This case study discusses decentralisation and forest management in Kapuas district, Central Kalimantan, focusing specifically on the impact of these administrative reforms on timber concessions operating there. It is based on field research carried out during June and July 2000. The study is based on interviews with government officials, forestry department staff, university researchers, NGO workers and the employees of timber workers in the provincial capital, Palangkaraya, and the district capital, Kuala Kapuas. Research was also carried out in Gunung Mas in the headwaters of the Kahayan River and further interviews were conducted with businessmen, sub-district government officials and lower level forestry staff, community leaders and local villagers. This document provides: (1) Essential background regarding the geography, economy and history of forestry in Kapuas district. (2) A discussion focuses on decentralisation and forest management, analysing the financial situation of the district administration, the efforts of the district government to create district laws to regulate the forestry sector in the district, and the initial impacts of decentralisation on spatial planning and environmental management. (3) Analyses the situation of timber concessionaires in Gunung Mas just before the decentralisation laws took effect, focusing on the changing relationships among timber companies, the local administration and local communities. The case study examines the endemic conflicts occurring between local communities and logging concessionaires in the area. Finally, it draws some conclusions regarding the impact of decentralisation on forest management in the district.

Based on field research carried out in Central Kalimantan during June and July 2000, this chapter examines the likely impact of the decentralisation reforms on forest management in Barito Selatan. Conclusions are derived from three major sources. First, interviews were conducted with key government officials and community figures in the provincial capital, Palangkaraya, and the district capital, Buntok. These were supplemented with information from relevant newspaper and government reports. Thirdly, brief visits were made to a number of communities around the district to examine the implications of these reforms for forest dependent communities and to consider the degree to which local communities are likely to benefit from the new decentralised arrangements. The first section of this chapter provides an overview of the geographic and economic context, at the same time discussing the forestry sector in the district. The second section examines specific disputes, controversies and decisions regarding land use, forestry regulations, law enforcement, and revenue collection, considering the roles and motivations of different stakeholders during the decentralisation process and the consequent implications for forests and people. The third section considers the situation of forest dependent communities in the district in the midst of the decentralisation process. It examines the fate of village communities dependent on rattan gardens, the circumstances of an isolated and impoverished community living in the middle of a logging concession area, and a hamlet where eleven unlicensed sawmills had opened operations over the previous twelve months. Based on this discussion, the final section draws some conclusions regarding the real and anticipated effects of decentralisation on forest management in the district.

The decentralization of control over the vast forests of the world is moving at a rapid pace, with both positive and negative ramifications for people and forests themselves. The fresh research from a host of Asia-Pacific countries described in this book presents rich and varied experience with decentralization and provides important lessons for other regions. Beginning with historical and geographical overview chapters, the book proceeds to more in-depth coverage of the region's countries. Research findings stress rights, roles and responsibilities on the one hand, and organization, capacity-building, infrastructure and legal aspects on the other. With these overarching themes in mind, the authors take on many controversial topics and address practical challenges related to financing and reinvestment in sustainable forest management under decentralized governance. Particular efforts have been made to examine decentralization scales from the local to the national, and to address gender issues. The result is a unique examination of decentralization issues in forestry with clear lessons for policy, social equity, forest management, research, development and conservation in forested areas across the globe from the tropics to temperate regions. Published with CIFOR

"The present study examines the preliminary effects of decentralisation on forests and estate crops in Kutai Barat district, East Kalimantan. It is one of nine district level case studies carried out during 2000 and early 2001 by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in four provinces: Riau, East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The findings presented in these studies reflect the conditions and processes that existed in the study districts during the initial phase of Indonesia's decentralisation process"--P. viii.

This volume queries the state and effect of the global decentralization movement through the study of natural resource decentralizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The case studies presented here use a comparative framework to characterize the degree to which natural resource decentralizations can be said to be taking place and, where possible, to measure their social and environmental consequences. In general, the cases show that threats to national-level interests are producing resistance that is fettering the struggle for reform.

Through close scrutiny of empirical materials and interviews, this book uniquely analyzes all the episodes of long-running, widespread communal violence that erupted during Indonesia’s post-New Order transition. Indonesia democratised after the long and authoritarian New Order regime ended in May 1998. But the transition was far less peaceful than is often thought. It claimed about 10,000 lives in communal (ethnic and religious) violence, and nearly as many as that again in separatist violence in Aceh and East Timor. Taking a comprehensive look at the communal violence that arose after the New Order regime, this book will be of interest to students of Southeast Asian studies, social movements, political violence and ethnicity.

"The present study examines the preliminary effects of decentralisation of forest administration in Kotawaringin Timur District, Central Kalimantan. It is one of nine district level case studies carried out during 2000 and early-2001 by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in four provinces: Riau, East Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The findings presented in these studies reflect the conditions and processes that existed in the study districts during the initial phase of Indonesia's decentralisation process"--P. viii.