Suchergebnisse

This paper examines the conversion of Indonesia's natural forests to timber and tree crop plantations, notably oil palm. The principal aims are to understand the impact of this process on natural forest and on forest-dwelling people, and to establish whether past and present policies governing this process are meeting their objectives. The key findings of the study are: (1) timber plantation development policies legitimate the degradation of natural forests; (2) subsidies are ultimately unnecessary for the development of timber plantations; (3) tree crop plantation developers request more land than they need to obtain added profits from the timber on lands to be cleared; (4) overlapping and chaotic forest land use classification systems work to the benefit of private plantation developers at the expense of the rights and livelihoods of forest-dwelling people; and (5) resolution of these problems is hampered by the persistence of the government's top-down approach and non-recognition of traditional land use rights. It is recommend that: remaining natural forests on conversion forest lands be reclassified as permanent forests; plantation development take place only on unproductive production forest lands; and forest land use redistribution be devolved to the local level.

Indonesia's new basic forestry law makes some promising steps towards devolving control over forests to customary communities. This chapter analyzes the law's provisions for new institutional arrangements, "customary communities" and co-operatives. The analysis shows how the extent of centralized control over these institutions potentially limits the law's support for local management. Rights to local management under the new law are vulnerable to abuse if they are aquired by unintended parties. Empowerment of customary communities is constrained by the restrictions on economic rights. For devolution to occur, the implementing regulations should create legal possibilities for communities to manage with more certainty, to gain secure access to valuable economic benefits and to overcome conflicts with more powerful groups. A broader base of civil society organisational capacity and systematic checks and balances within government are necessary to support these changes.

Indonesia has experienced one of the world's greatest dynamic land changes due to forestry and agricultural practices. Understanding the drivers behind these land changes remains challenging, partly because landscape research is spread across many domains and disciplines. We provide a systematic review of 91 studies that identify the causes and land change actors across Sumatra and Kalimantan. Our review shows that oil palm expansion is the most prominent (65 studies) among multiple direct causes of land change. We determined that property rights are the most prominent issue (31 studies) among the multiple underlying causes of land change. Distinct combinations of mainly economic, institutional, political, and social underlying drivers determine land change, rather than single key drivers. Our review also shows that central and district governments as decision-making actors are prominent (69 studies) among multiple land change actors. Our systematic review indicates knowledge gaps that can be filled by clarifying the identification and role of actors in land change.