Authority of Village-Owned Business Entity (Bumdesa) in Village Forest Management at Selat Village Buleleng Regency I Wayan Wesna Astara 1 , Ketut Widia 2 , I Wayan Rideng 3 Master of Law Program, Universitas Warmadewa, Denpasar, Indonesia 1,2,3 {suarjana66.acc@gmail.com 1 } Abstract. 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. Keywords: Protection; Social Forestry; Conservation of Village Forests 1 Introduction Forest is a national development capital that has ecological, economic and socio-cultural benefits. In the Law No. 41 of 1999 regarding Forestry, it states that a forest is an ecosystem unit in the form of a stretch of land consisting of biological natural resources that dominated by trees which has three functions namely conservation function, protection function, and production function. Along with the increasing rate of forest conversion which is estimated reaching 2 (two) million hectares per year for agricultural land, settlements, and fulfillment of various community needs, it is realized that it has reduced area and function of forest which causes many problems such as ecological system damage, flora and fauna extinction, flooding, drought, and even global climate change. Increasing community participation both in policies and also in management of forest resources can prevent and overcome forest destruction. Recognition of the importance of society as the basis for forestry development in Indonesia is embodied in a paradigm shift which is then manifested in various forms of policy. One of the important policies that can be ISSHE 2020, November 25, Indonesia Copyright © 2021 EAI DOI 10.4108/eai.25-11-2020.2306648