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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has urged Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar to simplify social forestry regulations and procedures to make it easier for people to access the benefits of forests.

Jokowi said that in their implementation, many social forestry initiatives had missed their targets and people were still facing difficulties in getting necessary permits.

Citing an example, he said, only 610,000 of the 2.5 million hectares of the village forests and community forests targeted could be exploited, partly because of complicated permit procedures.

“I want all obstacles hampering the realization and implementation of social forestry resolved soon,” Jokowi said on Wednesday.

He further highlighted the importance of paying attention to indigenous people, calling on the Environment and Forestry Ministry to immediately settle issues related to customary forests.

Last year, the government launched an ambitious program that earmarked 12.7 million hectares of forests to be managed by communities through social forestry schemes. These include community forests, village forests, community plantation forests and customary forests.