Through the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), Indonesia will host the Twenty-Seventh ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF27). This discussion forum will address forest management at the ASEAN level. ASOF27 and its series of five working groups will be held over a week from July 15-19, 2024, at Vimala Hills, Bogor.
"We have a series of events for ASOF27 starting from July 15-19, and Indonesia can host this series of activities. We have five working groups, one of which is the ASEAN Working Group on Forest Products Development (AWG-FDP)," said Director General of Sustainable Forest Management KLHK, Dida Migfar Ridha, after opening the AWG-FDP on Monday (15/7/2024).
The ASEAN Working Group on Forest Products Development (AWG-FDP) will be held for two days, followed by the 22nd ASOF International Seminar on mangroves the next day. The highlight will be the ASOF27 event on Thursday-Friday, July 18-19, 2024, where representatives from ASEAN countries will present their ideas on forestry.
"We will meet with representatives from ASEAN countries for a week, including inviting international forest-related organizations," said Dida.
Dida explained that ASEAN countries regularly hold ASOF. This time, ASOF will discuss commitments made the previous year and plans for the coming year. "ASOF is held annually. First, we will follow up on our commitments from last year, the previous ASOF. And now we will approve several plans for forestry activities in the ASEAN scope for the coming year," he said.
One of the initiatives proposed by Indonesia at this ASOF is the standardization of forest monitoring methods. Dida stated that this will be proposed because Indonesia already has more advanced methods in forest monitoring.
"There are several agendas that will be discussed related to ASOF on Thursday and Friday, including some results we will present, including Indonesia's proposal to bring our forest monitoring methodology to the ASEAN level, because we already have more advanced methods and systems" said Dida.
The Indonesian government, through KLHK, will propose standardizing forest monitoring for ASEAN countries. This will be presented at ASOF27, held in Bogor on Thursday and Friday, July 18-19, 2024. Dida explained that Indonesia already has advanced methods in forest monitoring.
"We have results from the working group related to forest products and sustainable product management from forests, producing several criteria related to forest assessment, which will be further discussed at this meeting, including Indonesia's initiative to bring our forest monitoring methodology. This is very important because we are advanced in this issue," he said.
According to Dida, there needs to be a common view among ASEAN countries regarding forest monitoring. This commonality will allow for comparisons over the years and between ASEAN countries. "Not just for ASEAN, we want to bring this to the global level regarding global forests. We have an advanced monitoring system method, and we bring it to ASEAN and international," he added.
Dida hopes that the results of ASOF27 from ASEAN countries can contribute to commitments in forest management, including increasing the conservation of the world's biodiversity. "We want ASEAN to have the same view on how we sustainably manage these forests. We want to contribute to global commitments on how to increase biodiversity conservation," he said.
"On the other hand, we want ASEAN countries to contribute to the Paris Agreement targets from the forestry sector, where forestry still holds a very important key in achieving those targets," he concluded.
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