Rehabilitation of the Budheg Mountain Forest, Tulungagung, Indonesia

This article examines the rehabilitation of the Mount Budheg forest in Tanggung Village between 2006 and 2015. The research aims to trace the history of forest degradation, explore the rehabilitation efforts, and assess the social and environmental impacts on the local community. Using an environmental sociology framework and David B. Tindall’s social network theory, the study applies a historical method encompassing topic selection, heuristics, verification, interpretation, and historiography. The findings reveal that destructive activities such as firewood collection, wood theft, and edge fires significantly contributed to forest degradation. By 2005 and 2007, these practices led to severe environmental consequences, including soil erosion and flooding in nearby rice fields due to the Ancar River’s overflow during the rainy season. In response, Agus Utomo founded the Wono Yoso Forest Village Community Institution (LMDH) in 2006, mobilizing collective efforts to rehabilitate the forest, primarily through reforestation. This initiative successfully restored the forest’s role in regulating water management, as evidenced by the absence of flooding since 2012, thereby safeguarding agricultural productivity. Additionally, forest rehabilitation fostered the growth of eco-tourism in Mount Budheg, creating new employment opportunities for Tanggung Village residents by 2015.