The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Research, Development and Innovation Agency (FORDA) of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry celebrated a five-year communications partnership last Wednesday.
CIFOR’s Director of Communications and External Relations, John Colmey, officially transferred the management of REDD-Indonesia.org to FORDA Director General, Henry Bastaman, during the International Conference of Indonesia Forestry Researchers (INAFOR) at the IPB Convention Center, Bogor.
REDD-Indonesia.org (REDD-I), jointly developed by CIFOR and FORDA, has become Indonesia’s leading website for reliable information on forests, climate change and REDD+ in Indonesia. It was launched in 2011 after CIFOR and FORDA identified an information gap on climate change problems and solutions in the country.
Now, the website attracts 6,000 visits per month and has 9,300 subscribers to its monthly news updates.
The partnership also involved a major capacity building program, with 61 FORDA staff trained on technical website management, popular writing and photography.
These skills have proven useful beyond REDD-I, said FORDA’s Data and Information Manager Nugroho Priyono.
“We applied these skills to improve the performance of FORDA’s website, updating content in a timely and innovative manner. Previously, much of this content was out of date,” Priyono said.
FORDA’s Data and Information Officer, Priyo Kusumedi, added, “We feel confident now. Directorates General in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry look to us as an example of best practice in website management.”
As the partnership on REDD-I comes to a close, CIFOR, FORDA and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry are looking for further opportunities to enhance collaboration on communications capacity development.