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

Created: 29 January 2020

Aiming to increase the capacity of farmers in Kampung Batu Rajang, Berau Regency, FORCLIME facilitated a study visit to a rubber factory, PT. Multi Kusuma Cemerlang, and the honey processing center, Abihira Herba Center, in Samarinda, East Kalimantan on 20 – 21 January 2020. The eleven participants included farmers and representatives from the Environmental and Forestry Education and Training Center of Samarinda.

During the visit to the rubber factory, participants gained knowledge related to the rubber market chains, post-harvest processing (tapping) and rubber quality requirements needed by the factory. In addition, the study tour offers an opportunity for networking between farmers and buyers.

While visiting the production and processing of honey from the stingless wild bees (kelulut), participants also examined the production of traditional herbal medicines, as well as observing market potentials and preparing a business network for kelulut honey and medicines from the forest (non-timber forest products).

For further information, please contact:
Suprianto, Technical adviser, sustainable forest management, Coordinator Berau district
Arif Data Kusuma, Coordinator East Kalimantan province
Lutz Hofheinz, Strategic area management, forest management unit (KPH)

Created: 27 January 2020

Today, 7 January 2020, Forest Farmer Group in Kampung Batu Rajang, East Kalimantan, harvesting honey from the stingless bee that they grow after participated in a training conducted in October 2019. The training was done with the purpose of supporting the Social Forestry programme implementation in East Kalimantan. On the training, carried out by the Samarinda training Center (BDLHK Samarinda) and FORCLIME, participants were handed five boxes containing stingless bee colony (Trigona itama) as a stimulant for honey bee farming. Currently, they already have up to 10 boxes. Today, villagers harvested from one of the boxes, and get 0.5 L honey. The farmers are very happy and interested as they expect to gain additional income from the honey bee farming in the future.

For further information, please contact:
Suprianto, Technical adviser for sustainable forest management, Coordinator Berau district

Created: 07 January 2020