Forestry Ministry pushes community partnerships in 29 million hectares of forest concessions

The Ministry of Forestry is pushing to strengthen partnerships between concession holders and forest-adjacent communities to broaden the equitable distribution of benefits from forest management, which currently covers approximately 29 million hectares of concessions.

Director General of Sustainable Forest Management at the Ministry of Forestry, Laksmi Wijayanti, stated that the government wants the utilisation of these areas to not only be enjoyed by business actors but also to provide space for communities to engage in forest-based economic activities.

“Forest utilisation must be fair. It should not be concentrated only among a few parties. Communities must be encouraged,” Laksmi said during a media briefing in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to her, efforts to expand community access to forest management have so far been carried out through the social forestry programme covering 12 million hectares.

“For the 29 million hectares, we are also developing a concept so that it can be shared through multi-business forestry and mandatory partnerships,” she explained.

Laksmi elaborated that the partnership will be implemented through a multi-business forestry scheme that allows for the utilisation of various forest potentials, ranging from non-timber forest products and agroforestry to environmental services and nature tourism. She noted that communities living around forests possess local knowledge that can be harnessed to determine commodities suitable for their respective regional conditions.