Ministry of Forestry: Social Forestry provides economic impact for 1.4 million families

Director General of Social Forestry at the Ministry of Forestry, Catur Endah Prasetiani, stated that social forestry has been able to deliver economic impact for 1.4 million households through sustainable management.

“This is an extraordinary lesson, showing that sustainable conservation is not only built from the top down, but also grows from below, from the village, from the ground, from the hands of communities living side by side with the forest,” said Catur while attending the 2026 strategic summit initiated by the Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI) Warsi in Jambi on Thursday.

She revealed that, based on data, the area of social forestry across Indonesia has now reached 8.41 million hectares out of a national target of 12.7 million hectares.

A total of 1.4 million households from 36,095 villages have been involved in community economic improvement programmes through the development of agroforestry, non-timber forest products, environmental services, and the utilisation of economic value from carbon sales.

This is particularly significant given that around 36.7 percent of the population living around forest areas remains in the poor category.

On that basis, the existence of social forestry has become an important part of the action plan for poverty alleviation and the eradication of extreme poverty, in accordance with Presidential Instruction Number 8 of 2025.

“So from Warsi, the challenge is to try to overlay our social forestry locations with the existing deciles. Whether they have moved from deciles one to four towards five, up to eight, especially since there are economic values that can be extracted,” Catur explained.

She assessed that the environmental community has contributed to development and environmental sustainability in Jambi Province.

“Congratulations to KKI Warsi for 35 years of service, this is part of the contribution to development in Jambi,” said Sudirman.