RRI.CO.ID, Shenzhen - The Indonesian Government and the Japanese Government strengthened their commitment to cooperation in the forestry sector thru a bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the 2026 APEC Ministerial Meeting on Forestry (FTMM) in Shenzhen, China, on Monday, July 27, 2026. The meeting discussed strengthening collaboration in sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation, and the development of the World Mangrove Center (WMC).

The Indonesian delegation was led by the Director General of Sustainable Forest Management of the Ministry of Forestry, Laksmi Wijayanti, while the Japanese delegation was led by the Deputy Director-General of the Forestry Agency of Japan, Eiji Tanimura. In the meeting, Indonesia also encouraged the strengthening of WMC collaboration as a global cooperation center in mangrove ecosystem management thru research, capacity building, knowledge exchange, and innovation development to support climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Director General of Sustainable Forest Management, Laksmi Wijayanti, affirmed that Indonesia wants to ensure that the cooperation between the two countries is oriented toward concrete and mutually beneficial results.

"Indonesia considers it important for the cooperation between the two countries to be focused on a number of tangible results, namely the effective implementation of two JICA projects, the development of the World Mangrove Center collaboration, technical support for forest carbon, the development of the Sister Park concept, and the implementation of successful wildlife conservation cooperation," she said.

In addition to the development of the WMC, the two countries also discussed several other priority agendas, including the management of national parks thru the Sister Park initiative, the organization of the Joint National Park Workshop, the strengthening of biodiversity conservation, and the development of wildlife conservation cooperation related to the plan to loan Komodo dragons to Japan while prioritizing national regulations and international standards regarding animal welfare.

Indonesia and Japan also agreed to strengthen cooperation in combating illegal logging and enhancing the trade of legal and sustainable forest products. These efforts include enhancing dialog on the interoperability of Indonesia's Timber Legality Verification System (SVLK) with Japan's timber legality provisions thru the Clean Wood Act.

In response to various cooperation proposals put forward by Indonesia, the Deputy Director-General of the Forestry Agency of Japan, Eiji Tanimura, expressed his hope that forestry cooperation between Indonesia and Japan can continue to be strengthened in the future.

"We hope that Indonesia and Japan can continue to expand cooperation in various forestry fields and make it an increasingly important part of the policies of both countries. Not only continuing the ongoing cooperation, but we also hope that this collaboration can develop into a broader scope and further strengthen the relationship between Indonesia and Japan in the future," the Deputy said.