Suchergebnisse

Poverty is a persistent problem throughout Indonesia. Seven years after decentralisation began there is little improvement in the wellbeing of rural people. Local governments have received new opportunities and responsibilities for development, but few districts have the necessary capacity and experience to effectively reduce poverty. This report provides a portrait of household poverty and wellbeing in Kutai Barat, a district that was only established in 1999. The results of a survey of more than 10,000 households from 222 villages, 6 in-depth community studies, remote sensing and several workshops, show which aspects of wellbeing are in critical condition and where interventions are most urgently needed. The report analyses poverty causes and gives practical recommendations to help the local government improve its development planning and poverty reduction.

Poverty is a persistent problem throughout Indonesia. With decentralization, local governments had a new direct role in alleviating poverty and local wellbeing. At the same time they could do so in accordance with local realities and development needs. Yet, there is little improvement in the wellbeing of rural people. Local governments may lack the necessary capacity and experience to reduce poverty effectively. This report shows how a local specific monitoring system can be developed and applied. The results of its application in Malinau provides an indicative view of poverty and shows which aspects of wellbeing are in critical condition and where interventions are most urgently needed. The report analyses poverty causes and gives practical recommendations to help local government improve its development planning and poverty reduction.

Many people want to improve the governance of forest areas, yet what is considered good governance is not necessarily self-evident or agreed upon by everyone. This study demonstrates the diversity of views held by communities and government officials in Malinau, Indonesian Borneo about what they consider to be good governance. Each group described how they thought decisions about forests should be made, including how to represent interests, allocate land rights, distribute cash benefits from forests, share information and manage forests. Striking differences of opinion among villagers and officials suggest the need for more dialog and discussion about how to coordinate decision-making in Malinau. The results suggest a more general conclusion that defining "good governance" requires an understanding of local contexts and the participation of different groups in determining jointly held principles.

Discussions on climate change and potential mechanisms to support conservation efforts have fixed the attention on incentives to conserve and protect forests. However, incentives alone will not do the job for forest conservation; what might? We use the case of Kutai National Park to examine the potential for incentives to boost conservation and the urgent need to simultaneously apply disincentives against conversion of the park. Kutai National Park is an extreme case: conservation values have to compete with the value of vast deposits of high-grade coal. The park management unit has tried to calculate the conservation benefits derived from the park ecosystem, but these values are miniscule compared to the alternatives of mining and logging. Incentives for encroachment and the conversion of the park are the easily accessible timber and enormous known coal deposits. These resources provide immediate tangible benefits for the settlers in the park and the local government to exploit the park, and affect local possibilities for conserving it. If we are to be serious about conserving important ecosystems, incentives alone are insufficient. Action is needed to ensure that all stakeholders support the national government's commitment to preserve representative examples of biodiversity and ecosystems; each stakeholder will have to make some sacrifices.

Adaptive management has become increasingly common where natural resource managers face complex and uncertain conditions. The collaboration required among managers and others to do adaptive management, however, is not always easy to achieve. We describe efforts to work with villagers and government officials in Malinau, East Kalimantan Indonesia, where a weak, uncertain institutional setting and complex shifting political landscape made formal cooperation among these groups for forest management problematic. Through successive trials, the team learned instead to work with and enhance a "spontaneous order" of cooperation using four tactics: (1) continuous physical presence, (2) regular contact with the people who advised and were close to major decision makers, (3) maintenance of multiple programs to fit the needs of different interest groups, and (4) hyperflexibility in resource allocation and schedules.

Decentralization in post-Soeharto Indonesia has not only changed state and society relations at the local level, but brought increased control over forests at the district level. Local social forces gained more influence because of their close relations with local government and acted to limit the local government. In this article we use the case of Malinau, East Kalimantan Indonesia to show how the new local autonomy over forests played a role in the rise of new local political orders.

Malinau District, established through partition in 1999, is the largest district in East Kalimantan and contains some of its largest tracts of forest. With decentralization, the district has sought to generate revenues from its forests, but these efforts have been handicapped by a concurrent lack of institutional capacities to manage rapid forest exploitation and conflicts over claims. Timber extraction and utilization permits (Izin Pemungutan dan Pemanfaatan Kayu or IPPK) have been the main instrument for revenue generation, with 39 IPPK covering 56,000 ha. expected to generate revenues equivalent to roughly nine times the district 's 2000 budget. The IPPKs have enabled local entrepreneurs and communities to gain access to forest land and benefits previously controlled by centrally allocated concessions, however conflict has increased significantly where IPPK 's overlapped with concessions and where IPPKs did not fulfill contractual obligations to communities. Overlapping adat or customary-based claims to land have fueled further conflict. While districts now enjoy more control and economic benefits from forests, there is a high risk of reconcentration of power at the district level, especially as government officials lack accountability to villagers and communities still lack secure legal rights to resources.

In this paper the authors discuss recent trends in poverty concepts and suggest a locally adapted multidimensional model for measuring and monitoring poverty. The model comprises nested layers with subjective wellbeing in the centre surrounded by a core of health, wealth and knowledge, and a context that includes natural, economic, social and political spheres, as well as service and structural aspects. These nine facets of poverty cover basic needs, individual assets and capabilities, and the enabling environment that helps people escape poverty by ensuring sustainability, providing opportunities and minimising vulnerability. The model was tested in several monitoring trials and in the official poverty and wellbeing monitoring of Kutai Barat District, Indonesia, in early 2006. Twenty-one subdistricts covering 223 villages with more than 150 000 people were assessed. Examples drawn from this experience illustrate possible applications of the model.