Sunday, November 20, 2025. Kitabisa.org handed over assistance in the form of revolving funds to ten forest farmers who are members of the Mulya Tani 1 Social Forestry Group in Ibun Village, Ibun District, Bandung Regency, West Java Province. The assistance handover activity was also attended by the National Management Board of the Social Forestry Management Association (BPN AP2SI), the Provincial Management Board of the West Java Social Forestry Management Association (BPP AP2SI JABAR), PETA facilitators, as well as administrators and members of the Mulya Tani 1 Social Forestry Group.
This revolving fund assistance was delivered by Iqbal as a representative of kitabisa.org with the hope that it can help coffee farmers in increasing the development of coffee production and help maintain the ecology in the Social Forestry area under the Special Management Forest Area (KHDPK) scheme. The General Chair of BPN AP2SI, Pak Roni also expressed his gratitude to kitabisa.org which has supported the organization's work several times in terms of mentoring and economic development to AP2SI member institutions, especially KPS Mulya Tani 1 which has received revolving fund assistance.
In addition to the series of activities for the distribution of revolving funds by kitabisa.org to ten coffee farmers who are members of KPS Mulya Tani 1, there was also a tree planting in the Social Forestry area under the KHDPK Scheme in commemoration of the 6th anniversary of AP2SI. The tree planting was carried out by all participants who attended the distribution of revolving funds in forest areas that are considered critical land and need green cover as an effort to reforest and protect water catchment areas.
The General Chairperson of BPN AP2SI, Mr. Roni, conveyed the journey of Social Forestry since its inception, and the condition of the forest before the Social Forestry program, his hope from this activity is to increase awareness about more equitable and sustainable forest management, so that it has a positive impact such as maintaining water catchment areas, and increasing the income of forest farmers so that they can achieve prosperity along with increasing green cover in forest areas.
AP2SI's work in assisting Social Forestry Groups consistently prioritizes ecological justice values through active community participation in forest areas. Furthermore, AP2SI frequently advocates for policies to protect forest farmers in meeting their livelihoods through forest management.
Initially, Mount Pasirjawa was overgrown with weeds and rafters, since the launch of the Social Forestry Program in 2017 until now, forest farmers have begun to manage the area by planting coffee in the forest area. Mr. Amin, a representative of the KPS Mulyatani farmers, conveyed the difference between the PHBM program and the current Social Forestry, where with the PHBM farmers must enter into a cooperation agreement with the forest area stakeholders (Perhutani) every time they want to manage a forest area, but with this social forestry program, forest farmers can be independent starting from the management plan to the payment of PNBP to the state. In addition, in terms of economic growth for forest farmers, it has begun to increase and can provide for their families. The benefits obtained by the community around the forest are not only in terms of economic improvement but there are also benefits of ecological change for the better, real evidence of participatory management activities through this social forestry program is that fires no longer occur in forest areas, because before the community participated in management, fires often occurred in forest areas.
To conclude the event, all participants prayed and shared lunch together to celebrate the sixth anniversary of BPN AP2Si. Loan assistance from kitabisa.org helps forest farmers who lack access to capital to manage forest areas.
