Bogor. As the world races to meet net-zero emissions targets, it has been made clear that collaboration between governments and the private sector is essential to the collective effort in mitigating climate change effects.

This point, which was reaffirmed at the 26th United Nations Climate Change (COP26) conference in November last year, can be seen in the newly inaugurated Rumpin Modern Nursery. The nursery produces seedlings to be distributed to critical and landslide-prone areas in a bid to mitigate climate change.

Located in Rumpin, West Java, the nursery was inaugurated by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in a ceremony on Friday, which was also attended by Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) Group Managing Director Anderson Tanoto, representatives from the World Bank, and ambassadors of friendly countries.

"This is the process of rehabilitating our environment, improving our environment with a clear, concrete, and quantifiable action," Jokowi said when inaugurating the Rumpin nursery.

The Rumpin Nursery was developed through the Public-Private Partnership (KPBU) scheme, involving the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Public Works and Housing Ministry, and APRIL Group.

Construction of the nursery started in March last year and was completed in October, with pre-operation seedling production and distribution starting in December. To date, approximately 1.74 million seedlings have been distributed.

The government has set a target of 30 nursery centers built in the next three years, with an annual production capacity of 10-12 million seedlings per center and an expected combined production of 360 million seedlings per year.

"It's not about how many hectares we will work on, but how many seedlings we can produce," Jokowi said during the ceremony, adding that eight more nurseries are expected to be completed this year.

Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar revealed that the budget to build the Rumpin nursery reached almost Rp 70 billion or about $4.8 million. Siti added that the plant nursery took inspiration from that of April Group.

"This large-scale nursery takes inspiration from APRIL Group's nursery system, which we will also use as a reference for a large-scale nursery across Indonesia. As instructed by the president, we are currently building a similar nursery in North Sumatera, North Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, and East Kalimantan," Siti said.

Managing Director of RGE Group, Anderson Tanoto said that APRIL Group, a member of RGE group of companies, is grateful for the opportunity to support the development of the nursery, which is developed through the Public-Private Partnership (KPBU) scheme.

 “We are proud that APRIL’s technology and expertise in growing seedlings have been acknowledged as a reference for nursey development in Indonesia, that this will ultimately support reforestation and restoration programs in the country. We will continue to support the supervision of this nursery project with KLHK,” Anderson said.

Mangrove Projects
Along with the nursery, the ceremony also marks the launch of the Mangroves for Coastal Resilience (M4CR) Program and the World Mangrove Center in Balikpapan Bay as part of the government’s mangrove rehabilitation program. 

By the end of 2024, President Jokowi has instructed that at least 600,000 mangrove areas must be successfully rehabilitated, covering Riau, North Sumatra, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, and Bali.

"It also means starting from seedlings, from nurseries like this, so that it is made clear and concrete in which direction we are going to make improvements, as we know that mangrove forests can reduce and absorb carbon four times higher than ordinary tropical rain forests," he said.

In her report, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya said that the commemoration of World Environment Day 2022, which was held at Rumpin, was not without reason, as President Jokowi has always emphasized productive activities and steps.

"The concrete steps referring to the existence of the large-scale nursery in Rumpin is the president's strong encouragement in government efforts to restore degraded land, conducted through the large-scale provision of seeds for continuous and controlled planting to grow into trees that will improve nature,” she said.