For the purpose of promoting ‘South-South’ cooperation, GIZ FORCLIME facilitated a visit to Brazil for forestry officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and from Berau regency. In Brazil, the Indonesian forestry experts had a dialogue with various institutions in four cities in Brazil, such as Brasilia, Belem, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo on prominent issues and developments in the Indonesian and Brazilian forestry sector.

After a courtesy visit to the Indonesian Ambassador to Brazil, Sudaryomo Hartosudarmo, the delegation continued to the Brazilian Forestry Service (SFB), the ‘main host’ in the city of Brasilia, where they were received by the Director General of Forestry, Marcus Vinicius Alves da Silva, PhD. The SFB is a federal agency that handles forestry in Brazil under the Ministry of Environment (MMA).
Visits to other institutions followed, such as IPAM (Amazon Environmental Institute) and ICMBIO (an agency under the MMA which is responsible for the conservation and management of protected areas in Brazil) on national level, and to SEMA (State Environmental Agency of Pará) and IDEFLOR (Forestry Institute for Development) which are responsible for forest concessions in the State of Pará. In the timber concession Ebata the Indonesian team got insights into the company’s planting (3,000 ha), harvesting (6,000 ha) and wood-processing activities (flooring products, docking and panels).  
In Rio de Janeiro the delegation visited the BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social), a development bank which also manages climate change related funds for the Amazon, e.g. from the Norwegian Government, German KfW or Brazilian oil companies.
As a last stop, the Indonesian officials visited the IPEF (Forestry Science Institute) in Sao Paulo which works together with the University of Sao Paulo and conducts research on, for instance, the productivity of pine and eucalyptus (average of 45 m3/ha/year).

From the visit to Brazil, the officials from the Ministry of Forestry and Berau district government obtained information on forest management practices in Brazil, particularly the management of concessions and plantation forests, as well as fund management related to climate change. These issues have the potential for further cooperation between and two countries and shall be followed up with visits for working level staff.

For further information, please contact:
Pipin Permadi, Senior Adviser (Forest Policy)