In May 2019, the Directorate of Ecosystem Services and Non-Timber Forest Products of the Indonesian Ministry for the Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and PT Shopee International Indonesia have signed an MoU aiming to collaboratively promote the trading of NTFP derived in Indonesia’s production forests through Shopee’s online market. Based on this a workshop was conducted in Makassar on 22-24 January 2020 in order to explore the potential as well as associated challenges that need to be resolved for successfully implementing the MoU. Next to staff from GIZ and MoEF, representatives from the Provincial Industry Service (Dinas Perindustrian) and Balai Besar Pengawas Obat dan Makanan (Center for Food and Drug Control) in Makassar, as well as outreach staff from Shopee attended the workshop. The officials of 28 Forest Management Units (KPH) from Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sumbawa, Sulawesi and Papua listened to the presentations and actively discussed their experiences during the workshop.

The main discussion points were the development of regulations and organizational arrangements to facilitate the KPHs engagement in online marketing as well as the most effective strategies for successful sales on the Shopee-Platform.

Further, Directorate of Ecosystem Services and Non-Timber Forest Products made use of the occasion to disseminate a newly established regulation and system for reporting of business activities related to NTFP in the KPHs.

For more information, please contact:
Dominik Schwab, EZ-Trainee
Mohamad Rayan, Adviser for Crosscutting Issues and Conflict Management