Jakarta, 6 June 2023 - The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) held the 2023 PeSoNa (National Social Forestry) Festival as part of the commemoration of World Environment Day. The event which took place for three days, from 5 to 7 June 2023, reflects the MoEF's commitment to supporting a productive and sustainable social forestry framework.
"The Enchantment Festival is also an important part of our work in Social Forestry. This proves that Social Forestry is built to take sides with the community or smallholders, pay attention to and apply the principles of environmental sustainability and build productivity and provide welfare to the community," explained Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya in her remarks at the Kalpataru award ceremony (5/6), which was a series of events commemorating World Environment Day.
The 2023 PeSoNa Festival was held with a series of activities designed to increase the quality and quantity of social forestry products, as well as expand market access through collaboration between the Social Forestry Business Group (SFBG) and official government business partners.
Deputy Minister of Environment and Forestry Alue Dohong, in his opening remarks at the PeSoNa Festival, said that SFBG, which manages forest resources, must be business-oriented and not just social-oriented. "SFBG which manages forest resources must be business-oriented, not just social, and must create economic value in it," he said.
In this series of festivals, APP Sinar Mas, one of the government's partners, also participated in an exhibition of social forest products. APP Sinar Mas displayed various products from business unit-assisted farmers and its supply partners from various regions, through the Desa Makmur Peduli Api (DMPA) program.
The DMPA program itself is an APP Sinar Mas initiative to strengthen the welfare of communities around forests, as well as mitigate the effects of climate change, one of which is preventing forest and land fires (Karhutla). As of January 2023, the DMPA program has reached 421 villages spread across Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, and East Kalimantan. In addition, this program has successfully involved 223 Village-Owned Enterprises, 9 Cooperatives, 189 Joint Farmers Groups, and 135 Women-Farmers Groups. And the beneficiaries of this program have reached more than 85 thousand people.
"The DMPA program is the implementation of our commitment to support the government's vision to improve the welfare of communities around the forest. This is also in line with the 2030 Sustainability Roadmap Vision (SRV) that we have launched. Through this program, we also focus on preventing karhutla as an effort to mitigate the impact of climate change," said APP Director Sinar Mas Suhendra Wiriadinata.
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