Special session on Social Forestry
This year’s workshop had a particular focus on Social Forestry, a flagship program of the Indonesian Government in the forestry sector. The Government of Indonesia was represented by Pak Ery Indrawan from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
Pak Ery Indrawan from the Directorate General of Social Forestry in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry presented the Government’s achievements to date and future plans for the Social Forestry agenda. Photo: CIFOR.
More than 50 representatives of civil society organizations were represented in the workshop. In the dialogue with Pak Indrawan, they confirmed civil society’s willingness to work with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry on Social Forestry in order to both secure economic development in Indonesia’s rural communities and reduce the deforestation in Indonesia.
The work to recognize customary forests (hutan adat) under the Social Forestry agenda was given special attention.
Social Forestry and Indonesia’s climate goals depend on solving land conflicts
In one of the following group discussions, civil society organizations discussed how they can further support the Government’s work on land tenure, governance and transparency. These efforts are key to implement the Government’s policies in the forestry sector and to achieve the ambitious climate goals the Indonesian Government has committed to under the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Law enforcement and sustainable production
The workshop took place at the same time as the Government of Indonesia initiated forest and peat firefighting activities in Riau and West Kalimantan. This influenced the discussions on both law enforcement in the forest and land-use sector and the discussions on how Indonesia’s agriculture production can become more sustainable.
Several organizations are supporting the Central Government and also provinces and districts on how to increase agricultural production and support smallholders without expanding the production into Indonesia’s remaining rainforests.
10 years of continued support
Norway’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Mr. Vegard Kaale, opened the workshop. In his greetings to the civil society representatives, he thanked them for their continued support since Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative was launched in Bali a bit more than 10 years ago.
The formal celebration of this anniversary will take place during Oslo Tropical Forest Forum in Oslo in June, where the Indonesian Government and Indonesian civil society organizations are invited to present achievements and lessons learned under the partnership.
More about NICFI and civil society:
- Through its international Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), the Norwegian government aims at supporting efforts to slow, halt and eventually reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+).
- Civil society is seen as important agent of change and central actor in furthering and applying REDD+.
- Norad manages the funding to civil society under NICFI. Civil society organizations working with grants from Norad are particularly focussing on:
- Efforts directed at the privat sector
- The international climate negotiations
- The rights of indigenous peoples and other local populations
- Combatting illegalities and corruption in the forestry sector