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The politics, economies, and ecologies of Indonesia’s third generation of social forestry: An introduction to the special section Fisher, Micah R.; Dhiaulhaq, Ahmad; Sahide, Muhammad Alif K.
Forest and Society Vol. 3 No. 1 (2019): APRIL
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | Full PDF (665.836 KB) | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v3i1.6348

Abstract

Although Indonesia is experiencing one of the most complex transformations of social forestry policy in the world, there is a need to step back and more closely examine the politics, ecologies, and economies that provide context for its implementation. This introduction offers a synthesis of the collection of special section submissions in Forest and Society. We begin by navigating the current social forestry moment by presenting a heuristic for identifying the discourses underpinning the rapid expansion in support of social forestry schemes. These perspectives are fragmented across four continuously contested discourses: community-first, legal-first, conservation-first, and development-first. We then contextualize the historical developments that brought social forestry into its current form by laying out a genealogy of its antecedents across three distinct generations. These three generations of social forestry are roughly aligned with the overall political changes that have taken place in Indonesia, each of which engaged in their own mechanisms for defining and administering social forestry. The first generation roughly follows the period of New Order rule; a second generation began as the regime unraveled, resulting in a period of reform and restructuring of the political system. At this time,  new legal frameworks were introduced, followed by the development of new implementation mechanisms. We argue that social forestry has entered a third distinct period that is characterized by the expanding interests of numerous stakeholders to formalize permitting schemes. This third generation presents new possibilities for redefining land management on Indonesia’s vast national forests.  The contributions to this special issue shed new light on the overall implications of these changes. We divide the findings across submissions, covering broad topical engagement on the economies, ecologies, and politics at different governing scales. From these findings we suggest a course for future research, and identify key policy challenges for the future of social forestry and for Indonesia.
The politics of numbers and additionality governing the national Payment for Forest Environmental Services scheme in Vietnam: A case study from Son La province Thuy, Pham Thu; Chau, Ngo Ha; Chi, Dao Thi Linh; Long, Hoang Tuan; Fisher, Micah R.
Forest and Society Vol. 4 No. 2 (2020): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v4i2.10891

Abstract

Payments for forest environmental services (PFES) is a major breakthrough policy in the Vietnamese forestry sector because it contributes 25% of the total investments in the forestry sector and serves as the first market-based instrument employed to protect forests. However, there is little empirical evidence of its effectiveness. Is the policy meeting the core objectives of improving forest cover and forest quality and is it also achieving its claims of supporting local livelihoods? This paper analyses the environmental, social, and economic impacts of PFES in Son La province, the longest standing implementation of a PFES scheme in Vietnam. Our study uses a sampling method that incorporates pre-matching and a before-after-control-intervention approach. Data was collected from government statistics, remote sensing analysis, focus group discussions involving 236 people, surveys with a total of 240 households, and key informant interviews with 45 people. Our findings show that additionality of PFES in Son La is controversial and depends on who collects the data and what data is used to evaluate the impacts of PFES. Data collection is also politicized to serve central, provincial and district government interests. Evidence shows that PFES has provided little additional income to individual villagers to protect forests in Son La. However, total PFES revenue paid to communities generates significant income for village communities. Moreover, not all villagers can receive continuous payments from PFES, meaning that PFES has not become a stable source of income, rendering the permanence of PFES limited. Improving monitoring and evaluation policies coupled with transparent, inclusive, independent mechanisms are essential to providing a more accurate reflection of impacts from PFES in Vietnam.
Creating Commons: Reflections on Creating Natural Resource Management Regimes in South Sulawesi, Indonesia Batiran, Karno; Sirimorok, Nurhady; Verheijen, Bart; Fisher, Micah R.; Sahide, Muhammad Alif K.
Forest and Society Vol. 5 No. 2 (2021): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v5i2.14768

Abstract

Thirteen years ago, PAYOPAYO Peasant School Network, an Indonesian community organizing network based in Sulawesi, facilitated Participatory Action Research (PAR) that eventually culminated in a creation of a common resource management regime around an irrigation system for agricultural use in Tompobulu, a village within a national park in upland South Sulawesi. This note from the field presents a reflection on collective action experiences of a community in building the commons in 2008 to 2009, and revisits the extent to which the commons has been managed, how management regimes changed over time, and how it survives as a commons today. The initial factors allowing for establishment of the commons, understood here as a social practice toward common goals, were a shared need for water (local needs & conditions), and the success to make use of the irrigation commons as a means to initiate other collective actions. Drawing from concerted engagement and analysis conducted in 2021, this note revisits the key factors and highlights different ways the commons continues to persist, namely due to the distinct benefits felt by participants, the existence of institutions that regulate the use and maintenance of the commons, the existence of a monitoring system among members, participation of members in formulating and modifying the rules, and the recognition of National Park authorities on the commons and its rules.
Nongovernmental organizations as interest groups and their roles in policy processes: Insights from Indonesian forest and environmental governance Laraswati, Dwi; Krott, Max; Soraya, Emma; Rahayu, Sari; Fisher, Micah R.; Giessen, Lukas; Maryudi, Ahmad
Forest and Society Vol. 6 No. 2 (2022): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v6i2.19125

Abstract

The traditional conceptions and claims of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have profiled NGOs as civil society representatives and as benevolent philanthropic actors of development in the Global South. However, recent phenomena indicate NGOs often acting in opposition to their benevolent claims. This study attempts to move away from the normative concepts of NGOs and develop an analytical framework fitted with the current empirics in environmental governance. Using theories of organized interest groups in a democratic political system, we analyze the extent of NGOs fulfilling their roles as organized interest groups (OIGs), where they should take roles representing the interests of particular groups within societies and exerting political influence on governments on the basis of these common interests. We use empirics from Indonesian forest and environment-related governance, and our framework is called “Representation–Influence Framework,” which assists in establishing more systematic coherent typologies of OIGs. Analyzed from the perspective that NGOs claim to serve as representatives of specific groups within societies, we establish three overarching categories of OIGs, that is, 1) en route to fulfilling the claim, 2) breaking the claim, and 3) opposing the claim. We further detail our framework into a subset of nine OIG typologies. In this way, we provide pathways to begin deconstructing the common simplifications and misunderstandings about NGOs. For empirics, we identified 38 OIGs in the cases of social forestry and timber legality policies and populated them according to the typologies. We found that most of them are en route to fulfilling the claim of representing the groups’ interests, although their political influence on the government is, in most cases, limited.
Placing the Commoning First: Getting Beyond the Patronage Trap in Natural Resource Decentralization Policies Sirimorok, Nurhady; Fisher, Micah R.; Verheijen, Bart; Sahide, Muhammad Alif K.
Forest and Society Vol. 7 No. 2 (2023): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v7i2.25926

Abstract

Research on the commons have been an inspiration for initiatives on natural resource decentralization over the past three decades. Researchers are increasingly recognizing however, that these commons initiatives are mostly failing to support rights, improve livelihoods, and conserve natural resources. These “commons projects,” defined as approaches that claim to devolve natural resource governance to local institutions, have their origins in various formulations of theories of the commons but are usually interpreted and applied by states and donor organizations. This paper identifies and analyzes deficiencies in theories of the commons through the slight but significant refocusing on perspectives of commoning. We found that commons scholarship lacks a grounding in power relations, and furthermore, tends to portray commons-governing groups as homogenous communities enacting long-established practices. Conversely, a commoning perspective provides a more dynamic and relational approach, and thus distinctly centers political dimensions of collective practices among diverse groups of citizens. We also extend this argument by showing that a fundamental shift in understanding commoning will help advocate for, and anticipate what commoners can actually do in regions of the Global South undergoing widespread enclosures in the face of powerful informal patronage networks controlled by state power actors and interests.
Uprooting the Mosalaki: Changing institutions and livelihood impacts at Kelimutu National Park Batiran, Karno; Fisher, Micah R.; Verheijen, Bart; Sirimorok, Nurhady; Sahide, Muhammad Alif K.
Forest and Society Vol. 7 No. 2 (2023): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v7i2.26464

Abstract

Studies on interactions between national parks and Indigenous Peoples in Indonesia have gained much attention in recent years, which mainly examine eviction, boundary disputes, and remediation. This research focuses on changing institutions since the establishment of Kelimutu National Park, foregrounding socio-cultural and livelihood impacts over time. This study involves in-depth interviews, FGDs, and observations from April to May 2019 and revisiting in November 2021. Findings highlight changing traditional institutions (Mosalaki) uprooted by the formal National Park governing authority. Such transitions also shift governing authority over natural resources access and control in ways that negatively affect the livelihoods of the Lio people of Kelimutu.
Conservation Policy, Indigeneity, and Changing Traditional Hunting Practices in West Papua Fatem, Sepus M.; Runtuboi, Yubelince Y.; Fisher, Micah R.; Sufi, Yafed; Maryudi, Ahmad; Sirimorok, Nurhady
Forest and Society Vol. 7 No. 2 (2023): NOVEMBER
Publisher : Forestry Faculty, Universitas Hasanuddin

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.24259/fs.v7i2.27420

Abstract

Regional governments are increasingly developing conservation policy initiatives that are framed alongside the empowerment of Indigenous Peoples. This paper examines the case of Tambrauw, West Papua, that set out to establish one of the first ever Conservation Regencies in Indonesia. To understand the implications of conservation policy developments, we explored from an environmental justice perspective the ways that one of the most important forest-based activities of local communities – hunting – has changed in recent years. Data was collected using qualitative methods of participatory observation and interviews between 2015-2018 across three Tambrauw districts. The study shows how policy changes are increasing clashes between local hunters and conservation officials. This has implications for broader issues of conservation policy and local livelihoods, and sheds light on the more recent trend of foregrounding Indigenous identity in forest management. Although on the face of it the emergence of conservation regencies represents a trend in downscaling authority to empower local communities, findings shows that place-based and more locally responsive policies need to be established to address emerging conflicts that can also meet broader conservation outcomes.