Six officials from Forestry Office of Papua and West Papua Provinces, with Foreign Cooperation Office of the Ministry of Forestry took a comparative study trip of project’s activities to in Jambi Province (2-7 November).

With a combined of 42 million hectares of forests, Papua and West Papua Provinces possess a massive potential in forestry sector. It is only logical that European Union focuses the attention to these easternmost provinces of Indonesia. The interest of sustaining Papuan forests is then incorporated into the 3rd Annual Work Plan of EC-Indonesia Support Project, i.e. facilitating dialogues on developing practical approaches in sustaining and exploring forest potential in Papua.

The activity is then implemented by inviting decision-maker officials of Papua and West Papua Provinces to project locations in Jambi Province. There, they exchanged views and experiences with local forest stakeholders to obtain lesson learned that might be applied in their respective province.

During the six-day visit, the Comparativve Study team conducted several meetings and discussions with various government institutions of Jambi provincial government including Forestry and Plantation Office and Technical Implementation Unit (UPT) of Ministry of Forestry, Legal Bureau, and Jambi’s Centre for Forestry Information. The team also discussed activities of community plantation forest with farmer groups of Taman Bandung Village and local Forestry Office of Sorolangun district.

The team also visited the Centre for Forestry Information of Batang Hari district, the office of Berbak National Park, and Cemara Village located inside the Berbak National Park and is the location for project’s conflict resolution activities.