargaining can reach a socially
optimal level (Lee, Andersson & Smith, 2013).
Over the years although interest in Environmental
Services Fees has increased, there has been little
attempt to define the term. In this section, we first
define Environmental Fees and discuss their basic
logic. Fundamentally, Fees for Environmental
Services appear to be used as an umbrella for any type
of market-based mechanism for conservation,
including, for example, mechanisms such as
environmental certification and charging entry fees to
tourists. According to Wunder (2005) in defining
Environmental Service Fees, he explains several
indicators, namely
a. Voluntary transactions
b. A well-defined (or possibly used)
environmental service secures that service)
c. There are service buyers
d. There is a service provider
The basic logic of the Payments for
Environmental Services mechanism explains how
ecosystem managers, whether they are farmers,
loggers, or protected area managers, often receive
little benefit from land uses such as, for example,
forest conservation. These benefits are often less than
the benefits they would receive from alternative land
uses, such as conversion to agriculture or pasture.
However, deforestation can impose costs on
downstream populations, who no longer benefit from
services such as water filtration, and on the global
community, due to biodiversity reduction and carbon
storage (actual impacts will, of course, vary from case
to case).
Payments by service users can help make
conservation a more attractive option for ecosystem
managers, thereby encouraging them to adopt it (or,
in the case of protected area managers, providing
them with the resources to do so). Payment for
Environmental Services thus seeks to internalize what
should be an externality. Consequently, the
Environmental Service Fee program seeks to put into
practice the ultimate solution that the problem of
external effects can, under certain conditions, be
addressed through private negotiations between the
affected parties (Coase, 1960).
It is very important to understand that
Environmental Fees are not intended to be a solution
to any environmental problem. Ecosystems may be
mismanaged for various reasons, not all of which are
suitable for environmental issues and are suitable for
using the Environmental Service Fee as a solution.
Local ecosystem managers may not have the
authority to manage ecosystems, because they do not
belong to anyone or belong to the state (which is the
same number if the state cannot enforce management
rules) and thus tend to ignore even the on-site impacts
of their management decisions. The appropriate
response in this case is to ensure that local ecosystem
managers have appropriate tenure rights.
If ecosystem mismanagement is linked to a lack
of awareness or information about land use practices
that are in the financial interest of private landowners
to adopt, then education and awareness building are
appropriate responses. Similarly, if capital market
imperfections prevent landowners from adapting
personally beneficial technologies or practices that
improve the provision of environmental services, then
providing access to economic benefits is the most
promising approach. The scope of application of
Rewards for Environmental Services is in a series of
problems where ecosystems are mismanaged because
many of the benefits are externalities from the
perspective of ecosystem managers.
If most ecosystem benefits are externalities, other
voluntary approaches are unlikely to yield results.
Giving local managers ownership rights over the
ecosystem may not be enough, as they will only
experience a fraction of the total benefits, and this
may be less than the benefits of alternative land uses.
Likewise, training or awareness-building will not
suffice, for awareness of the benefits to others are
unlikely to outweigh the definite benefits to oneself
for all but the most altruistic actors.
Application of Indigenous Community-Based Environmental Service Fees in the Availability of Clean Water in Jayapura City, Papua
Province
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In the case where applicable, an important
distinction can be made on the basis of whether the
environmental services provided are public goods and
not. It is often assumed that all environmental
services are purely public goods, i.e. that users cannot
be prevented from benefiting from the environmental
services provided (non-excludability), and that
consumption by one user does not affect consumption
by other users. This certainly applies to some
environmental services carbon sequestration, for
example, is perhaps the clearest example of a public
good (Engel, Pagiola & Wunder, 2008).
3.2 Clean Water Problems in Jayapura
The issue of clean water in Jayapura City, Papua
Province is an important issue that has received more
attention in the last decade. The reason is that the
people of Jayapura City often have difficulty getting
clean water due to the decrease in water debit
managed by the Regional Drinking Water Company
of Jayapura City is a Regional Owned Enterprise that
carries out the administration of Regional
Government affairs and is obliged to provide basic
services in the field of clean water to the community.
That's why Regional Drinking Water Company of
Jayapura City in carrying out its service duties should
actually be oriented towards meeting the needs of the
community by providing the best service to the
customer community in the form of providing
adequate clean water in terms of quality, quantity and
continuity. Regional Drinking Water Company of
Jayapura City is currently experiencing many
problems, namely the small amount of water in
managed sources due to the damage the high rate of
water leakage reaching 54% and environmental
damage that has an impact on drought.
Jayapura City is one of the regions which is the
capital city of Papua Province with an area of 940
km2 or 0.30% of the total area of the province.
Jayapura City consists of 5 districts, namely Muara
Tami District, Abepura District, Heram District,
South Jayapura District, and North Jayapura District.
Furthermore, there are 25 sub-districts and 14 villages
in the Jayapura City area with a total population
according to the Jayapura City Central Statistics
Agency (BPS) reaching 362,998 people (Jayapura
City BPS, 2021).
As the sole manager of clean water, PDAM
Jayapura Regional Owned Enterprises (BUMD) in
2021 will at least serve 35,700 clean water customers.
A total of 31,700 customers are located in the territory
of Jayapura City and 4,000 customers are in Jayapura
Regency. According to data from PDAM Jayapura
City, in order to meet the needs of the community, at
least 895 liters of water per second are needed.
Currently, the water supplied by PDAM Jayapura is
only 778 liters per second from the original capacity
of 1075 liters per second. This means that there is a
significant decrease in water, which is 297 liters per
second due to damage to water resources in forest
areas (PDAM Jayapura, 2021). Seeing the significant
decrease in the water debit of Regional Drinking
Water Company of Jayapura City, if it is not
anticipated, this will certainly endanger the
community with the threat of drought and a prolonged
water crisis in Jayapura City.
Moreover, the need for clean water is increasing
every time. This is because the population growth rate
in Jayapura City, which was recorded in the last 5
years from 2017-2022, has experienced a rapid
increase which linearly will automatically have an
impact on increasing the need for clean water for
every community who lives and settles in Jayapura
City. That does not include people who stop by and
live temporarily in Jayapura City who also need clean
water.
There are at least eleven sources of clean surface
water scattered in Jayapura City and Jayapura
Regency. The coverage of the reservoir service area
varies based on the water source. These water sources
have water catchment areas in the Cycloop
mountains, so their sustainability automatically needs
to be maintained properly so that the water flow
produced remains maximal.
However, the obstacle faced in maintaining the
sustainability of water sources managed by the
Regional Drinking Water Company of Jayapura City
is the problem of deforestation, namely the felling of
forest trees by both indigenous/local communities
and by entrepreneurs who collaborate with
indigenous peoples or who obtain government
permits, lack of understanding of the importance of
maintaining forest sustainability and the lack of
supervision and socialization from the Jayapura City
government to maintain and preserve forests.
In addition, the problem of massive
environmental damage in the upstream area of clean
water sources is caused by the increasing number of
settlements in the buffer area irregularly at the
expense of trees. This also causes the condition of the
Cycloop Forest to be increasingly worrying with
many spots where there are almost no trees for
circulation and empowerment of clean water. Even
though the availability of water in the Cycloop is
getting thinner and the discharge is decreasing,
especially during the dry season (Musfira, 2018).
ICOSOP 2022 - International Conference on Social and Political Development 4
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3.3 The Role of Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous peoples have a great influence on
environmental change and have a paradigm of
preserving nature. At the same time, indigenous
peoples also become agents of change. Where
indigenous peoples are critical to the success of
policies and actions directed at climate change
mitigation and adaptation, and equitable transition
policies. Another consideration is of course the main
dependence of indigenous peoples on natural
resources and ecosystems, with which they also share
complex cultural relationships. Since nature is their
core productive asset, their economic activities do not
allow it to harm the environment. Their livelihoods
depend on the values they derive from nature, such as
fish, bush meat, fruits, mushrooms, medicines, roots,
and construction and other productive materials.
Jayapura City consists of several groups of
indigenous people who inhabit an area. Land is an
important part because it is an inseparable part of the
customary system that is owned. This means that if
there is environmental damage in the Jayapura City
area or the Cycloop Mountains, of course the main
victims will be the traditional community because of
their dependence on nature conservation.
Thus, through customary law based on local
wisdom, the indigenous people of Jayapura must be
involved in every policy related to natural
sustainability including protecting clean water
sources whose upstream watersheds are in the
Cycloop mountains. placing indigenous peoples only
as a separate part but must be involved on an ongoing
basis. Regional Drinking Water Company of
Jayapura City as a water resource management
company through the Environmental Service Fee
policy formulates a practical policy, so that the
Environmental Service Fee is also economically
beneficial for indigenous peoples in Jayapura City. In
simple terms, the compensation for environmental
services carried out by Regional Drinking Water
Company of Jayapura City together with the local
government determines the value of the price,
whether it is monetary compensation or other
valuable values with a commitment to environmental
conservation in the Cycloop mountain area.
Prohibiting all illegal logging activities or forest
encroachment is the task of the data community who
gets supervision from the government then
indigenous peoples have full rights to access natural
resources in the Cycloop mountain area with a
conservation note.
Of course, the effort to implement the
Environmental Service Fee requires a foothold
through the institutionalization of laws because with
customary community-based environmental
conservation there is a lot of potential that can be
explored in the form of exploration, not exploitation.
This potential return for environmental services, if
managed properly, is certainly useful for improving
the welfare of indigenous peoples to encourage their
lives. Meanwhile, Regional Drinking Water
Company of Jayapura City interest is of course the
water debit that will be distributed to customers will
increase and Jayapura City will be free from drought.
3.4 Environmental Service Fee
Working Model
In the concept of Rewards for Environmental
Services in water resources in Jayapura City, there are
at least 4 (four) stakeholders (Tole, 2010), namely the
local government (provincial government/Jayapura
City government), Community Social Institutions
(NGOs), the private sector and the community.
custom. The damage in the Cycloop Mountains has
so far occurred due to forest encroachment by
businessmen (companies) to take wood and the
community. This means that the responsibility of
environmental destroyers is not only limited to
compensation, but is also responsible for the entire
process of repairing forest and watershed damage in
the Cycloop Mountains.
In an effort to anticipate environmental damage,
the government, Regional Drinking Water Company
of Jayapura City and other parties involved must
provide the cost of implementing the Environmental
Service Fee above the minimum payment required to
encourage the participation of landowners. This
means that the Environmental Service Fee program in
Jayapura City in the preservation of the Cycloop
Mountains will indirectly reduce the effectiveness of
the destructive environment.
In the Environmental Service Fee mechanism in
Jayapura City, the funds provided by the government
are given to customary communities from the budget.
Indigenous peoples in Jayapura City are then
responsible for managing the funds given in
accordance with the purposes and objectives of the
granting of funds. Activities carried out with
compensation funds are in accordance with the
agreement between the government and indigenous
peoples to carry out forest and land conservation
efforts through planting. maintenance, as well as
maintaining plants and carrying out a series of other
activities related to efforts to preserve the function of
the Cycloop Mountains watershed. The text of the
environmental service fee agreement is certainly
Application of Indigenous Community-Based Environmental Service Fees in the Availability of Clean Water in Jayapura City, Papua
Province
409
carried out by establishing an Upstream-Downstream
Relationship Mechanism in Efforts to Preserve Water
Resources in the Cycloop Mountains so that it
remains sustainable.
4 CONCLUSION
The problem of the clean water crisis in Jayapura City
must be resolved immediately. The root of the
problem is the destruction of the watershed in the
Cycloop Mountains, which is the origin of 11 springs
in Jayapura City. Indigenous communities in
Jayapura City have an important position in this
sustainability by being involved in the Environmental
Service Rewards program which is expected to be
implemented in Jayapura City. In conclusion, the
application of the Environmental Service Fee
mechanism provides a number of benefits, such as the
emergence of the role of indigenous peoples in
environmental conservation whose goal is to protect
forests from damage. Although there are indications
of an increase in the socio-economic value of the
participants of the Environmental Service Fee to
indigenous peoples, although it has not been seen
because this research is still only a policy
recommendation. Likewise, the impact of improving
ecological functions has not yet been seen clearly
because the land that participates in the
Environmental Service Reward mechanism has not
been mapped due to the extent of the forest that must
be protected. There is a need for a strategy that
considers the aspect of increasing the value of
compensation over time so that the benefits of the
Environmental Service Fee scheme for service
providers can be felt by indigenous peoples.
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