Building Groups to Navigate Cross-Scale Turbulence Where Solo Efforts Fail: Networking Across Indonesia

Abstract

"Networking across Indonesia is weaving resilience back into the governance of forest, river and reef resources. The Dayak case is representative of hundreds of cases where indigenous groups are struggling to use traditional adat governance to manage their natural resources. Drawing on experiences from BSPs KEMALA project, this paper will highlight some examples from the range of situations across Indonesia where NGOs have emerged to assist traditional adat-based natural resource management. Through informal apprenticeships and networks, NGOs are strengthening each others' capacities to advocate for national policy reforms while holding themselves accountable to communities. By working with provincial and local officials, as well as with national agencies, NGOs are assisting government to assess the causes of major forest fires and find options for better forest management. NGOs are also stimulating inter-community agreements to manage river basins and inter-island agreements to control fishing where local resource exploitation has had negative impacts."