The last two years was an important period in the history of improving the forest and land management in Indonesia. The high numbers of permits in the plantation, mining and forestry sectors that overlap with the land of community and not in accordance with their designation, makes the government released the policies of forest protection and re-evaluate the corporate permits aggressively. As a result, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has succeeded in reducing the deforestation number significantly, in 2015-2016 the deforestation number reached 630 thousand hectares, while in 2016-2017 deforestation number decreased to 480 thousand hectares. (source: https://www.mongabay.co.id/2018/01/29/deforestasi-indonesia-2017-turun-definisi-masih-perdebatan/)
The Asia Foundation (TAF) through the SETAPAK 2 program strongly supports the government policies to save Indonesia’s forests, because good governance is a vital solution for the fairness in forest and land management.
To support the efforts, SETAPAK program works with the central and regional governments, civil society organizations, research institutions, mass media and community groups that have concerns towards better forest management.
Until the end of 2018, the SETAPAK 2 program worked with 68 partners from 14 provinces and national, such as Aceh, Riau, South Sumatra, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Bangka Belitung, Bengkulu, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Papua, West Papua, Jakarta and Bogor.
To attract the learning from implementation of programs in various regions, in October 2018, TAF held SETAPAK 2 Partner Meeting (Forestival 4) Program with the theme “Transformation in Forest and Land Management in Indonesia”. This annual meeting was conceived as a discussion forum about inter-stakeholder cooperation in establishing the accountability and transparency to encourage the enforcement of fairness, gender equality, law and policy change, and interrelated to discuss what the challenge was faced and how to overcome it.
The fourth Forestival that was conducted on 30 October - 1 November 2018, has several purposes such as:
- As a forum for sharing information about the participation and achievements that have been generated by SETAPAK 2 partners, with the challenge in realizing the improvements of Forest and Land Management in each region, includes mainstreaming governance through the Political Economy Analysis (PEA) approach related to permit , law enforcement, community management access, budget sector policy review, gender mainstreaming and Ecological Fiscal Transfer (EFT) which contribute to reduce the number of deforestation and land degradation in Indonesia.
- Building the coordination and joint commitment with various parties at the local and national level in strengthening the issue of Forest and Land Management in Indonesia.
- Redefining the effective strategies and approaches to ensure the realization of transformation in Forest and Land Management.
- Building the strategy to involve the public and media in disseminating the spirit of fair and sustainable forest and land management in Indonesia.
This event was also attended by Prof. Ir. Rahmat Witoelar - Special Envoy of Republic of Indonesia for Climate Change and representative of the Climate Change Unit of the United Kingdom - United Kingdom for Climate Change Unit (UKCCU). See how Forestival 4 runs through the following video.
