Commoning the State Forest: Crafting Commons through an Indonesian Social Forestry Program

Haudec Herrawan,Nurhady Sirimorok,Yusran Yusran,Munajat Nursaputra,Muhammad Alif K Sahide,Fatwa Faturachmat,Supratman Supratman,Andi Sadapotto,Emban Ibnurusyd Mas'Ud

doi:10.24259/fs.v6i1.10680

Abstract

Studies of the commons grew out of responses to Hardin's bleak prediction of “tragedy of the commons,” that without state intervention or privatization, any commons will eventually be destroyed by allegedly self-interested users. As such, the commons studies traditionally tend to demonstrate cases where common pool resources (CPR) can be sustainably managed by groups of people beyond the state and market interventions. This paper shows a case from Sulawesi, Indonesia, where a state social forestry program can create a space for the program beneficiaries to build a commons. Through fieldwork that involves participant observation and in-depth interviews with program extension workers and beneficiaries in two social forestry farmer groups, this study found that the program can stimulate beneficiary groups to build collective action in managing the state forest plots admitted to them and that the two groups are the only successful ones among 14 neighboring groups that are involved in the same program. The study also shows that the management of the state-sponsored commons requires extension workers with deep knowledge about local people and landscape, economic incentives, and the flexibility of the local state agency in bending the rules based on bottom-up demands. Therefore, the case study shows that, on the one hand, the state program can actually stimulate the creation of the commons. On the other hand, commoning seems to be the only way to ensure a successful social forestry program.

Highlights

Studies of the commons grew out of responses to Hardin's bleak prediction of “Tragedy of the commons,” that without state intervention or privatization, any commons will eventually be destroyed by allegedly self-interested users (Hardin, 1968)
We propose adding studies on the commons that look at the public goods, in this case, to study the Indonesian government social forestry program in a state forest
The case shows that the state has provided necessary and basic programs and rules for creating the local commons in Mattirotasi

Summary

Introduction

Studies of the commons grew out of responses to Hardin's bleak prediction of “Tragedy of the commons,” that without state intervention or privatization, any commons will eventually be destroyed by allegedly self-interested users (Hardin, 1968). Since Ostrom's CPR theory of commons divides the types of goods into public, private, and common goods, there is a tendency to neglect the private and Forest and Society Vol 6(1): 20-39 public goods, or the hybrid types of goods as a site where commons can thrive (Turner, 2017) It is in this light that some current studies began to turn to the concept of ‘commoning’, which instead of focusing on the goods, or the property regimes, they pay more attention to a social practice that creates collective actions and institutions to manage a resource collectively regardless the type of goods they are governing (Bollier & Helfrich, 2015; Euler, 2018; Fournier, 2013; Turner, 2017). By turning on another spotlight toward the commoning practices, instead of merely showing how common goods are managed, studies can begin to examine the roles of the state in the practice of commoning. Ryan (2013), for instance, began to point out the ways in which the state can support and promote the common practices

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Conclusion