Authority of Village-Owned Business Entity (Bumdesa) in Village Forest Management at Selat Village Buleleng Regency

Community participation both in policy and management of forest resources is very important to prevent and overcome forest destruction. As one of the government policies is to restore local communities as the main role of forestry development through Social Forestry policy. According to the village community, the Selat forest is considered as a source of water springs, a source of livelihood, a natural tourist area, and it has spiritual values that are respected by the community. The problems formulated in this study were how the legal protection and how the effectiveness of BUMDesa (village-owned business entity) in managing village forests at Selat Village of Buleleng Regency. The type of this research is a mixed legal research. The results of this study lead to a conclusion that the protection of village forests was carried out preventively and repressively. The effectiveness of BumDesa's authority on village forest management has not been effectively implemented in accordance with the Village Forest Rights and Management Work Plan and legislation that applies both state law and customary law. It is caused by the unavailability of adequate human and capital resources for the management of all village forest areas.