Ministry of Forestry: Social forestry commodity clusters to support product downstreaming

The Director General of Social Forestry at the Ministry of Forestry, Catur Endah Prasetiani P, stated that the development of social forestry commodity clusters supports the product downstreaming programme. “There is synergy and collaboration between district governments and social forestry business groups (KUPS). Integrated area development can also generate commodity clustering, which will increase the economic scale of social forestry products,” she said in Bandarlampung on Wednesday. She noted that nationally there are 160 social forestry products, and through cooperation with various parties, downstreaming has been carried out for several plantation commodities and from multi-forestry businesses using agroforestry systems. “After being overlaid with the national social forestry programme, there are 10 commodities ready for downstreaming, including coffee, cocoa, candlenut, charcoal, coconut, cashew, pepper, nutmeg, and clove. However, a main problem, for example in Pesawaran Regency, is that there is a candlenut shell briquette product, but the market demands more production, overwhelming the farmers. So, collaboration is needed to form commodity clusters,” she said. She continued that the formation of these commodity clusters helps social forestry business groups meet substantial market demand. “If clusters are formed, it will be easier to reach market demand, because the market always requires certainty regarding quality, quantity, continuity, local wisdom, and sustainability,” she stated. She explained that the implementation of commodity development for downstreaming will use an agroforestry scheme. “The market for these downstream products is expected to reach exports, so initially domestic first, then it can reach export. Farmers usually process nutmeg oil or the first processed raw commodity products, and they typically cooperate with industry to finally become retail products,” she added. According to her, if social forestry products have difficulty finding a market or an offtaker, they will be assisted by her party or by the Environmental Fund Management Agency (BPDLH). “Currently, all parties must ensure how these farmers can sell their products, and through this integrated area development, there will be innovation so that farmers do not only sell raw materials. This can increase farmers’ income, and BPDLH has even prepared several upstream scenarios from planting or harvesting so that these social forestry products can be accepted by offtakers,” she said. It is known that 10 social forestry commodities are currently being developed for downstreaming to support forest conservation and advance villages; these commodities are coffee, cocoa, nutmeg, pepper, candlenut, clove, cashew, coconut, and vanilla. The downstreaming of social forestry commodities can strengthen institutions and community capacity, create quality products that are competitive in local and global markets, ensure forests remain sustainable, and make communities more prosperous.