Partnership Talkshow: Quo Vadis Social Forestry in the Next Government

Wednesday 11/22/2023, 12.00 WIB

Organizing a Talk Show on Community, Forests and Climate: Quo Vadis on Social Forestry in the Future Government. Wednesday (22/11/2023, Photo: Partnership)

JAKARTA, LATIN.OR.ID – Since the Social Forestry program started, it has been recorded that approximately 6.3 million hectares of forest area have been given rights and access to the community. If calculated from a total of 12.7 ha, the target has not been achieved by half, including approximately 1 million hectares of forest area that has been set aside as customary forest. The failure to achieve this target is more due to resource support that is not commensurate with the target as well as various other factors such as limited quality and quantity of companions and still not optimal support and involvement of other Ministries/Institutions as well as regional governments.

The government issued policy Government Regulation No. 23 of 2021 concerning forestry administration and Minister of Environment and Forestry Regulation No. 9 of 2021 concerning Social Forestry Management. These two policies are used by the government to speed up the permit and post approval process. The most recent publication of PP No. 28 of 2023 concerning Integrated Planning for Social Forestry allows Ministries/Institutions other than the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to also play an active role and participate in implementing Social Forestry.

Organizing a Talk Show on Community, Forests and Climate: Quo Vadis on Social Forestry in the Future Government. Wednesday (22/11/2023, Photo: Partnership)

LATIN had the opportunity to take part in a talk show held by the Partnership with a themesociety, forests and climate, discussing achievements, lessons learned and opportunities for implementing social forestry in the future. Present as a panelist was Dr. Bambang Supriyanto, Directorate General of Social Forestry and Social Forestry (PSKL-KLHK RI). Lalu Dyah Sih Irawati, SSi, MA from the Directorate General of Regional Development, Ministry of Home Affairs, West Kalimantan Province Social Forestry Acceleration Team, KPH Tangka South Sulawesi, and Partnership.

PS encourages the provision of access and democratization of forest management. After democratization takes place, there is a need for forest management, both maintained communally in protected zones and utilization patterns that include productivity, economic scale and added value. “One strategy is to encourage integrated areas with an Integrated Area Development approach or area-based development approach,” said Dr. Bambang.

It thinks that PS not only obtains management permission but also has access to utilize these assets. So that those working on this program are not only the Ministry of Environment and Forestry but across ministries/agencies. Even now, regional governments (Pemda) are being encouraged to participate in accelerating PS. It is hoped that the issuance of various PS acceleration policies will at least minimize some of the limitations in implementing PS, especially those related to relations between ministries/institutions and central and regional governments, and district governments.

Organizing a Talk Show on Community, Forests and Climate: Quo Vadis on Social Forestry in the Future Government. Wednesday (22/11/2023, Photo: Partnership)

This is supported by the explanation of Dyah Sih Irawati, SSi, MA who stated that PS already has a policy umbrella. Currently regional heads can include social forestry in the RPJMD. He also added that several collaborative efforts to encourage this acceleration had been carried out, one of which was with LATIN.Bangda together with LATIN have prepared guidelines to facilitate collaboration between ministries/institutions in implementing PS”, he said.

At the end of the activity, Thomas as Director of LATIN also explained the idea of ​​developing PS indicators based on research results in the provinces of West Kalimantan, Central Lombok, West Java, East Java and Central Java. This was welcomed by the Director General of PSKL – KLHK, Bambang Supriyanto and further discussions will be held.

Author: Novan Aji
Editor: Thomas Oni Veriasa