JPIK involves the young generation as active agents in efforts to combat deforestation and climate change in the “Youth Resilience in Combating Deforestation and Climate Change in the Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS)” program, this program will involve a series of activities to increase young people’s capacity and knowledge about forests and monitoring activities that endanger forests.

From the results of recruitment and having gone through various selection stages, 40 young people were selected from 4 provinces, namely Jambi, Bengkulu, West Sumatra & South Sumatra. Each participant has sufficient abilities and is ready to participate in the Youth Forest Guardian program (Forest Guardian 2023).

Monitoring training is the first step of this program. On October 17-25, Forest Monitoring Training was held in Kayu Aro, Kerinci Regency, Jambi. Training is held in 2 sessions. Session 1 on 17-19 October 2023 was attended by Forest Guardians from Jambi & Bengkulu and session 2 was held on 23-25 ​​October 2023 attended by Forest Guardians from West Sumatra & South Sumatra.

This forest monitoring training is filled with material on Forestry Insights, National Park Management Policies, Roles & Positions of Independent Monitors, Monitoring Capacity, Use of Technology in Monitoring, Safeguard & Security for Independent Monitors, and Post-Independent Monitor Advocacy Strategies. The material is packaged in a fun and enjoyable way. Participants were heavily involved in discussions and sharing, not forgetting to include ice breaking.

From the results of this training, participants are expected to have the capacity to carry out independent monitoring in the Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS) area and be able to prepare follow-up reports to relevant agencies as an effort to improve forestry governance in Indonesia and develop long-term post-monitoring advocacy strategies.

Forest Guardian activities can be seen on Instagram @forestguardian2023