Forest Resources Management in Indonesia (1968-2004): A Political Ecology Approach

359 Pages·2016·6.838 MB·English

by  Herman Hidayat (auth.)

Herman Hidayat
Forest Resources
Management in
Indonesia (1968-
2004)
A Political Ecology Approach
Forest Resources Management in Indonesia
(1968–2004)

Herman Hidayat
Forest Resources
Management in Indonesia
(1968–2004)
A Political Ecology Approach
Herman Hidayat
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)
Jakarta , Indonesia
The English Translation of this book is a result of a grant subsidy in 2015 by the Development
Agent of Language Training, Ministry of Education and Culture of The Republic of Indonesia.
ISBN 978-981-287-744-4 ISBN 978-981-287-745-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-745-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015958790
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Foreword
There is no royal road to learning . My reliable friend, Dr. Herman Hidayat, put this
English proverb into practice. He is such a hard worker that he successfully attained
a doctorate under the ROMPAKU Program supported by the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science (JSPS). He stayed at the University of Tokyo for 3 months of
every year for 5 years, conducted literature surveys till midnight at our offi ce, and
gave us a series of presentations to discuss his achievements. He was also certainly
very pleasant personally. According to the information given by my students, he
enjoyed living in Tokyo, liked to joke with younger students, and was loved by
them.
The truth shall set you free . I believe, as this English proverb tells us, a person
might change their attitude and thinking gradually through the process of their
research. Herman’s evaluation of Indonesian politics seemed to change as his
research progressed, becoming more fl exible than ever. This process coincided with
historical changes that set many Indonesian scholars’ ways of thinking free from the
Soeharto regime. Fortune might have favored him.
Herman completed his dissertation at the end of 2004, titled “Dynamism of
Forest Policy in Indonesia: Focusing on the Movement and Logic of Stakeholders
Under the Soeharto Government and Reformation Era.” The objectives of his dis-
sertation were to determine (1) the national policy on forest management during the
Soeharto regime, (2) the movement of direct and indirect actors related to deforesta-
tion, (3) the forest reform policies in the reformation era, and (4) the implications of
forest policies and the response to the forest management of the local people in the
provinces of East Kalimantan and Bengkulu.
The specifi c feature of the study was to apply the framework of “political ecol-
ogy.” It is a generic term used for the fi eld of research connecting two types of stud-
ies by bringing the point of view of politics into the study of environmental
disruption. It includes a small-scaled study centered on local community (e.g., cul-
tural ecology, applied anthropology) and a large-scaled study from a national and
worldwide standpoint (e.g., political economy). After reviewing existing studies, he
narrowed down the framework to the movement and logic of stakeholders (actor
analysis) among other frameworks of political ecology. Such a viewpoint made him
v
vi Foreword
provide a balanced evaluation of forest policy in Indonesia. In the past, the evalua-
tion on forestry issues was performed only from the viewpoint of the expert (profes-
sional foresters). Obviously, such a view was not always fair, but often biased. So it
has been very diffi cult to make a fair evaluation of forest policy by Indonesian
scholars. In this regard, his study made a good contribution to the academic society
of forest policy as well as an important implication to policy reformation.
The essence of this study is summarized as follows.
In the Soeharto regime, which was authoritarian and centralistic in power, the
direct actors such as the state (especially the Ministry of Forestry), private sector,
and state forestry corporations and the indirect actors such as international fi nancial
institutions (the World Bank, IMF, the ADB) were categorized as “winners” in the
sense of a strengthening of their authority and political power. As the direct actors
did not abide by forestry regulations and ignored academics’ and NGOs’ criticisms
on sustainable forest management principles, this eventually led to forest degrada-
tion and deforestation.
I n contrast, a different approach has been taken in the reformation era. Various
stakeholders have committed to the stages of planning, implementing, monitoring,
evaluating, and forecasting for sustainable forest management. It is clearly seen that
the power of the direct actors, such as the state and private sector, has weakened and
they have become the “losers” within forest management policies in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, local people, local governments, NGOs, and academics have raised
their status, and they are now considered to be “winners.” The livelihood of local
people is currently improving from a political, economic, and social life viewpoint
compared to that in the Soeharto regime. This evidence is partly refl ected in the
present situation. In May 2013, the Indonesian Constitutional Court made a deci-
sion to scrape the word state from Article 1 Point 6 of Forestry Law No. 41/1999,
which says “customary forests are state forests located in the areas of custom-based
( adat ) communities, and so becoming customary forests are forests located in the
areas of: custom-based ( adat ) communities.” Even though the customary rights of
the people have not fully been acknowledged, the judgment can be regarded as a
turning point of Indonesian forest policy.
However, it is important to note that there might be other missing or hidden
“winners” and “losers” in the reformation era than the stakeholders mentioned in
this study. Social scientists have to admonish themselves for their excessive opti-
mism regarding their own conclusions. I think every social study should be regarded
as tentative, because the fi eld reality is always changing. I, as a supervisor of his
dissertation, once requested him to continue researching this topic for the long term
and to modify the conclusion fl exibly in accordance with fi eld realities.
I believe that there is no end to policy research as far as it should not be a mere
theory, but practical, to improve the situations confronting people. I would like to
cooperate with Dr. Herman Hidayat for the purpose of realizing harmony between
the happiness of the people and forest conservation in Indonesia and the world.
Foreword vii
I believe this book is very appropriate to be read by policy researchers, NGOs,
politicians, and even government offi cials who are interested in Indonesian forest
policies.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
At home in rural area of Tsukuba, Japan The New Year of 2014
Professor of Global Forest Environmental Studies Inoue Makoto, Ph.D.
The University of Tokyo

Acknowledgments
T he inspiration and ideas of a large part of this book have traveled a long way, while
I fi nished writing my PhD dissertation at the University of Tokyo (2004) and post-
doctoral fellowship (2008–2010) at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS)
of Kyoto University more than a decade ago. The long journey eventually ended up
in this publication. I am really indebted to many individuals and institutions. I would
like to thank Prof. Inoue Makoto and Prof. Nagata Shin for their supervision in the
Department of Forest Science, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences,
the University of Tokyo. My thanks also to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI), Research Center for Society and Culture, where I have spent more than three
decades as researcher. LIPI institution has given me valuable opportunities and made
work pleasurable to the writer to complete editing and writing certain papers such as
illegal logging in local autonomy and confl ict of interest on natural resources (forest
resources, mining, estate plantation) between the central government and local peo-
ple. I gratefully acknowledge the senior researchers in LIPI such as Dr. Alfi an, Dr.
Lie Tek Tjeng, C.P.F. Luhulima, Prof. Taufi k Abdullah, Prof. A.B. Lapian, Dr.
Abdurachman Surjomihardjo, Dr. Hilman Adil, Dr. Mely G. Tan, Prof. Mochtar
Pabottingi, Dr. Ninuk Kleden, Dr. Riwanto Tirtosudarmo, Dr. Endang Turmudi,
Abdul Rachman Patji MA, Dr. Raldi Kostoer, Prof. Johanis Haba, Prof. Rusdi
Muchtar, Prof. M. Hisyam, and many other research colleagues whose names could
not be mentioned one by one here, but together we make a peer group as a research
community that has greatly contributed to my career as a researcher in LIPI.
In 2008–2010 I spent 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Southeast
Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University. Having this chance as a visiting fellow,
I utilized valuable time to carry out fi eldwork in the ASEAN region (Thailand, the
Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia) and to write papers on sustainable forest man-
agement lead to pulp and paper industries. Special thanks to Prof. Kono Yasuyuki as
host scientist, Associate Prof. Okamoto Masaaki, and director of CSEAS, Prof.
Mizuno Kosuke. In November 2012 to March 2013, I had the opportunity to stay as
a visiting professor at the Kagoshima University Research Center for the Pacifi c
Islands (KURCPI) in Japan where I could continue working on editing this book.
ix