ARTICULATING AGENCY WITHIN SITES OF CONTESTATIONS IN HARAPAN RAINFOREST: PROBLEMATIZING PALM OIL PLANTATIONS IN JAMBI, INDONESIA

The increasing global demand for palm oil due to the global new orientation on bio-fuels has affected the rapid expansion of the palm oil plantations in Indonesia. Previous research findings have shown there are multiple actors involved in the palm oil plantations; however, few have taken into account the social interactions between these actors in relation to specificity of the local context. This article problematize how the actors and networks intertwine with one another as sites of contestations and also negotiations. The main problem to be investigated is how these actors articulate their agencies within the socio-economic and cultural life of the communities, who live around forest conservation in Jambi province, namely Harapan Rainforest. Research findings show that the network of actors is problematic in a sense that each actor‟s agency is mostly overshadowed by their own “politics.” Furthermore, from the ethnographic data, the locals in Jambi perceive and negotiate with this situation in their own framework of social network and cultural capital