The innovation of ecological fiscal transfers policy at Siak Regency

Abstract

For several decades, the problem of forest fires has been recurring almost every year in Siak regency, Riau Province. This phenomenon affected a huge portion of damage for public. However, the previous policy has been failed to solve the forest fires problem. However, some local government has attempting to address the problem of forest fires with policy innovation. This article focuses on innovation by the Siak local government through ecological transfer policy. Although the idea of ecological transfer policy is not new, there are few Indonesian local governments has initiate in the policy. Siak is one step ahead to initiate the ecological transfer policy during Siak Hijau vision. This article analyses the success story of Siak in formulating the ecological transfer policy in local budget. Through a qualitative research method, we found that the ecological transfer policy can occur due to combination of local elite support and advocacy of civil society organizations. Both actors played an active role in the ecological transfer policy. However, the women tended to be alienated in the formulation of the ecological transfer policy due to cultural and political barriers. In that sense, it is important to create inclusiveness for policy formulation‥