An Institutional Analysis of Deforestation: A Case Study on a Village inside Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, West Lampung Regency, Lampung Province, Indonesia

Abstract

"Indonesian forest areas – established and controlled by the government – cover 120,350,000 hectares or 65.89% of the country’s total land area. They play a vital role in the lives of the poor, in the provision of ecosystem services and in sustaining biodiversity. However, deforestation is currently continuing and damaging 42% of the country’s forest area. The continuation of deforestation, especially in Conservation Forest, the last fortress of the country forest areas, strongly indicates an institutional problem of the failure of government to enforce formal laws on forest conservation. This study aims to identify the sources and impacts of this government failure in enforcing forest conservation laws. In order to achieve the research purposes and benefits, the authors employed a singe-case study methodology to an extreme case of the establishment of a village by a local government. Since the village is located inside a National Park, a kind of Conservation Forest controlled and managed by the central government, the establishment of the village triggered conflict between central and local government. For data collection, we conducted field work and used multiple sources of evidence, namely documentations, archival records, direct and participant observation, and open-ended interviews with relevant respondents from central and local government and non-governmental organizations. This study focuses on institutions and institutional changes which are reflected in the history of the forest area and people at the case study site, the conflict process in regard to the establishment of the village inside the park, and the perception of the parties involved in the conflict. The results show that the government failure in enforcing forest conservation laws, as currently reflected in park deforestation and the establishment of the village inside the park, derived from two institutional problems in the past, namely, government negligence on eight desiderata or requirements of law, that law should (a) be of general application, (b) be publicized or at least made available to affected parties beforehand, (c) be coherent, (d) be prospective in application, (e) be consistent, (f) be clear and intelligible, (g) not require conduct beyond the powers of the affected party, and (h) reflect congruence between rules as announced and their actual administration. These underlying institutional factors resulted in deforestation caused proximately by agricultural expansion, and the insecurity of the local people, which contributed to further deforestation. To resolve the problems, we offer a policy of forest area rationalization and a change in function of forest area at the case study site from Conservation Forest to Protection Forest, in order to grant local people rights for the utilization of the forest area, to maintain government control, and to reduce the tensions between central and local government. Further, in order to save the remaining forest inside the park, we recommend strong law enforcement, which also must be supported by control of spontaneous migration to the case study site and prudent policy on the establishment of a new autonomous administrative area."