Jakarta, Dec 21 (Antara) - Indonesia's forests, which served as wealth engines for conglomerates and forest tycoons in the past, are being cultivated to improve farmers' prosperity and regain the glory of its timber industry.
Forests are now cultivated differently from the forest management concept in the past when concessions were given to large companies or corporations.
The concept of forest is now based on a social forestry scheme where the people, the locals and the farmers become the main subject, and they are given the concessions to cultivate forests so that they can improve their welfare and support timber industries, which are oriented to exports.
According to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the management of forests in the social forestry scheme is different from the previous management system.
"In the past, concessions were given to large companies, foreign firms and corporations but now they are given to the people, the farmers, and the associations of farmers," the president said in his address when handing over permits of social forestry concessions to farmers in Pulau Pisang District, Central Kalimantan, on Tuesday (Dec. 20).
There are three groups of people or farmers who are given licenses with regard to the management of the forestry sector. They are the farmers, farmers' groups, and associations of farmers' groups (Gapoktan).
In Central Kalimantan, according to Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, there are about 1.6 million hectares of forests made available for cultivation as farmers' timber estate. "The forest cultivation now is not the same as that in the past when the forest concessions are provided for unclear recipients. Now it is clear as to who will plant the trees and who are going to receive and purchase the timber," the President said.
Therefore, the head of state expressed hope that Indonesia's forestry industry will regain its former glory to make the country one of the largest timber exporters in the world.
"Through the development of the social forestry scheme, we want to restore the glory of our forestry industry based on small timber estates," the president stated.
For this purpose, the president has issued a license for the cultivation of 12.6 million hectares of forests in Central Kalimantan as part of a social forestry program aimed at improving the welfare of people living around the forests.
"The government has allocated 12.6 million hectares of land to be cultivated as part of a social forestry initiative in the 2015-2019 period," Jokowi said.
Of the 12.6 million hectares, a total of 1.6 million hectares have been included in the indicative map as social forestry areas.
The government has issued a letter of decision on the management of forestry village, people's forest estate concessions, and village forests. A total of 35,595 hectares are to be cultivated by 4,762 farmers' families in 37 farmers groups, and associations of farmers' groups.
Jokowi promised to continually check on the utilization of social forestry lands. "I will check it again later to see whether it is productive or not, whether it is being exploited or neglected with no tree plantation efforts. The land should not be sold. I will certainly find out if the land is sold because I will continue to monitor it," the head of state warned.
So, he said, when he came back later, he would no longer check forest and peat land fires but to see what has been planted. The results should be concrete and should be seen. "Whether the trees have grown by one or two meters high. In one year, I will surely come here again," he said.
Through the program, the farmers as the raw material suppliers will cooperate with the industry with the aim of exporting the timber products to obtain bigger value.
President Jokowi expressed hope that soon after the issuance of a license, a plywood factory would be developed, which would purchase the people's timber products.
"The factory is expected to purchase the people's timber at a fair price, and the people are also expected to sell it at a fair price too. They should not demand excessive rates. I hope this will serve as an economic catalyst in Pulau Pisang District," he remarked.
This will ensure that the locals won't stay unemployed but will have fields to work, and that they are ready to preserve and manage forests because the markets to receive forest products both timber and non-timber products will already be available.
This will improve farmers' welfare. After all, there are still 25,863 villages inside and in the vicinity of forest areas. According to Jokowi, some 10.2 million villagers living in forested areas are still poor and legally have a right to use forest resources.
"About 70 percent of the villages still use forests as a source of income."
He said the spirit of the social forestry program is to ensure social justice for the people living around the forests while conserving forestry resources.
The way to achieve these goals is to cultivate forest areas owned by farmers with people's forest, customary forestry, and partnership forestry schemes. In these schemes, it is the local people, the farmers, farmers' groups, and associations of farmers' groups who hold land ownership rights under the social forestry programs.
On the occasion, Jokowi also asked Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar to provide a calculation on how much benefit the farmers could gain in joining the forestry management scheme.
"If profit is clear in the calculation of the program, the people will surely be passionate in planting trees," he said.
Moreover, a timber processing factory has been set up there to process 'sengon' trees produced by local farmers. According to Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, the presence of the factory provides certainties for farmers to sell their products.
The company reportedly invested some Rp1 trillion in setting up the factory, which is seen as a chance to help develop the local economy.(A014/INE/B003)
EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 21-12-2016 23:34:2 |
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