Jokowi Gives 24 Thousand Hectares of Land in Papua, Manokwari Service: It Will Be Managed by the Community

Head of the West Papua Forestry Service Hendrik F Runaweri in Manokwari, Papua (ANTARA)

MANOKWARI - The Provincial Government of West Papua has received a Social Forestry Decree (SK) from President Joko Widodo covering 24,812 hectares of land spread across Kaimana, Manokwari and Bintuni Bay Regencies.

Head of the West Papua Forestry Service Hendrik F Runaweri in Manokwari, said the nine social forestry decrees consisted of eight village forest schemes managed by eight village institutions and one decree establishing customary forest areas.

The thousands of hectares of social forestry will benefit 1,420 households if managed optimally by the community in the three regencies.

"We have received eight village forest decrees and one customary forest", said Hendrik as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, February 23.

He explained that Kaimana Regency received six village forest decrees covering an area of 8,180 hectares which could benefit 874 heads of households.

Then Manokwari Regency received two Forest Decree covering an area of 333 hectares with a total of 325 family heads, and Bintuni Bay received one customary forest decree covering an area of 16,299 hectares which provides benefits to 221 family heads.

"Social forestry is a forest management permit given to the community, so the community manages and utilizes it themselves", he said.

Hendrik continued, President Joko Widodo had also handed over the SK Land Object for Agrarian Reform (TORA) covering an area of 7,103.3 hectares spread over four regencies and one city in West Papua and Southwest Papua, namely Manokwari, Fakfak, Kaimana, Arfak Mountains, and Kota shove.

TORA is a program to redistribute forest area land from the government to the community and is an agrarian reform effort to achieve economic equality.

TORA is in line with the spirit of Social Forestry, namely expanding access to land management and control for the community.

"The number of heads of families receiving TORA in both West Papua and Southwest Papua is 501 families", he said.

He hopes that the SK TORA recipients will immediately coordinate with regional heads or the National Land Agency (BPN) in each region to take care of the certificate issuance process.

Meanwhile, for the people receiving the Decree on Social Forestry, the government gives them the freedom to find financing partners or investors independently in managing forests according to applicable regulations.

"The distribution of Social Forestry Decrees or TORA is carried out through the respective regional governments, later the regional governments will pass it on to the communities concerned", explained Hendrik.

It should be noted that there were 17 provinces including those that received the Social Forestry Decree and TORA from President Joko Widodo on Wednesday, February 22 at IKN, East Kalimantan Province.