Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
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Chapter 4: Improv<strong>in</strong>g Forest Quality and Livelihoods <strong>in</strong> Indonesia • 97<br />
Address<strong>in</strong>g divergent claims on <strong>forests</strong><br />
Participatory efforts have <strong>of</strong>ten assumed that local communities are<br />
homogeneous, with component parts <strong>in</strong> agreement about how to use and<br />
manage <strong>forests</strong>. However, <strong>in</strong> many forest communities socio-economic<br />
stratification has been <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g (Li 1996), and most participatory forestry<br />
efforts lack the <strong>in</strong>struments to accommodate the <strong>in</strong>terests <strong>of</strong> disadvantaged<br />
groups (such as women or hunter-gatherers) and for encourag<strong>in</strong>g<br />
collaboration at the local level.<br />
Furthermore, decentralisation and <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g market forces have <strong>in</strong>troduced<br />
a wide array <strong>of</strong> stakeholders besides local people and public agencies and<br />
have stimulated the emergence <strong>of</strong> local elites and alliances <strong>of</strong> powerful<br />
actors who usurp local control over resources (Wollenberg et al. 2006). Most<br />
participatory <strong>in</strong>itiatives have not anticipated the chang<strong>in</strong>g relationships<br />
among actors due to wider-scale political economic changes. Nor are they<br />
equipped with the negotiat<strong>in</strong>g tools or other multiple-stakeholder strategies<br />
to help <strong>in</strong>terest groups cope with chang<strong>in</strong>g relations and associated power<br />
plays. It is commonly thought that <strong>in</strong>compatible claims on <strong>forests</strong> can be<br />
addressed without recognis<strong>in</strong>g power relationships. ‘Keep<strong>in</strong>g politics <strong>in</strong> a<br />
distance’ is the implicit motto <strong>of</strong> most participatory <strong>in</strong>itiatives.<br />
Address<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>stitutional <strong>in</strong>flexibility<br />
Participatory government programs like Perhutanan Sosial (social forestry)<br />
or Hutan Kemasyarakatan (<strong>community</strong> forestry) tend to be top-down,<br />
target externally def<strong>in</strong>ed objectives, use command-and-control modes<br />
<strong>of</strong> implementation and deploy monitor<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>dicators that are not localspecific.<br />
Though labeled participatory, these efforts rema<strong>in</strong> embedded<br />
<strong>in</strong> economic and science-normative <strong>in</strong>stitutions and broader politicaleconomic<br />
regimes, leav<strong>in</strong>g little room for process-oriented approaches.<br />
Although governmental forestry <strong>in</strong>stitutions are <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly aware <strong>of</strong> the<br />
shortcom<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>of</strong> their policies, they seem not to know how to respond to<br />
the new demands placed on forestry and how to move ahead. Nor has the<br />
<strong>in</strong>ternational <strong>community</strong> mean<strong>in</strong>gfully <strong>in</strong>fluenced government structures<br />
<strong>in</strong> support <strong>of</strong> local participation.<br />
Very locally focused participatory forestry <strong>in</strong>itiatives, largely led by<br />
nongovernmental organisations, <strong>of</strong>ten assume that local participation<br />
and ‘<strong>community</strong> empowerment’ suffice to overcome forest <strong>management</strong>