Cooperation in Agroforestry between Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia and International Center for Research in Agroforestry

Mutual benefits between a host country and an international organization can be enhanced if both parties are mutually abreast about each other mandates, rights and responsibilities and targets and achievements. This monitoring was aimed at (i) enlightening the status, mandate and strategic research priorities of the World Ag roforestry Centre (ICRAF) Southeast Asia Regional Research Programme and those of th e Forestry Research and Development Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (FORDA) and ( ii) revealing ICRAF’s achievement of the targeted collaborative outputs as stipulated in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two parties ratified on 5 Octobe r 2006. This monitoring was conducted through field observation of selected ICRAF research and development activities, literature search of strategic plans, and consultative meeting with key officials and researchers of the two organizations. Existing differences and similarities in the visions and mission of the two organizations form the basis for complementar ity in research and development agendas. The monitoring exercise concluded that ICRAF is on target in its action research on community forest ( Hutan Kemasyarakatan, HKM ) in Sumberjaya, nursery support and tree planting techniques, economic and environmen tal analyses of agroforestry, payment for environmental services, analysis of coastal area protection as well as in developing networks in agroforestry education. There are opportuniti es of further exploration of new collaborative research, especially on hydrological impacts of the National Movement of Forest and Land Rehabilitation (GERHAN) and on climate cha nge mitigation and adaptation. Finally, communication needs improvement. ICRAF h as developed and disseminated guidelines on tree crop propagation and rapid techniques for carbon stock, biodiversity, tree marketing, hydrology and land tenure apprai sal. However the collaboration has not been successful in increasing the proportion of FORDA research ers who pursue their PhD studies abroad. Commitment and determination of the candida tes and strong supports from FORDA and ICRAF are crucial for achieving such a competitive target. Other cooperation targets such as replicating live examples of the HKM success st ory will require more direct involvement of FORDA, and other related directorate generals.

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