Regional collaboration in forest sustainability of Karanganyar-Magetan tourism corridor

Abstract Tourism has become a significant driver for landuse changes in rural Java, Indonesia. One of the rural tourism corridors is the cross-province corridor of Karanganyar-Magetan. Spanning the protected forest area of Gunung Lawu, this corridor is part of an area that plays a vital role in regional water catchment and biodiversity reservoir. Thus, regional collaboration is needed to ensure the forest sustainability amidst the development of tourism corridor. This research aimed to identify the regional collaboration needed to tackle the environmental degradation caused by the rapid development of tourism activities along the corridor. The forest sustainability in terms of forest area and the development of tourism activities was identified by spatial analysis using GIS in the last 10 years based on satellite images. Findings showed that deforestation rate reached 1,43%, contributed by the growth of tourism sites and attraction that reached 15% per year in average. The focus discussion with the key stakeholders revealed that tourism is prioritized in regional development, prompting to adjustment in landuse plan to provide tourism area due to higher regional income. In order to balance forest sustainability and economic benefit, co-managing scheme will be the best fit by establishing technical standards and monitoring frameworks.