Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, Indonesia

Extraction activities across Indonesia have caused drastic changes to forest ecologies. The Indonesian government responded to this through a policy of Industrial Plantation Forest concessions, which were given to the private sector in the hopes of overcoming damages from forest extraction activiti...

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Main Authors: Muhammad Reza Halomoan, Arya Hadi Dharmawan, Satyawan Sunito
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hasanuddin University 2025-07-01
Series:Forest and Society
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/fs/article/view/26656
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author Muhammad Reza Halomoan
Arya Hadi Dharmawan
Satyawan Sunito
author_facet Muhammad Reza Halomoan
Arya Hadi Dharmawan
Satyawan Sunito
author_sort Muhammad Reza Halomoan
collection DOAJ
description Extraction activities across Indonesia have caused drastic changes to forest ecologies. The Indonesian government responded to this through a policy of Industrial Plantation Forest concessions, which were given to the private sector in the hopes of overcoming damages from forest extraction activities while at the same time utilizing unproductive forest land. However, this policy does not pay attention to the existence of people who de facto control and use the land and has triggered new conflicts around agrarian claims based on different interpretations of land rights. In an effort to resolve conflicts, the government has implemented a community-based forest area management policy, which involves a partnership between local communities and companies known as the social forestry partnership scheme. This scheme is partial tenure in the form of management rights and legality to communities to manage land in forest areas. In this study, we report how the community interprets this program as a solution to agrarian conflicts. Using qualitative methods, this study finds that social forestry has not been entirely accepted by local communities for several reasons. These include the low level of public trust due to the actions taken by the company during the land claim process, demands for property rights from social movements that were not fulfilled through this scheme, and the community's continued cultivation of oil palm, which is a non-forest crop, on their land. The last reason requires the community to replace their plantations with non-oil palm plantations if they wish to participate in the social forestry program. This research further examines how the community's readiness to adopt non-oil palm plantations is influenced by factors of income, convenience, socio-cultural and ecological adaptation, and the potential for new conflicts to arise.
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spelling doaj-art-5c882b0d45cc4056a5429451d46035832025-08-20T03:27:48ZengHasanuddin UniversityForest and Society2549-47242549-43332025-07-019210.24259/fs.v9i2.26656Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, IndonesiaMuhammad Reza Halomoan0https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1401-5586Arya Hadi Dharmawan1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7628-6103Satyawan Sunito2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9929-2653Master's Program in Rural Sociology of the Department of Communication and Community Development Sciences, Faculty of Human Ecology of IPB University, Bogor, IndonesiaMaster's Program in Rural Sociology of the Department of Communication and Community Development Sciences, Faculty of Human Ecology of IPB University, Bogor, IndonesiaMaster's Program in Rural Sociology of the Department of Communication and Community Development Sciences, Faculty of Human Ecology of IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia Extraction activities across Indonesia have caused drastic changes to forest ecologies. The Indonesian government responded to this through a policy of Industrial Plantation Forest concessions, which were given to the private sector in the hopes of overcoming damages from forest extraction activities while at the same time utilizing unproductive forest land. However, this policy does not pay attention to the existence of people who de facto control and use the land and has triggered new conflicts around agrarian claims based on different interpretations of land rights. In an effort to resolve conflicts, the government has implemented a community-based forest area management policy, which involves a partnership between local communities and companies known as the social forestry partnership scheme. This scheme is partial tenure in the form of management rights and legality to communities to manage land in forest areas. In this study, we report how the community interprets this program as a solution to agrarian conflicts. Using qualitative methods, this study finds that social forestry has not been entirely accepted by local communities for several reasons. These include the low level of public trust due to the actions taken by the company during the land claim process, demands for property rights from social movements that were not fulfilled through this scheme, and the community's continued cultivation of oil palm, which is a non-forest crop, on their land. The last reason requires the community to replace their plantations with non-oil palm plantations if they wish to participate in the social forestry program. This research further examines how the community's readiness to adopt non-oil palm plantations is influenced by factors of income, convenience, socio-cultural and ecological adaptation, and the potential for new conflicts to arise. http://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/fs/article/view/26656Social forestryAgrarian conflictPalm oil expansionForest areaIndonesia
spellingShingle Muhammad Reza Halomoan
Arya Hadi Dharmawan
Satyawan Sunito
Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, Indonesia
Forest and Society
Social forestry
Agrarian conflict
Palm oil expansion
Forest area
Indonesia
title Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, Indonesia
title_full Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, Indonesia
title_fullStr Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, Indonesia
title_full_unstemmed Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, Indonesia
title_short Social Forestry as Solution to Agrarian Conflicts? A Case Study between Oil Palm Smallholders and Industrial Plantations in Jambi, Indonesia
title_sort social forestry as solution to agrarian conflicts a case study between oil palm smallholders and industrial plantations in jambi indonesia
topic Social forestry
Agrarian conflict
Palm oil expansion
Forest area
Indonesia
url http://journal.unhas.ac.id/index.php/fs/article/view/26656
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