Berau, East Kalimantan - The Berau Regency Government, East Kalimantan, in collaboration with the Nusantara Nature Conservation Foundation (YKAN) is providing coaching and assistance to cocoa farmers to improve the quality of their cocoa, so that the results are now able to penetrate the premium market.
"One of the cocoa plantation centers that received intensive coaching is the farmer group that utilizes social forestry in Merasa Village, Kelay District," said Berau Regent Sri Juniarsih Mas in Tanjung Redeb Berau, Saturday.
According to the Regent, they received assistance from YKAN which has two goals, namely to carry out conservation and to improve the welfare of the community, so that in this case farmers also help maintain sustainable forests in order to realize sustainable plantations.
Berau Regency, he said, is an area with 75 percent of its 2.2 million hectares of land area still consisting of natural forest, so this natural forest must be protected together, including by involving cocoa farmers through social forestry, so that in addition to cocoa farmers being prosperous, they also help maintain forest sustainability.
"From the beginning, we were optimistic that by involving farmers in managing social forestry, in addition to preserving natural forests, it could also improve the community's economy," he said.