Manado FRI (Manado, 03/09/13)_Forest Research Institute (FRI) Manado attended Coordination Meeting to Solve Tenure Problems of Forest Areas in North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo and North Maluku held by the Centers for Forestry Management and Development of Regional IV in Swiss - Bell Hotel Maleosan, Manado.

The discussion session which was moderated by the Head of Manado FRI, Dr. Mahfoudz, MP revealed that each province and the Forest Management Unit (FMU) faced some similar tenure problems.

Related to that, Prof. Dr. San Afri Awang, M.Sc, the Minister of Forestry Advisor of Inter-Agency Affairs, who was present as speaker at the event, responded that the preferred approach to handle the conflict by discussion and law enforcement is the final option.

"The welfare model approach of the Ministry of Forestry is HTR, HKM, Village Forest, Partnership (with plantations forest and natural forests, industrial forest and community forest) and it is possible if there are other schemes that can accommodate the handling of the conflict that need to be explored carefully," explained San Afri who is also Professor of the Faculty of Forestry of Gadjah Mada University.

Previously, the Minister of Forestry Advisor of Forest Security Affairs, Dr. Ir. Agus Mulyono, M.Kom said that currently the Ministry of Forestry is in the process of developing conflict resolution instrument.

"Many instruments have been developed to resolve the tenure issues and most importantly, the solution should be based on the principle of win-win solution", said Agus in his presentation.

At the end of the coordination meeting, the Head of Forestry Management and Development of Regional IV, Dr. Ir. Moh. Firman, M.For.Sc said that the output of the coordination meeting will be very meaningful for his institution because it will provide a lot of input to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Forestry in solving the problems of forest tenure.

This is in accordance with the expectation of the Deputy Governor of North Sulawesi, Dr. Djauhari Kansil, M.Pd which was delivered during the opening of the meeting. Djauhari expected this forum to be a vehicle to share experiences, knowledge and insight in identifying issues, setting problem priorities, and perform problem validation. This was in order to find appropriate problem solving solutions in solving tenure problem in forest areas, especially in the 4 provinces.

"Land issue has always been a source of conflict everywhere, if it is not anticipated early on then it will escalate wider and ultimately result in a very high social cost," said Djauhari.

The event was held on 30 September to 1 October 2013 and was attended by about 150 participants from the Provincial Forestry Office and District/City, KPH, and Ministry of Forestry Technical Working Unit of North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo and North Maluku as well as representatives from several companies. (MF)***

Photos: Manado FRI