Report by TribunJabar.id Journalist, Muhamad Syarif Abdussalam
TRIBUNJABAR.ID, BANDUNG – The existence of productive trees is very important for the sustainability of nature and humans.
For this reason, the Indonesian Social Forestry Management Association (AP2SI) together with Kitabisa collaborated to assist three Forest Farmer Groups (KTH) in Kertasari District, Bandung Regency, in planting productive trees.
AP2SI Chairman, Roni Usman, said that the assistance began with education on institutional governance and was continued with activities to plant coffee and avocado trees in forest land, 80 percent of which is currently in an open condition.
Planting activities began on Monday (19/02/2024) and were carried out through mutual cooperation between KTH member residents together with volunteers and donors from the Kitabisa application.
Planting is carried out in stages, starting from land managed by KTH Reksawana, totaling 20,000 tree seed coffee and 1,000 tree seed avocados that will be planted on 31 hectares of land.
This effort is carried out with the aim of gaining two benefits from the principles of social forestry management, namely 'Sustainable Forests, Prosperous People'.
This objective is realized by planting standing trees which bring stability benefits. ecologys but on the other hand it also has results that contain economic benefits for the welfare of the surrounding community.
Later, the trees that have been planted will be guarded and managed directly by KTH members and efforts will be made to gradually increase to all KTH in Kertasari.
"The planting of 21 thousand multipurpose trees is a real action to utilize the social forestry area from the management and members of KTH Reksawana together with Kitabisa and AP2SI which are supported by donors. Of course without neglecting other agendas, namely related to the arrangement of the area and the preparation of the social forestry management plan in the KTH Reksawana area," said Roni on that occasion.
VP Kitabisa, Edo Irfandi, said that this activity is in accordance with the spirit of the Askara Nusantara program, namely 'Earth Friendly, Human Friendly'. Where the sustainability design of the program has been realized from the existence of a social forestry management mechanism.
“And concretely, this brings benefits. ecologys in the form of land improvement, carbon offset and maintaining forest functions, on the other hand this has economic benefits that can improve the welfare of residents here," he said.
Quoting from Global Forest Watch, In 2001, Indonesia had 93.8 million hectares of primary forest covering more than 50 percent of its territory. However, from 2001 to 2022, Indonesia has lost 29.4 million hectares of forest cover equivalent to the release of 21.1 gigatons of carbon emissions. This problem is certainly the result of various problems in society, including the conversion of forest land into residential areas, industry, agriculture and other interests.
Improvement efforts emerged from the issuance of regulations on Social Forestry, which is a method or system of sustainable forest management implemented in state forest areas or customary forests/customary forests implemented by local communities.
