Forest Resources and Local People Livelihood

The decision of the Indonesian government to implement Law No. 22/1999 on Regional Governance in 2001 has resulted in the delegation of authority to the regional governments and a more decentralized political power as well as more localized decision making on natural resources’ utilization, including in the forestry sectors. However, a number of studies on the implementation of decentralization in the forestry sector show that impacts of the transfer of authority to the regional governments have been mostly negative on the environment. The efforts to protect the environment, i.e. forest resources, are also facing serious threats from “the oil palm trend” which is replacing “the log trend”. After more than 10 years of the implementation of decentralization policies, the current conditions at the local level have shown that not only the share of the region’s natural resource revenues has increased but the pressure to utilize these revenues to alleviate poverty and social inequalities has also become greater.

 As environment and society shape one and another, the first part of the paper explains, using political economy approach, the causes of widespread environmental destructions after the implementation of Law No. 22 in January 2001. In the second part, this paper will analyze, based on Buttel’s (2003) argument, the role of activism/movements and state environmental regulation, particularly in the forestry sector; as two basic mechanisms in supporting the process of environmental reform. In the last part, this paper proposes a mechanism defined by Martel (1994) as “decentralized community with institutionalized co-ordination” as well as explores, as suggested by Frickel and Davidson (2004), linkages between the state (particularly governments at the provincial and district level) and specific civil society actors (involved in environmental justice movements or act as environmental knowledge professionals) in enhancing state interest in sustainability and improving the local people livelihood.