Early this 2016, Aristoteles Ap, Head of Forest Management Unit (KPHL) Biak Numfor, welcomed the NORAD and Samdhana team, voicing his aspiration to change the current public paradigm that governance of forests in Indonesia is far from good, full of conflict, unsustainable, lacking in community participation and makes no contribution to local economic development. With 206,016 ha of forests in Biak and Numfor Island to manage, he acknowledges the communities are the main actors, having the right to claim their lands.

Biak is one of the top priority sites in Papua where Samdhana is implementing integrative forest management that balances needs of governance, forest resource based economy, protection of indigenous rights and poverty alleviation. In making this happen Samdhana regards Forest Management Units (KPH) as the legal platform and space to bring government, CSO/NGOs, customary communities and the private sector together to achieve equitable forest development. In 2012-13 Samdhana started with stakeholder assessment and full forest inventory as a base for KPH in Biak to develop technical and strategic partnerships with long-term management plans. KPH now has a good relationship both with CSO/NGO in Biak and the community in their concession areas, and a business commitment with an investor from Korea to develop bamboo plantations for pellet and flooring industry in Biak.

NORAD's visit, along with an officer from the Norwegian Embassy, was to view progress made in this work by Samdhana and partners in Biak, to understand the strategic position of forest management units in relation to customary rights issues. It was planned as part of regular project visits, to see how grantees and partners work togther.

Samdhana's work with partners has an enormous impact upon the KPH programs with their core message of respecting and protecting customary rights. Samdhana has helped formulation of the internal KPH agenda, and provided support crucial in achieving annual targets, in a place where government financing for implementing field activities still suffers frequent delays in distribution.

The program manager of RUMSRAM and the director of MNUKWAR joined in this meeting to present the work they do in this collaboration, MNUKWAR in building a model of eco-tourism in two villages in Eastern Biak and RUMSRAM in revitalizing cooperative and customary boundary mapping. Samdhana's work, which is greatly appreciated by KPH, supports both programs, and the new model for Governmental, CSO and Community partnership, to enhance the value of forests to the community and region.

The meetings culminated with tree-planting in the arboretum, which all guests, including the executive director of Samdhana Institute, joined in. This initiative to build a collection garden for KPH will help them re-establish forests as a part of the education and environmental curriculum in Biak.