Corruption in Social Forestry in Indonesia
Additional Files
Social forestry is envisioned as a governance reform to empower rural communities to improve both the forest condition and their quality of life. In Indonesia, however, its implementation has been plagued by a number of governance-related issues including corrupt practices among various actors. Drawing on programs implemented in Java, we delve into the types and mechanisms by which corruption has occurred (or occurs) in various social forestry activities. Tracking experience across several phases of social forestry, the corrupt practices were initially performed among the field foresters and the higher hierarchies. These corrupt practices were later imitated by other actors, who increasingly considered them as normal and acceptable practices. In contemporary social forestry programs, corruption is conducted by diverse stakeholders, including smallholder farmers, public officials and other authorities among the bureaucracy, as well as non-government organizations. Corruption has significant bearing on policy initiatives and programmatic outcomes, as it inhibits the implementation of formal rules and norms of social forestry. Our historical tracing provides better insights into why corruption is not only a social forestry-related challenge but also a part of a larger societal problem as it has been normalized and deepened over decades.
Ali, J., & Nyborg, I. L. P. (2010). Corruption or an Alternative System? Re-assessing Corruption and the role of the Forest Services in the Northern Areas, Pakistan. International Forestry Review, 12(3), 209–220. https://doi.org/10.1505/ifor.12. 3.209
Ashforth, B. E., & Anand, V. (2003). The Normalization of Corruption in Organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 25(03), 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/S01 91-3085(03)25001-2
Aspinall, E. (2019). Fighting Corruption When Corruption Is Pervasive: The Case of Indonesia. In Chen, C. & Weiss, M. L. (Eds.), The Political Logics of Anticorruption Efforts in Asia (pp. 49-74). SUNY Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/97814384771 69-005
Babbie, E. (2013). The Practice of Social Research (13th Edition). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Basnyat, B., Treue, T., Pokharel, R. K., Kayastha, P. K., & Shrestha, G. K. (2023). Conservation by corruption: The hidden yet regulated economy in Nepal’s community forest timber sector. Forest Policy and Economics, 149, 102917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2023.102917
Bulkan, J., & Palmer, J. (2008). Breaking the rings of forest corruption: Steps towards better forest governance. Forests Trees and Livelihoods, 18(2), 103–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2008.9752624
De Royer, S., Noordwijk, M. Van, & Roshetko, J. M. (2018). Does community-based forest management in Indonesia devolve social justice or social costs? International Forestry Review, 20(2), 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1505/146554 818823767609
de Sardan, J. P. O. (1999). A moral economy of corruption in Africa? Journal of Modern African Studies, 37(1), 25–52. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X99002992
Djamhuri, T. L. (2008). Community participation in a social forestry program in Central Java, Indonesia: the effect of incentive structure and social capital. Agroforestry systems, 74, 83-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-008-9150-5
Erbaugh, J. T. (2019). Responsibilization and social forestry in Indonesia. Forest Policy and Economics, 109, 102019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2019.102019
Gorsira, M., Steg, L., Denkers, A., & Huisman, W. (2018). Corruption in Organizations: Ethical Climate and Individual Motives. Administrative Science, 8(4), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8010004
Grant, H., & Billon, P. Le. (2021). Unrooted responses: Addressing violence against environmental and land defenders. Politics and Space, 39(1), 132–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654420941518
Guerrero, M. A., & Oreggia, E. R. (2008). On the individual decisions to commit corruption: A methodological complement. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 65, 357–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2005.09.006
Heath, A. F., Richards, L., & De Graaf, N. D. (2016). Explaining corruption in the developed world: the potential of sociological approaches. Annual Review of Sociology, 42(1), 51-79. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-081715-074213
Irland, L. C. (2008). State Failure, Corruption, and Warfare: Challenges for Forest Policy. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 27(3), 189–223. https://doi.org/10.1080 /10549810802219963
Kanazawa, M. (2018). Research Methods for Environmental Studies: A Social Science Approach. Earthscan.
Klooster, D. (2000). Community Forestry and Tree Theft in Mexico: Resistance or Complicity in Conservation?, 31(1), 281–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00155
Kumer, A., Roy, D., Alam, K., & Gow, J. (2013). Community perceptions of state forest ownership and management: A case study of the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest in Bangladesh. Journal of Environmental Management, 117, 141–149. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.12.004
Kustanti, A., Yuliati, Y., & Purnomo, M. (2023). Institutionalization of corrupt activities among Indonesian rural household farmers in surround marginal teak forest areas. Cogent Social Sciences, 9(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2 023.2187008
Kusuma, A. F., Sahide, M. A. K., Purwanto, R. H., Ismariana, E., Santoso, W. B., Wulandari, E., & Maryudi, A. (2023). Emergent Institutional Issues from New Tenure Reforms and Social-Forestry Initiatives in Indonesia: Notes from The Field. Forest and Society, 7(2), 450–466. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v7i2.2 8319
Langseth, P. (2006). Measuring Corruption. In C. Sampford, A. Shacklock, C. Connors, & F. Galtung (Eds.), Measuring Corruption. Ashgate Publishing Company.
Maryudi, A., & Fisher, M. (2020). The power in the interview: A practical guide for identifying the critical role of actor interets in environment research. Forest and Society, 4(1), 142–150. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v4i1.9132
Maryudi, A., & Myers, R. (2018). Renting legality: How FLEGT is reinforcing power relations in Indonesian furniture production networks. Geoforum, 97, 46–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.10.008
Maryudi, A., Sahide, M. A. K., Daulay, M. H., Yuniati, D., Syafitri, W., Sadiyo, S., & Fisher, M. R. (2022). Holding social forestry hostage in Indonesia: Contested bureaucracy mandates and potential escape pathways. Environmental Science and Policy, 128(1), 142–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.11.013
Meehan, F., & Tacconi, L. (2017). A framework to assess the impacts of corruption on forests and prioritize responses. Land Use Policy, 60, 113–122. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.10.021
MoEF. (2022). SK.287/MENLHK/SETJEN/PLA.2/4/2022 tentang Penetapan Hutan dengan Pengelolaan Khusus pada Sebagian Hutan Negara yang berada pada Kawasan Hutan Produksi dan Hutan Lindung di Provinsi Jawa Tengah, Provinsi Jawa Timur, Provinsi Jawa Barat dan Provinsi Banten. Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan.
Moeliono, M., Sahide, M.A.K., Bong, I.W., Dwisatrio, B. (2023). Social Forestry in Indonesia: Fragmented Values, Progress, Contradictions, and Opportunities. In Nikolakis, W., Moura da Veiga, R. (Eds.), Social Value, Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship: Insights from Theory and Practice (pp. 117-138). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23145-2_8
Neuman, W. L. (2014). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (7th Edition). Pearson. https://doi.org/10.2307/3211488
Nuesiri, E. O. (2022). Good governance of local forest is neither easy nor cheap: Policy learning from Bimbia-Bonadikombo. Forest Policy and Economics, 136, 102672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2021.102672
Ota, M. (2019). From joint forest management to more smallholder-based community forestry: prospects and challenges in Java, Indonesia. Journal of Forest Research, 24(6), 371–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/13416979.2019.1685063
Palmer, C. (2005). The Nature of Corruption in Forest Management. World Economics, 6(2), 1–10.
Peiffer, C., & Rose, R. (2018). Why Are the Poor More Vulnerable to Bribery in Africa? The Institutional Effects of Services. The Journal of Development Studies, 54(1), 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2016.1257121
Prabowo, H. Y., & Cooper, K. (2016). Re-understanding corruption in the Indonesian public sector through three behavioral lenses. Journal of Financial Crime, 23(4), 1028–1062. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-08-2015-0039
Ragandhi, A., Hadna, A. H., Setiadi, S., & Maryudi, A. (2021). Why do greater forest tenure rights not enthuse local communities? An early observation on the new community forestry scheme in state forests in Indonesia. Forest and Society, 5(1), 159–166. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v5i1.11723
Rahayu, S., Laraswati, D., Permadi, D.B. et al. Only a Noise? The Role of Non-governmental Organizations in the Policy Processes of a New Social Forestry Model in Indonesia. Small-scale Forestry 22, 253–270 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-022-09525-9
Rasmussen, L. V., Watkins, C., & Agrawal, A. (2017). Forest contributions to livelihoods in changing agriculture-forest landscapes ☆. Forest Policy and Economics, 84(May 2016), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.04.010
Ravenel, R. M. (2004). Community-Based Logging and De Facto Decentralization. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 19(1–3), 213–237. https://doi.org/10.1300/J0 91v19n01
Rendtorff, J. D. (2010). The concept of corruption: Moral and political perspectives. In Stachowicz-Stanusch, A. (Ed.), Organizational immunity to corruption: Building theoretical and research foundations (pp. 111-119). Information Age Publishing.
Resosudarmo, I. A. P., Tacconi, L., Sloan, S., Hamdani, F. A. U., Subarudi, Alviya, I., & Muttaqin, M. Z. (2019). Indonesia’s land reform: Implications for local livelihoods and climate change. Forest Policy and Economics, 108, 101903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2019.04.007
Ribot, Jesse, C., & Peluso, Nancy, L. (2003). A Theory of Access*. Rural Sociology, 68(2), 153–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2003.tb00133.x
Richards, M., Wells, A., Del Gatto, F., Contreras Hermosilla, A., & Pommier, D. (2003). Impacts of illegality and barriers to legality: A diagnostic analysis of illegal logging in Honduras and Nicaragua. International Forestry Review, 5(3), 282–292. https://doi.org/10.1505/IFOR.5.3.282.19153
Robbins, P. (2000). The rotten institution: corruption in natural resource management. Political Geography, 19, 423–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0962-6298(99)00 087-6
Rose-Ackerman, S. (2008). Corruption and Government. International Peacekeeping, 15(3), 328–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/13533310802058802
Sadigov, T. (2017). Localization, Formalism, and Passivity: Symbols Shaping Bribe Offers in Azerbaijan. Journal of Civil Society, 13(4), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.108 0/17448689.2017.1387716
Sahide, M. A. K., Fisher, M. R., Erbaugh, J. T., Intarini, D., Dharmiasih, W., Makmur, M., … & Maryudi, A. (2020a). The boom of social forestry policy and the bust of social forests in Indonesia: Developing and applying an access-exclusion framework to assess policy outcomes. Forest Policy and Economics, 120, 102290. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102290
Sahide, M. A. K., Fisher, M. R., Supratman, S., Yusran, Y., Pratama, A. A., Maryudi, A., … & Kim, Y. S. (2020b). Prophets and profits in Indonesia’s social forestry partnership schemes: Introducing a sequential power analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 115, 102160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102160
Santika, T., Wilson, K. A., Budiharta, S., Kusworo, A., Meijaard, E., Law, E. A., … & Struebig, M. J. (2019). Heterogeneous impacts of community forestry on forest conservation and poverty alleviation: Evidence from Indonesia. People and Nature, 1(2), 204–219. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.25
Schoeneborn, D., & Homberg, F. (2016). Goffman’s Return to Las Vegas: Studying Corruption as Social Interaction. Journal of Business Ethics, 151, 37-54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3245-0
Sheng, J., Han, X., Zhou, H., & Miao, Z. (2016). Effects of corruption on performance: Evidence from the UN-REDD Programme. Land Use Policy, 59, 344–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.09.014
Siebert, U., & Elwert, G. (2004). Combating Corruption and Illegal Logging in Bénin, West Africa. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 19(1–3), 239–261. https://doi.org/ 10.1300/J091v19n01
Sissener, T. K. (2001). Anthropological perspectives on corruption. Chr. Michelsen Institute.
Smith, J., Obidzinski, K., Subarudi, S., & Suramenggala, I. (2003). Illegal Logging, Collusive Corruption and Fragmented Governments in Kalimantan, Indonesia. International Forestry Review, 5(3), 293–302. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781849 771672
Søreide, T. (2007). Forest concessions and corruption (Issue 3). U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.
Sunam, R. K., Paudel, N. S., & Paudel, G. (2013). Community Forestry and the Threat of Recentralization in Nepal: Contesting the Bureaucratic Hegemony in Policy Process. Society and Natural Resources, 26(12), 1407–1421. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/08941920.2013.799725
Sundström, A. (2016). Understanding illegality and corruption in forest governance. Journal of Environmental Management, 181, 779–790. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jenvman.2016.07.020
Tacconi, L., Cerutti, P. O., Leipold, S., Rodrigues, R. J., Savaresi, A., To, P., & Weng, X. (2016). Defining Illegal Forest Activities and Illegal Logging. In D. Kleinschmit (Ed.), Illegal Logging and Related Timber Trade – Dimensions, Drivers, Impacts and Responses (Volume 35, Issue November 2021). International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).
Tacconi, L., Rodrigues, R. J., & Maryudi, A. (2019). Law enforcement and deforestation: Lessons for Indonesia from Brazil. Forest Policy and Economics, 108, 101943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2019.05.029
Transparency International. (2010). The status of information on corruption in the forestry sector. Transparency International.
Walsh, D., & Marques, P. B. (2022). Is confession really necessary? The use of effective interviewing techniques to maximize disclosure from suspects. In Marques, P. B. & Paulino, M. (Eds.), Police psychology (pp. 357-380). Academic Press. https:// doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816544-7.00017-6
Wang, S., Zhao, D., & Chen, H. (2020). Government corruption, resource misallocation, and ecological efficiency. Energy Economics, 85, 104573. https://doi.org/10.1 016/j.eneco.2019.104573
Widyaningsih, T. S., Darwin, M. M., Pangaribowo, E. H., & Maryudi, A. (2021). Harnessing social innovations and mobilizing networks for improving local livelihoods: cases of two community-managed forests from Indonesia. Forests Trees and Livelihoods, 31(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.202 1.2018668
Williams, D. A., & Dupuy, K. E. (2018). Will REDD + Safeguards Mitigate Corruption? Qualitative Evidence from Southeast Asia. The Journal of Development Studies, 55(10), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2018.1510118
Copyright (c) 2024 Forest and Society
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open access journal which means that all contents is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher. An article based on a section from a completed graduate dissertation may be published in Forest and Society, but only if this is allowed by author's(s') university rules. The Editors reserve the right to edit or otherwise alter all contributions, but authors will receive proofs for approval before publication.
Forest and Society operates a CC-BY 4.0 © license for journal papers. Copyright remains with the author, but Forest and Society is licensed to publish the paper, and the author agrees to make the article available with the CC-BY 4.0 license. Reproduction as another journal article in whole or in part would be plagiarism. Forest and Society reserves all rights except those granted in this copyright notice
