Has decentralised forest management worked?

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Home > Highlights > Has decentralised forest management worked?

Has decentralised forest management worked?

Local leaders patrolling around Selimbau Natural Orchid Garden in the bufferzone of Danau Sentarum National Park, West Kalimantan

The Indonesian Environmental Information Center held a seminar in Manggala Wanabhakti, Jakarta on February 6, 2009 to launch a series of reports on decentralised forest management in the country, produced in Indonesian by researchers receiving support from CIFOR and its partners.

Participants from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, Indonesian environmental NGOs, and CIFOR discussed to what extent local government bodies had been able to manage the country’s forest resources in the best interests of both the forests and the people whose livelihoods depend on them.

More than 480 districts, called kabupaten, took on forest management responsibilities when centralised control was devolved as a part of the reform process that followed President Soeharto’s resignation in the late 1990s.

It was assumed that local government structures, being closer to their constituents, would be in the best position to judge how to sustainably manage forests for the greatest possible public benefit.

Almost a decade later, these assumptions appear to have been somewhat misplaced. This has happened not just in Indonesia but in many forest rich countries around the world.

CIFOR’s research has documented that greater regional control of forests has often led to local elites enriching themselves at the expense of the broader community, damaged rather than sustained forests, and – alarmingly – measurably increased numbers of conflicts over forest use.

Ministry broadly supports CIFOR’s findings

CIFOR’s findings conclude that good governance requires a balance between local and central authority. The Ministry of Forestry concurred with many of these findings.

“There are many mistakes and weaknesses resulting [from forest decentralisation].” Tachrir Fathoni, head of the ministry’s research and development agency, told participants at the launch. “We do not yet have a formula that can satisfy all stakeholders.”

One of the reports’ authors, CIFOR’s Godwin Limberg said decentralisation had failed both people and the environment. “There is little improvement in income for the people living around the forest. Certain groups get more than others and this causes conflicts.” When conflicts occur, Limberg added, no mechanisms were in place to help resolve them. As a result, local leaders “ seem powerless to end the conflict”.

CIFOR scientist Moira Moeliono agreed but said that compared to the previously centralized approach, the decentralization policy had, on balance, resulted in local government and local communities gaining more benefits from forests. Decentralization is not finished yet, but there is hope for improvement if all stakeholders accept that gaining rights also means having to be accountable.

The seminar was broadcast live on Green Radio, and covered by The Jakarta Post (http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/02/07/forests-%E2%80%98remain-bad-shape%E2%80%99.html).
Indonesian Environmental Information Center (PILI) http://www.pili.or.id

The full series of reports can be found at the CIFOR website, www.cifor.cgiar.org.

Moeliono, M., Wollenberg, E, and Limberg, G., eds. 2009. Desentralisasi tata kelola hutan: politik, ekonomi dan perjuangan untuk menguasai hutan di Kalimantan, Indonesia. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. www.cifor.cgiar.org/Publications/Detail?pid=2652.
Colfer, C.J.P., Dahal, G.R., Capistrano, D., eds. 2009. Pelajaran dari desentralisasi kehutanan: mencari tata kelola yang baik dan berkeadilan di Asia-Pasifik. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. www.cifor.cgiar.org/Publications/Detail?pid=2653.
Colfer, C.J.P.; Capistrano, D.,eds. 2006. Politik desentralisasi: hutan, kekuasaan dan rakyat. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. www.cifor.cgiar.org/Publications/Detail?pid=2087.

They are also available in English from Earthscan at www.earthscan.co.uk, under the following titles, respectively:

Moeliono, M., Wollenberg, E, Limberg, G., eds. 2008. The Decentralization of Forest Governance: Politics, Economics and the Fight for Control of Forests in Indonesian Borneo.
Colfer, C.J.P., Dahal, G.R., Capistrano, D., eds. 2008. Lessons from Forest Decentralization: Money, Justice and the Quest for Good Governance in Asia-Pacific.
Colfer, C.J.P. and Capistrano, D. (eds.). 2005. The Politics of Decentralization: Forests, Power and People.