Rehabilitation of critical land in Timor Barat should be done with holistic approach considering socio economic and cultural aspect. The problems of forest and land rehabilitation effort in this area are: poverty, less job opportunity, and high dependency on dry farm agriculture and animal husbandry. The rate of critical land in several watershed such as Benain Noelmina in Timor Barat is very high. Therefore, the approach of land rehabilitation should integrated and more specific. This research is intended to gain the information on land rehabilitation alternative through the development of community forest based on mamar system. Methods used on this research were survey on biophysics of mamar and interview with villagers, village administrators, and custom leaders. The results showed that mamar system could be developed as a community forest model to support land rehabilitation program. The benefit of applying this system is that the management of critical land will be based on local inisiative which is suitable with land characteristics, socio culture and indigenous knowledge, therefore it can increase people participation to reach the purpose of forest and land rehabilitation.

ABSTRAKPopulasi cendana di Pulau Timor yang merupakan daerah sebaran alam cendana mengalami penurunan pada tingkat yang mengkhawatirkan. Penurunan populasi cendana dari tahun 1987-1988 dan 1997-1998 mencapai 85% dalam kurun waktu 10 tahun. Status keberadaan cendana di Pulau Timor telah dimasukkan sebagai jenis yang berisiko punah (vulnerable). Upaya budidaya dan pemulihan cendana di Pulau Timor mulai dilakukan secara sistematis dan terencana. Untuk menunjang keberhasilannya perlu didukung data dan informasi mengenai lokasi yang sesuai untuk pengembangan cendana. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyediakan data dan informasi kesesuaian lahan untuk pengembangan cendana (Santalum album Linn.) di Pulau Timor dalam bentuk peta. Penelitian dilakukan dengan analisis kimia dan fisika tanah serta overlay kondisi biofisik lahan sesuai dengan prosedur FAO (1976). Hasil analisis peta secara digital menunjukkan luas lahan yang sesuai secara aktual untuk pengembangan cendana pada masing-masing kabupatan/kota sebagai berikut 10 years, from 1987-1988 and 1997-1998 FAO procedure (1976). The analysis showed an actual suitalbility area for development of sandalwood in each district are as follows: