Indonesia MoEF Delegation Visits The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC) for Partnership Discussion

The delegation of Government of Indonesia through the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF)  and the Ministry of State Secretariat visited The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC) regional office in Bangkok, Thailand for 2 days from 27-28 December 2018. This visit at the end of the year 2018 aims to discuss about partnership between The Center and GoI through MoEF, including discussing about the Memorandum of Understanding  (MoU) of partnership between two parties in Indonesia.  Also present at this meeting were RECOFTC Indonesia Country Program representatives, who are Mr. Gamma Galudra, Indonesia Country Director, and Reny Juita, Community Forestry Partnership Coordinator. 

The meeting of partnership discussion and MoU was held on the first day of the visit, which was on December 27th, 2018. The meeting was conducted by discussing in more detail the planned expansion of the MoU for RECOFTC in Indonesia. Discussion was about the collaborative work area between The Center and MoEF in the next 5 years and the follow-up steps. Chandra Silori, The Center’s Manager of Program Coordination and Operations, as a representative of RECOFTC regional office attended the meeting. 

The second day, the delegation went to  a field visit to Bang Kachao, an urban forest which is also called the Metropolis Oasis of Bangkok. Geographically, Bang Kachao is a small island aimed at the 15 km Chao Praya River, with a total area of 20 sq km. Bang Ka Chao is a green open space that is important for local people and is a natural class close to Bangkok. The Indonesian delegation visited Bang Ka Chao and discussed the management of the area and entrepreneurship of the surrounding community, and saw the uniqueness of this ecosystem. 

With this visit, it is hoped that the current MoU process can be carried out and immediately realized, for good cooperation in the future.