Public Diplomacy and Negotiation Training to Strengthen Indonesia's Global Leadership in Sustainable Forest Management

Indonesia is a leading exporter of value-added forestry products and is recognized as a global leader in sustainable forest governance in part due to its Timber Legality Assurance System (SLVK). Products grown there can be found in markets around the world.

As buyers, investors, and governments across the globe place greater emphasis on ensuring that imported forest products are legal, traceable, and sustainable, Indonesia has an opportunity to build on its strengths to capture this demand.

To respond effectively to these changes, officials need to understand mandatory market sustainability requirements and be able to communicate Indonesia's experience and priorities clearly, build coalitions, navigate different interests, and negotiate effectively in international settings.

IISD collaborated with the Multistakeholder Forestry Program Phase 5 Indonesia and the Center for World Trade Studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada to deliver a four-day training program. The program brought together 61 government officials from six ministries (forestry, foreign affairs, trade, environment, industry, and national development planning) and was structured across two cohorts-a beginner cohort and an intermediate cohort-allowing the training to respond to participants' different levels of experience and build skills progressively.

The training had three connected aims:

1. Advancing knowledge: Strengthen participants' understanding of evolving international sustainability due diligence requirements affecting Indonesian forestry exports, and how Indonesia's SVLK system relates to them.
2. Strengthening strategic communication: Help participants develop practical skills in strategic messaging so that Indonesia's achievements, priorities, and proposed next steps can be communicated clearly and effectively in international settings.
3. Boosting diplomacy skills: Build participants' capacity in diplomacy, international engagement, negotiation and coalition-building, through practical exercises and applied simulations.

The training forms part of a broader effort to build sustained institutional capacity for Indonesia's international engagement. By strengthening shared knowledge and practical skills across ministries, the program aims to support officials not only in understanding changing market expectations, but also in applying this knowledge and representing Indonesia's priorities effectively in future sustainable forest governance, trade, and market access discussions.