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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Dermawan, Ahmad; Komarudin, Heru; McGrath, Sian |
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Conference:
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Survival of the Commons: Mounting Challenges and New Realities, the Eleventh Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property |
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Location:
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Bali, Indonesia |
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Conf. Date:
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June 19-23, 2006 |
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Date:
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2006 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/151
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Sector:
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Forestry |
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Region:
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East Asia |
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Subject(s):
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IASC
forestry
decentralization
timber
CIFOR
forest policy
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Abstract:
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"This paper analyzes the dynamics of the decentralization process in relation to Indonesia's forestry sector since its emergence in the late 1990s. Under decentralization, district governments were to be given greater authority for the management of Indonesia's extensive timber resources. The transfer of authority and new revenue sharing mechanisms were laid out in government policies issued in 1999. These marked a radical break with the centralized forest management of the past, and provided a promising new framework for managing the country's forest resources and distributing the benefits. During the decentralization period, regional and central governments became involved in a long and often emotional tug-of-war over the division of authority and benefits from the forestry sector. Citing problems with, among other things, the implementation of decentralization, central government has gradually withdrawn the districts' authority for forest management.
"As central government has now issued a raft of policies reclaiming many of the decentralized forestry administration functions, this paper's key argument is that the era of forestry sector decentralization has now effectively ended, and it remains to be seen what if any effective decentralized forest policies will materialize.
"Drawing on CIFOR research on decentralization and forestry conducted in the last six years in various districts, the paper highlights the prospects for and challenges of decentralizing the forestry sector in Indonesia. Research indicates that efforts to set the agenda and develop a legal framework for forestry sector management by both central and regional governments may be counterproductive. Our argument is that these efforts overlook the potential lessons to be learned from the decentralization process and that they fail to make best use of the social capital and skills that local stakeholders have developed as a result of the decentralized policies. This demonstrates that the current policymaking processes are failing to build on local people's enhanced capacities for sustainable and equitable forest management and to distribute benefits equitably to them."
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