The Roles of GIS/RS in the National Movement of Forest Land Rehabilitation Development of a GIS-based monitoring and evaluation system

The Roles of GIS/RS in the National Movement of Forest Land Rehabilitation Development of a GIS-based monitoring and evaluation system – the next step

III. The next step – GIS based monitoring & evaluation system for FLR
Identification of Namfor spatial locations has proved that GIS/RS provided significant contribution to this FLR movement. Data necessary for the Namfor plan such as where the locations, how large the areas and what the priority can be defined, so that efforts and budget for this rehabilitation movement can be planned appropriately for the right target locations. As the plan has been implemented i.e., 300,000 ha in 2003, the next step as a key factor for the success of the movement is to monitor and evaluate the performance of FLR implementation, and to do necessary and timely corrective actions.

In principles, monitoring is an observation to examine that Namfor was implemented as plans, the project inputs (budget, human resources, materials) are delivered and used, and resulted in outputs as planned. Monitoring may take place continually or periodically providing feedback to management at all levels to take timely corrective actions.

Evaluation, on the other hands is an assessment to analyze: (i) results, effects and impacts of particular project (FLR), (ii) appropriateness of project (FLR) design and implementation methods in achieving specific objectives, and (iii) factors affecting the level, distribution and sustainability of benefit produced. As such, monitoring and evaluation form a management tool to measure and influence the performance of the project (FLR) during operation.

In this context, the proposed Namfor monitoring and evaluation system should have, at least three characteristics. First, the system should be a spatial based system. It is obvious that since the nature of FLR data are both descriptive attributes and specific locations, a Namfor monitoring and evaluation system should be a spatial GIS based system. Second, the system should represent cycle of FLR activities. The monitoring and evaluation system should accommodate and record data of all FLR activities such as plan establishment, field preparation, planting, weeding/thinning, and harvesting. As such, the progress of implementation can be monitored and evaluated. Third, the system should be dedicated to a forestry office based at a province/region such as the office of Forest Land Gazettement (BPKH). Collecting FLR data on the ground for monitoring and evaluation purposes may be efficiently carried out at the provincial/regional level, as locations of FLR are spread in all provinces of the country. Therefore, development of monitoring and evaluation system as well as its operational implementation is more appropriate at provincial/regional offices. As an illustration, Figure 1 shows a proposed monitoring and evaluation system for FLR that addresses three characteristics previously mentioned. Figure 1 shows that the system consists of 5 processes associated with 6 data stores - descriptive and locational.

IV. Concluding Remarks

In the national movement of forest and land rehabilitation introduced by MoFRI, GIS/RS has provided significant contribution specifically during the establishment of FLR master plan. In this plan establishment, GIS/RS has played an important role by providing spatial distribution of FLR locations that were critical important in the FLR implementation.
Problems encountered in the process of location identification at the beginning of the movement should not be disturbing. In the future, quality of the data/information produced may be enhanced in many ways, such as increasing ground checks, improvement of processing procedures and skill of the personnel involved. It is important to note that from this movement, forestry central and regional offices have learned much to apply GIS/RS for the works.
As the Namfor has been implemented, monitoring and evaluation of FLR performance should be the next step of critical important. In this case, GIS/RS could play a key role in line with the nature of FLR i.e., associated with specific locations to provide data on the performance of FLR implementation as a basis to do necessary and timely corrective actions.

Figure 1. A data flow diagram of proposed GIS-based monitoring and evaluation system for FLR

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