UGM students once again participated in the international arena. Three students of the Faculty of Forestry who are members of the organization of The International Forestry Students' Association (IFSA) participate in the International Conference on Forest Tenure, Governance, and Enterprise, which was held by the Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia, International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), and other partners. The students are Ahmad Karsidi, Binsar Liem Sihotang, and Metia Lembasi.
The conference was held in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, 11-15 July 2011, and attended by stakeholders from 33 countries in the Asia Pacific region, among others, representatives from government, NGOs, institutes of Asian regional policy, civil society, researchers, private sector, and industry organizations, as well as students. The conference was a continuation of previous conferences held in Brazil in 2007.
Metia Lembasi said in the conference that raised the theme Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in Changing Context that students have the opportunity to discuss and share experience in various aspects related to the weakness of government and lack of strong property rights to forest resources. Some of them are the overlapping or conflict in terms of land claim, the imbalance in the determination of rights, and lack of recognition and knowledge of traditional land tenure systems. "Those things are crucial to the contribution of forestry as a place of livelihood and economic improvement of society at local, national, and regional levels that are in line with the conservation and sustainable use of tropical forest resources," said Metia, Wednesday (27/7), on UGM campus.
Metia added that by participating in the conference, the students also get the opportunity to participate directly in the discussions of the stakeholders related to forests to develop a shared agenda on sustainable forest management that provide benefits to all parties.
Meanwhile, Binsar Liem Sihotang said that his participation along with two colleagues in the conference was a valuable experience. Through this activity, they can interact and dialogue directly with experts in the field of forestry. "It was a valuable experience. The conference is very important to us, especially the youth to learn about various issues regarding forest tenure, conflict and how to establish a balance between the objectives of all parties so that no one was debilitated," said Binsar.