The Politics of Defining Participatory Forestry A Case From Democratizing Indonesia

Embracing the opportunities provided by democratization and decentralization, the Wonosobo district, Central Java, enacted a local regulation on participatory forestry. The regulation, which entailed significant participation of civil society groups, was largely influenced by the idea of emphasizing the people’s rights of political participa-tion. However, this faced a backlash from the remaining representatives of the old authoritarian state, who demanded a state-created participatory forestry scheme. The scheme was shaped by the utilitarian idea emphasizing economic and ecological con-sequences of participation in an instrumentalist manner. Because of legal uncertainty and conventional political culture persisting at the local and national levels, state actors were able to produce outcomes contrary to the local regulation. This article illustrates the importance of recognizing the distinction between the key ideas with respect to “participation ” to understand the political struggles concerning the decentralization of forest management