Governing the ungovernable: The politics of disciplining pulpwood and palm oil plantations in Indonesia’s tropical peatland

Abstract

This paper examines new governmental technologies that are emerging in Indonesia to address socio-ecological crises resulting from the conversion of peat forest landscapes to large-scale agricultural plantations. The early implications of Indonesia’s ‘peatland-fire-free’ policy interventions for palm oil and pulpwood industries, including private sector resistance and contestation to this policy, are investigated. Drawing on the Foucauldian concept of disciplinary governmentality, this article analyses the Government of Indonesia’s (GoI) failed attempts to render large-scale peatland users governable. The GoI introduced two peatland disciplinary strategies: a spatial and hydro-governance approach to governing palm oil and pulpwood plantations in peatland landscapes. However, significant contestation and opposition arise from these policies as the state attempts to apply disciplinary logics upon powerful and prickly actors. In this context, contestation reflects the complexities of the existing political economy of peatland exploitation in Indonesia, which is decisively shaped through structural and environmental violence. The paper outlines the elements that limit the prospects for fully-fledged disciplinary governmentality over peatland areas and highlights the messy, insecure and unfinished nature of environmental governance.