After Decentralisation: The Implications of Small-Scale Logging for Communities' Access to Forests in Indonesia

Until 1997, Indonesia’s forestry policy was highly centralized and all logging permits were issued in the national capital, very often to people well connected to the government. During this period (1980s-1999) the estimated rate of deforestation was 1.6 million hectares annually. After the downfall of President Soeharto, a whole range of political reforms occurred in a very short time, including in the forestry sector. At approximately the same time, regional autonomy was implemented, which meant that small-scale logging permits could be directly issued at district level by the district forestry service and the district head. Decentralization for the first time provided opportunities for communities to directly participate in forest management.

Small timber harvest permits (in Indonesian Izin Pemungutan dan Pemanfaatan Kayu) included provisions ensuring that villages received benefits from commercial timber extraction. Yet the extent of those benefits has been limited. Rent-seeking local bureaucrats, entrepreneurs and community elites at the district level have used the new opportunities to further their own interests through lucrative small-scale timber harvesting. Under these arrangements, communities receive minor cash fees, development of some village infrastructure and employment opportunities. These benefits are significant enough, however, to cause most community members to overlook fundamental issues of rights over and long-term access to forests. The local government attitude has been ambiguous: timber harvesting licenses were issued specifically for areas claimed as customary territories. This could be interpreted as an indirect recognition of communities’ land rights claims. But the reality is that the local government has been reluctant to formally recognize communities’ claims to forest and land.
In this article, I use the example of seven small-scale timber harvesting operations in the Malinau area of East Kalimantan (from 2000 to 2003) to describe the type and quantity of benefits communities received and the implications of this experience for future community access to forests.