This year’s World Environment Day on June 5 adopted the theme of “Connecting People to Nature,” which highlights the importance of forest management to support people’s livelihoods. Millions of Indonesians are heavily dependent on forests for food, clean water, income and energy, which makes sustainable forest management an important task.

For energy, especially, forests play a critical role. As an enormous source of clean and renewable energy, forests provide electricity for basic human needs.

Biomass, for instance, could be generated by converting crops such as wood, bamboo, jarak tree and sugar using low-emission technology. Forests also hold potential for realizing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s ambition to achieve 100 percent electrification by 2019.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.