Abstract
Over the last 20 years a considerable number of international forest-related policies has evolved, collectively referred to as the international forest regime complex. The objectives of this study are to identify the most relevant international forest-related issues discussed in Indonesia as well as the most active actors and their positions on these issues. The empirical methods used include content analysis of Indonesian newspapers, national expert journals, expert mailing lists, and international organizations’ position papers. In addition, experts were interviewed to verify and complement the data. As a result, three primary forest-related international issues in Indonesia are identified, namely: timber legality; climate change including REDD initiative; and oil palm plantation and its environmental aspects; and the other four considered as secondary issues, namely: harmonization of wood and forest certification schemes; land use change; forest and species conservation; and deforestation and decentralized forest governance. Public and expert deliberations are found to differ regarding the depth of information as well as their immediate importance for the people and their long-term objectives. The Ministry of Forestry and, surprisingly, the Ministry of Trade are the most active actors in these issues. The main lines of conflict lie between forest utilization interests which are supported by the Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Trade, oil palm and wood industry associations face-to-face with forest conservation interests powered by WWF and Greenpeace.
Highlights
The primary issues are: timber legality, oil palm plantation and its environmental aspects, and climate change including Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) initiative; while the secondary issues consist of harmonization of wood and forest certification schemes, land use change, forest and species conservation, and deforestation and decentralized forest governance (Appendix A)
Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) is the European Union (EU) policy to combat illegal logging and illegal trade in forest products. This includes the adoption of the FLEGT Action Plan (2003) which contains EU's commitment to develop a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with timber producing countries to prevent illegal timber products from entering the European market
It is up to the EU to recognize SVLK as a tool to determine the legality of Indonesian timber products exported to the EU
Summary
Recent forest governance presents in many arena has involved more actors spreading from state representatives, intergovernmental organizations, treaty secretariats, multilateral financial institutions, nongovernmental organizations, as well as business and industry groups (Chasek et al, 2014) and assembling transnational interests into a unique forest regime (Overdevest & Zeitlin, 2014a; 2014b). Krasner (1982) defines international regimes as “a set of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations.” put and applied to the field of forest policy, this theory describes and analyses international cooperation, primarily among states, and how internationally agreed principles, norms and rules become relevant in national contexts (Smouts, 2008). Krasner (1982) defines international regimes as “a set of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations.”. Put and applied to the field of forest policy, this theory describes and analyses international cooperation, primarily among states, and how internationally agreed principles, norms and rules become relevant in national contexts (Smouts, 2008). International regimes are designed in order to influence state behavior including their implementation through national action and policies (Bernstein & Cashore, 2012; Giessen, 2012; Giessen et al, 2014). How are specific issues of the international forest regimes complex (IFRC) put on the political agenda in public and expert networks and their deliberations A basic question, remains: are international commitments made relevant, implemented and enforced in individual countries? And how are specific issues of the international forest regimes complex (IFRC) put on the political agenda in public and expert networks and their deliberations
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