Enviro News Asia, Jakarta — The Ministry of Forestry has designated the sugar palm (aren) as a strategic commodity to support national energy and food security.
Starting in 2025, a sugar palm plantation project covering 300,000 hectares will be launched, with funding support from Danantara.
This was announced by Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni during the opening of the National Forestry Extension Technical Meeting themed “Sugar Palm as a Source of Food and Energy,” held in a hybrid format on Thursday (May 8, 2025), as stated in the Ministry’s official release.
According to him, Indonesia’s forests will play a key role in realizing President Prabowo Subianto’s vision of energy, water, and food sovereignty.
“This sugar palm planting initiative is part of the national forestry transformation. We want to turn forests into a concrete solution for the energy and food crisis,” said Raja Juli Antoni.
The event was attended by over 10,000 forestry extension officers, practitioners, academics, and young forest farmers from across Indonesia.
Besides enhancing the capacity of extension officers, the event also aims to spark youth involvement in sustainable forest management.
The Minister also encouraged extension workers and young foresters to continue learning and developing their capacity, both domestically and abroad.
“We’ve removed old bureaucratic hurdles so everyone can access broader education opportunities,” he emphasized.
As a concrete step toward capacity development, the Ministry launched five digital education programs:
- WEMISYU (Thursday Webinar for Extensionists),
- Youth Talk Take Action (YTTA),
- BESTARI RIMBA (Sustainable Learning from Foresters),
- ZOOM’ATAN (Zoom for Educators Gathering), and
- Forestry MOOC.
“These programs form the foundation of lifelong learning at the Ministry of Forestry. We must keep learning to stay relevant and respond to the challenges of our time,” the Minister stated.
In the near future, Raja Juli Antoni will visit sugar palm farmers in Garut to observe cultivation practices that could be linked to the development of a national green energy industry.
The Ministry emphasizes that forests are not only ecological fortresses but also a future solution to the energy and food crises, and a platform for producing globally-minded, adaptive foresters. *
