The 9th Meeting of the Working Group on Forestry and Forest Industries between Indonesia and Finland was held in Bali, Indonesia in November 2008. The Working Group was established in 1990 based on the Agreement on Economic, Industrial and Technological Cooperation between the two countries. The cooperation party of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry.

Cooperation themes

The main themes of the discussions in the 9th Meeting were the measures against illegal loggings, strengthening communities of the rural areas in the forest sector and developing community-based forestry in Indonesia.

Finnish and Indonesian authorities and experts have made preparations to introduce a proposal on a joint project of the community-based forestry development. This Finnish-Indonesian project will support a bigger community-based forest project (CBFP) which covers an area of 5,4 million hectares in Indonesia. The objectives of the CBFP are to improve community welfare, accelerate forest rehabilitation and reforestation, and to increase forest productivity and conflict resolution.

Also, collaboration has been proposed in the following fields: Finnish and Indonesian forest certification programs; management of conservation areas; utilization of fast-growing plantations using modern veneer and plywood production technology; development of peat land management; timber harvesting technology; and development and marketing of non-timber forest products.

The 10th cooperation meeting will be arranged in 2010 in Finland.