Jakarta, July 11 -- Indonesia's Forestry Ministry has proposed restoring the social forestry program as a National Strategic Project to expand community empowerment, reduce extreme poverty and create new income opportunities, Deputy Forestry Minister Rohmat Marzuki said.

Marzuki said the proposal aligns with Presidential Instruction No. 8 of 2025 on accelerating poverty reduction and eliminating extreme poverty.

"The President instructed the forestry minister to expand community empowerment for poor and extremely poor groups through social forestry. This is very important," Marzuki said on Saturday.

He said approvals for social forestry areas across Indonesia have reached about 8.4 million hectares.

The ministry has also designated ab...