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The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), recently inaugurated the Indonesian Government’s tree nursery in Rumpin, Bogor, in west Java. The new nursery will produce seedlings for plantation in a number of areas across the country, to support the Government’s environmental goals and to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
The Rumpin Nursery was developed through a public-private partnership scheme between the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and APRIL Group, a member of the RGE group of companies. Construction of the nursery started in March 2021 and was completed in October, with pre-operation seedling production and distribution starting in December.
President Jokowi – who in fact studied forestry at Gajah Mada University, in Yogyakarta – requested that the new nursery be based on the APRIL model, following a visit to the company’s operations in Pangkalan Kerinci, in Riau Province, in February 2020. During this visit, the President toured APRIL’s Kerinci Central Nursery 2, which supports the production of approximately 200 million seedlings by the company every year.
The inauguration, which took place on June 10, was also attended by the Minister for the Environment and Forestry, Ms Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Minister of Public Works and Housing, Basuki Hadimuljono, Managing Director, RGE, Anderson Tanoto and World Bank representatives and ambassadors based in Indonesia.
RGE’s Managing Director Anderson Tanoto welcomes President Jokowi to the Rumpin Nursery.
“The model of this large-scale nursery is derived from APRIL Group’s nursery-system design, which will in turn be used as reference in building nurseries across Indonesia. In accordance with the president’s instructions, similar nurseries are being constructed in North Sumatra, North Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara and East Kalimantan,” said Ms Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Environment & Forestry Minister of Indonesia.
To date, about 1.74 million seedlings have been distributed from the nursery, which cost 70-billion-rupiah (US$4.8 million). The Indonesian government has set a target of 30 nursery centres to be built across the country in the next three years. Each centre will have an annual production capacity of 10-12 million seedlings and an expected combined production of 360 million seedlings per year.
The President said: “It is not about how many hectares we will work on, but how many seedlings we can produce,” adding that eight more nurseries are expected to be completed this year. “This is the process of rehabilitating our environment; improving our environment with clear, concrete and tangible action.”
The Indonesian Environment & Forestry Minister said: “A large-scale nursery centre in Rumpin is evidence of the President’s strong support for efforts to restore degraded land by providing, at large scale, seeds that will grow into trees, which will, in turn, improve our natural environment.”
President Jokowi inaugurates the Rumpin Nursery in West Java, a nursery modelled after APRIL Group’s nursery system design, on 10 June 2022.
On APRIL’s involvement, Mr Tanoto said: “APRIL Group is grateful for the opportunity given to build the Rumpin nursery complex. We are proud that APRIL’s technology and seed management system can serve as a reference for nursery development in Indonesia.” He pledged to continue to support the government in its efforts to contribute to global climate goals”.
