Carol J. Pierce Colfer and Ida Aju Pradnja Resosudarmo, eds., Which Way Forward? People, Forests and Policy Making in Indonesia.

Carol J. Pierce Colfer and Ida Aju Pradnja Resosudarmo, eds., Which Way Forward? People, Forests and Policy Making in Indonesia. Washington: RFF Press, CIFOR, ISEAS, 2002, 433 pp.

Indonesia has long been a favorite "locus" in the socio-political discourse on policies concerning natural resource management and forestry. The momentous political and social events of 1998 in Indonesia created new conditions and opportunities for policy reform and affirmation of the rights of local people in the management of natural resources. The issuing of new laws and decrees, and their contested implementation, have in turn stimulated a new stream of analyses of the effects of decentralization, the status of social forestry after 1998, and so on.

It is in this context that the edited volume, Which Way Forward? People, Forests, and Policy Making in Indonesia, can offer readers an extremely rich, multi-layered, and multiperspective reading of forestry policy-making in Indonesia.

The book most convincingly and most forcefully looks at what has happened with regard to government policies in order to "help us to learn what went wrong," (Jeffrey Sayer in the Forward) and what structural and ideological constraints might have caused it.

The risk of a volume where a good number of chapters take turns at examining the same key laws and policy environments might be substantial overlap and analytical redundancy, but the editors and authors successfully manage to offer an engaging, "spiraling" view of policy-making in social forestry. The fixed focal topic is the evolution of policies concerning people and forests in Indonesia, yet it is approached from different angles to render the complexity of the issues, the conflictual discourses and interests that intersect and still divide the context of forest policy-making in Indonesia.

In the introduction, the editors explicitly state that the focus of the book is on the Outer Islands of Indonesia (all islands of the large archipelago with the exception of the densely populated islands of Java and Bali) because of their "comparative importance in recent decades as generators of foreign exchange; as sources of livelihood for a rich potpourri of ethnic groups.... and the ecological importance of the Outer Island forests" (p. 3).

The editors posit three main aims for the volume:

* "Document what is happening to the people and forests of Indonesia" (p. 10).

Policies, rather than governance, form the core subject of the analyses in this volume. Local people, and their point of view, come alive only in the background of some papers like the one discussing preventive measures against forest fires and the "specific or particular causes behind the fires" (Carol Colfer, Chapter 14:310).

* "Provide insights to policymakers, policy researchers, and concerned citizens who are interested in the development of policies that will benefit the nation" (p. 10).

This is indeed the real strength of the volume where several contributors convincingly examine the policy context and the policy networks "formed along two ideological lines --those who believe in state control and those who are convinced that this authority should be devolved to local communities" (Rita Lindayati, Chapter 2:53).

Whether by defining "the conflicting discourses associated with forest control, management and ownership" (Chapter 1, Rachel Wrangham), or highlighting "the policy ideas that have encapsulated different modes of people-forest relations" (Chapter 2, Rita Lindayati), or exploring "the complex continuum of contending perspectives on community control and management of forest resources" (Chapter 5, Jeffrey Campbell), the authors look at policies and laws as social and political products, the unfinished outcome of a range of conflicting interests, ideas, and claims in a country for decades dominated by the inequitable distribution of resources and their control by state elites and their business partners.

If anything, some of the contributions remain a little deprived of the rich "humus" of experiences on the ground, the local interpretations and experimentations with regard to regulations, the fertile territory that lies in-between what is regulated by state laws and what is not, but is very much a part of everyday management of natural resources. The interesting argument on the centrality of village governance in guaranteeing a more transparent, equitable, and accountable management of natural resources comes a step closer towards a more experience-based policy analysis (Chapter 3, Chris Bennett). Similarly, the description of the policy process and role of civil society in pushing forestry reform and the recognition of customary rights also go further in bridging between a strict policy analysis and a more experiential analysis of policies (Chapter 6, Chip Fay and Marina Sirait).

Interestingly, there is little explicit discussion of the role that local legislation (PERDA) may take with regard to the future management of forest resources and community control in this era of autonomy and decentralization.

* "Students, policy makers, project managers, and researchers in other countries may be able to benefit from these analyses ... both in helping to identify potential problems and in structuring new solutions to old ones." (p. 11)

Suggestions and recommendations that would foster further reform in the forestry sector towards a more sustainable and equitable model of forest management are more noticeable in some chapters on sector-level analyses (Chapters 7-12). In particular, Christopher Barr (Chapter 9) convincingly questions what he calls the "sustainable logging paradigm" or a set of prescriptions (selective cutting; full rent capture; and market-based efficiency) that are commonly assumed by the government and institutions like the World Bank to be needed and sufficient steps for reforming the logging industry. Nevertheless, the author argues, without limiting the demand for wood or slowing forest conversion the prescriptions alone might not secure sustainability in the management of forests.

In general, in the second set of chapters, the enduring economic crisis, economic restructuring (Chapter 12), and the rapid growth of other sectors like oil palm (Chapter 10) loom more consistently prominent and help define the larger context which also affects the forestry sector and policy reform. In the chapter on the dynamics of illegal logging (Chapter 16), Richard Dudley points to the large numbers and excess capacity of sawmills and plywood overproduction as the main causes of the rampant illegal logging that is now contributing to forest loss in Indonesia. The author uses system dynamics as an approach to uncovering the causal relations between qualitative variables, and how consequences of certain actions can in turn become causes of those actions (causal loops, page 360). For example, as more villagers participate in illegal logging activities, these activities become more acceptable. Logging increases forest loss, which in turn weakens the perspective of long-term benefits of the forest for villagers, and thus more villagers might decide to participate in illegal logging. Similar to the discussion of the specific causes of forest fires (Chapter 14), the description of the actions of illegal loggers and the context of those actions come closer to what can be termed a "causal analysis of events," or explanation that helps convincingly link the events in question to the specific circumstances and variables of their occurrence.

After 2001, paradigms in social forestry and forest management are shifting more rapidly. To quote from Emil Salim (Afterword), "Indonesia is changing from an authoritarian to a democratic regime," "authority is becoming decentralized," and a "policy of uniformity is giving way to diversity" (page 398). If we take another forest management example, conservation management (a topic strangely absent from the volume except for a brief reference on page 345), the stronger government commitment and draft legislation in favor of collaborative management of protected areas reflects the new overall tendencies towards reform, participation, and equity in forestry policymaking in Indonesia.

The reform process in Indonesia will certainly continue, but we can expect complications and resistance in certain sectors. On the positive side, we can also expect increasing "localization" and "experimentation" in forest management and community forestry. "Which Way Forward?" is not the question this book sets out to answer, but rather the challenge that policy makers, policy analysts, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and government in Indonesia have to confront. (Cristina Eghenter, WWF Indonesia, Jalan Gunung Belah 188, Tarakan 77114, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia)