The forum on Community Forestry (CF) success stories from the Asia-Pacific was held yesterday during the Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit 2016 at the International Convention Centre in Berakas.

Topics of discussion included the essence of CF, interactions of a community with forests and different types of CF.

Speakers at the event were Dr. Dede Rohadi, Scientist, Forest Research and Development Agency, Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia; Aida Greenbury, Managing Director of Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement, Asia Pulp and Paper; and Isabelita Austria, Chief of Community Forestry, Forest Management Bureau, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (FMB DENR), Republic of Philippines.

Dr. Dede Rohadi said the essence of CF is to put people first and the forest second, communities manage forests sustainably.

He said in Indonesia, the impetus for the development and issuance of the forest development policy that enabled the benefit of the local community was first declared in the 8th Forestry Congress in Jakarta in 1978 that launched with the theme 'Forest for People'.

Dr. Dede Rohadi said the target that was proclaimed by the minister of forestry during the period of 2010 - 2014 was the provision of access rights to cover 2.5 million hectares of production forest and protection forest areas to be managed by the community.

He added that the social forestry programme during the period of 2015 - 2019 targeted 12.7 million hectares or 10 per cent of state forest land (production forest and protection forest) to be distributed to the right target groups or poor local farmers living near forest areas across the country.

In the programme, access rights in the form of CF, Village Forest (FV), Community Plantation Forest (CPF) and Forest Partnership (FP) will be given for a period of 35 years to the target groups.

It has been a huge programme during the last 30 years of forestry development planning in Indonesia, he added.

Experiences in the past five years in executing the social forestry programme showed that local governments have a significant role to guarantee its success.

Local universities, experts, practitioners, research and development institutions also have a great role in supporting the programme to increase their capacities and social entrepreneurship to solve issues with poverty.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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