A Poverty Structural Model of a Forest Community in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia A Decomposition of Effects in Path Analysis

1 J Abstract In current economic development situation of Indonesia, poverty issue is one of the big prob­ lems to cope with. Statistically, in the country, the percentage of population below the poverty line doubled from 11% in I990 to about 20% during the peak of the crisis, in 1997-1998. Besides that forests are currently facing greater threats than at any time in the past, where many areas are undergoing rapid deforestation and degradation as a result of human activity. In taking part on these issues, the objectives of the research were directed to construct a poverty structural causal model and to decompose the effects of the constructed model in the forest community. The re­ search was carried out, during 2000-2001, at the forest community of Talippuki Village, Polmas District, South Sulawesi Province. One hundred twenty households were randomly interviewed for collecting the primary data needed based on the predetermined variables. By employing cor­ relation, factor, and path analyses, as the data analysis method, we come to conclude that the in­ termediate variable of Rice Field Production, Cocoa Production, On-farm Labor, Coffee Produc­ tion, Forest-based Income, Transfer-source Income, Off-farm Labor and the independent variable of Social Basic Needs are significant predictor variables and considered as important predictor variables on the poverty in the forest community. This means that in poverty reduction effort in the community the model is very important to concern. In addition, the independent variables of Age, Education Attainment, Cultivated Land Area, Area of Cocoa Garden, Time Allocation for Water, Access to Water send their significant indirect positive effects to the Poverty. So in the poverty reduction effort in the community, these variables could be also considered as important one. In formulating pro-poor policy in the forest community some policy options could be consi­ dered as follows : improving agricultural production and productivity of rice field and cocoa com­ modities, expanding labor opportunity in agriculture and non-agriculture for the poor in rural area, securing access of the poor to forest resource and farmland, establishing social safety net in turmoil situation, enhancing human capability, and providing social facility.