Collaborative Management of National Parks in Indonesia: An Effective Model for Regulating the Commons of Conservation?

Abstract

"Old conservation models of protected areas have proven unable to resolve basic economic and social conflicts between local people and park management in many national parks in Indonesia. Low level of support by local people often depends on tenure insecurity, sense of alienation on the part of local communities with regard to a land that they consider their own based on customary claims; the imposition of external regulations; and the high opportunity costs paid by resource-dependent communities in terms of forgone ability to exploit natural resources. In Indonesia, collaborative management has been advocated as a fair and effective solution to conservation management in protected areas by government, local people, and NGOs. Drawing on the examples of two different national parks, Bunaken (Sulawesi) and Kayan Mentarang (Kalimantan), the paper will describe the different forms of collaboration proposed and implemented in the two protected areas, and compare them to the new legal provision of the Decree issued by the Minister of Forestry in 2004 on collaboration in the management of protected areas. The paper will address questions concerning regulations, agreements, power-sharing, costs and benefits that are defining factors in long-enduring common-pool resource institutions. The paper will try to assess the extent to which collaborative management might succeed in limiting 'open access' and establishing an effective, robust governance regime in protected areas that promotes sustainable management and increases equity."