Social forestry and land tenure conflicts in Indonesia

Abstract

Social Forestry in Indonesia ranges from promoting multi-purpose tree planting and poverty alleviation to devolution of forest management. Indonesia has implemented its Social Forestry programme since colonial times, but the period 2015–2021 marked remarkable changes in institutions and achievements. Social Forestry is expected to respond to livelihood, forest conservation, and tenurial conflicts. The conflicts, including those involving non-Indigenous peoples, emerge from complex forest gazettement, land administration, and migration issues. Amidst this situation, the Social Forestry programme has to cope with conflict resolution, particularly for arable land in the forest. This chapter argues that the Social Forestry programme will face difficulty in achieving this objective if communities’ claims are not properly settled. Besides, data regarding land tenure, village territories, resource potential, and population numbers are lacking. Thus, the Indonesian Government needs to put more effort into synchronising land administration policies and forestry, demographic, and spatial data so that the Social Forestry programme might succeed.