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 2.5 million hectares of the village forests and community forests targeted could be realized partly due to 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.

Jokowi further said social forestry initiatives should not only relate to legal matters, such as giving people access to social forestry permits, but should be followed by advanced programs to enhance the welfare of people living in and around forested areas.

The advanced programs should start from the preparation of production infrastructure, training and counseling to the opening of people’s access to market and technology information, financing and post-harvest preparations.

“We should also prepare the management of business aspects of social forestry,” Jokowi said.

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