T

he newly established partnership program between PT Rinjani Hijau Makmur and local residents is expected to draw more investment to North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), says the regent.

PT Rinjani Hijau Makmur is developing jabon trees (Antocephalus cadamba), a raw material for the production of plywood, in Bayan district.

“We have been directly involved in the initial planting of tree seedlings in Bayan,” North Lombok Regent Djohan Sjamsu told The Jakarta Post, over the weekend.

The project, according to Djohan, covers a plantation area of 236 hectares, expected to be able to accommodate some 2,500 jabon trees.

For the partnership, PT Rinjani Hijau provides the seedlings, fertilizers and maintenance of the trees while the local community, as the owners of the fields, is tasked with planting the seedlings and nurturing them until they are ready to harvest. Jabon trees need an estimated five-year growth period before being ready to harvest.

“From the harvest, the company will take 40 percent of the sale while the community will enjoy 60 percent,” Djohan said.

He added more fields would be opened if the project in Bayan turned out to have been a success. The administration would even help push the company to establish a wood processing factory in the regency in the future.

He said this method of partnership was strongly promoted because it directly involved the community and did not reduce the people’s rights over the land. That way, he said, investment could benefit the people significantly, thus helping control poverty in the region.

North Lombok, which became a regency in 2009 after separating from West Lombok, has five districts including Bayan, where the renowned Mount Rinjani National Park (TNGR) is located.

Djohan said his administration would focus on tourism and agriculture in developing the regency. “We also have been actively planting trees. We want to create green North Lombok, and to support the forests in Lombok in particular and in NTB in general,” he said.

Other green programs include the people’s seedling program funded by the Forestry Ministry. Djohan said his administration had prepared 136 hectares for the program, which would involve at least 35 farmers’ groups.

Each group, he said, would receive Rp 50 million from the program to produce seedlings of endemic trees and other productive trees.

He praised the role of local wisdom in the preservation of forests in the region, especially of customary forests. North Lombok, he said, is home to 34 customary forests. They are spread throughout the five districts.