Decentralisation Policy as Recentralisation Strategy: Forest Management Units and Community Forestry in Indonesia1

• Published in: The international forestry review 2016-03, Vol.18 (1), p.78-95
• Main Authors: Sahide, M.A.K., Supratman, S., Maryudi, A., Kim, Y.-S., Giessen, L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: bureaucratic politics; community forestry; Forest Management Units (FMU); Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan (KPH); power politics
• ISSN: 1465-5489
• DOI: 10.1505/146554816818206168

Critical political analyses on decentralisation policies have revealed that such approaches may not achieve their formal goal, and might even support centralisation efforts. A number of previous studies on decentralisation separated the analyses of administrative process from the analyses of political power of administrative actors across levels of government. Using bureaucratic politics theory, this article presents close examinations of both process and power relations reconfigured by decentralising and recentralising forces across governmental levels. This study illustrates how the Indonesian central government is on its way to reclaiming its authority for forest administration and management through so-called Forest Management Units (FMU) and closely related community forestry programmes. This study reveals that the sources of real contention in KPH and community forestry policies are the power struggles between national, provincial and district bureaucracies. The conceptual model and the results of this study contribute to the understanding of underlying dynamics of bureaucratic politics in the process of political power reconfigurations.