Keywords
food governance
Food Estate
policy implementation
collaborative governance
Central Kalimantan
How to Cite
Abstract
The National Strategic Food Estate Program in Central Kalimantan (2020–2024) failed to achieve its objectives not solely due to technical agricultural issues, but because state policy lost its footing in local institutions, knowledge, and community values. This article addresses one central question: how can indigenous values be translated into governance mechanisms that restore the legitimacy and effectiveness of state food policy? Using qualitative case studies in Pulang Pisau, Kapuas, and Gunung Mas Regencies (May 2022–July 2025) through in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus group discussions, and document review, this research identified five consistent patterns of failure: centralized knowledge and one-way socialization, a ban on land burning without alternatives, technological assistance inappropriate to field conditions, a lack of community involvement in planning, and the neglect of ecological knowledge and customary institutions (Damang). This article then proposes six principles of Belom Bahadat of the Dayak Ngaju community as a procedural framework that links local values with public administration functions: Pambelom (planning), Imbelom (coordination), Mambelom (implementation), Hakam (supervision), Kabelom (accountability), and Kabalumam Belom (social justice). Its theoretical contribution is bridging the study of collaborative governance and policy implementation with customary institutions; its practical contribution is an instrument that can be adopted by the bureaucracy through regional regulations, equal coordination forums, and customary law-based supervision. This article emphasizes that decolonizing food governance is essentially an effort to restore the coherence of state institutions so that policies are rooted in the values, culture, and needs of local communities.
References
Abdurrahim, A. Y., Dharmawan, A. H., Adiwibowo, S., Yogaswara, H., & Van Noordwijk, M. (2025). Actors, Access, Markets, and Values Involved in Oil Palm Expansion and Peatland Degradation in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Forest and Society, 9(1), 376–402. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v9i1.34533
Ansell, C., & Gash, A. (2008). Collaborative Governance in Theory and Practice. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 18(4), 543–571. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum032
Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A Ladder Of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35(4), 216–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944366908977225
Aryal, K., Maraseni, T., & Apan, A. (2023). A call for ‘management authorship’ in community forestry. Environmental Science & Policy, 139, 204–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.10.023
Astuti, R. (2020). Fixing flammable Forest: The scalar politics of peatland governance and restoration in Indonesia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 61(2), 283–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12267
Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2000). REDISCOVERY OF TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AS ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1251–1262. https://doi.org/10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010%5B1251:ROTEKA%5D2.0.CO;2
Brown, M. (2022). Local Governance, Ecological Knowledge, and Spatial Models: Assessing Resource Access in a Forest Commons. Human Ecology, 50(6), 997–1006. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-022-00368-8
Candel, J. J. L., & Pereira, L. (2017). Towards integrated food policy: Main challenges and steps ahead. Environmental Science & Policy, 73, 89–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2017.04.010
Carvalho De Mello, B. (2026). Epistemic violence in the Inter-American human rights system: Indigenous cosmologies, legal pluralism and paths towards decolonial justice. Third World Quarterly, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2026.2631046
Cleaver, F. (2017). Development Through Bricolage: Rethinking Institutions for Natural Resource Management (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315094915
Datta, R. (2015). A relational theoretical framework and meanings of land, nature, and sustainability for research with Indigenous communities. Local Environment, 20(1), 102–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.818957
Duncan, J. (2025). Food governance. In L. Holloway, M. K. Goodman, D. Maye, M. Kneafsey, A. E. Sexton, & A. Moragues-Faus (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Food and Society (pp. 224–229). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800887435.00062
Emerson, K., Nabatchi, T., & Balogh, S. (2012). An Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mur011
Ewert, S., & Hartung, U. (2020). Zwischen klimaschutzpolitischem Anspruch und agrarpolitischer Wirklichkeit: Moorschutz im Bundesländervergleich. Berichte über Landwirtschaft - Zeitschrift für Agrarpolitik und Landwirtschaft, Aktuelle Beiträge. https://doi.org/10.12767/BUEL.V98I2.282
Folke, C., Hahn, T., Olsson, P., & Norberg, J. (2005). ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE OF SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 30(1), 441–473. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.30.050504.144511
Franco Daza, J. D. (2022). Violencia e injusticia epistémica contra las comunidades indígenas en Colombia: Agencia epistémica, participación y territorio. Estudios de Filosofía. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.347697
Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (1st ed.). Oxford University PressOxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198237907.001.0001
Fung, A. (2006). Varieties of Participation in Complex Governance. Public Administration Review, 66(s1), 66–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00667.x
Herdananta, B. Y., Ibriza, N. M., Wardha’Adlina, W. A., Sulton, M. N., Sugiyarto, S., Budiharta, S., & Setyawan, A. D. (2024). Assessing social capital in community forest management in Kalibawang Sub-district, Wonosobo District, Central Java, Indonesia. Asian Journal of Ethnobiology, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.13057/asianjethnobiol/y070106
Irene, J. O., Irene, B. N., Omeihe, K. O., & Frank, R. (Eds.). (2025). The Emerald Handbook of Decolonising Sustainability: A Global South Perspective. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83608-216-3
Irwansyah, I., Yusran, Y., & Millang, S. (2025). Sustainable forest utilization based on indigenous knowledge of Mappurondo community in Mamasa District, West Sulawesi, Indonesia. Asian Journal of Forestry, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.13057/asianjfor/r090210
Latulippe, N., & Klenk, N. (2020). Making room and moving over: Knowledge co-production, Indigenous knowledge sovereignty and the politics of global environmental change decision-making. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 42, 7–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2019.10.010
Löfmarck, E., & Lidskog, R. (2019). Coping with Fragmentation. On the Role of Techno-Scientific Knowledge within the Sámi Community. Society & Natural Resources, 32(11), 1293–1311. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1633449
McGinley, K. A., Charnley, S., Cubbage, F. W., Hajjar, R., Frey, G. E., Schelhas, J., Hovis, M., & Kornhauser, K. (2022). Community forest ownership, rights, and governance regimes in the United States. In J. Bulkan, J. Palmer, A. M. Larson, & M. Hobley, Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry (1st ed., pp. 146–167). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367488710-13
Mistry, J., Jafferally, D., Ingwall-King, L., & Mendonca, S. (2020). Indigenous Knowledge. In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (pp. 211–215). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10830-3
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.
Ostrom, E. (2010). Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems. American Economic Review, 100(3), 641–672. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.100.3.641
Padfield, R., Varkkey, H., Manzo, K., & Ganesan, V. (2023). Time bomb or gold mine? Policy, sustainability and media representations of tropical peatlands in Malaysia. Land Use Policy, 131, 106628. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106628
Parsons, M., & Fisher, K. (2020). Indigenous peoples and transformations in freshwater governance and management. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 44, 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2020.03.006
Ratamäki, O., Jokinen, P., Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland, Albrecht, E., Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland, Belinskij, A., Law School, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland, & Water Management and Governance, Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland. (2019). Framing the peat: The political ecology of Finnish mire policies and law. Mires and Peat, 24, 17. https://doi.org/10.19189/MAP.2018.OMB.370
Rawls, J. (2017). A Theory of Justice. In L. May & J. B. Delston (Eds.), Applied Ethics (6th ed., pp. 21–29). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315097176-4
Sarmento, C., Baptista, M. M., & Santos, G. (2025). Decolonizing Heritage: Critical Perspectives on Sustainability through a Cultural Studies Lens. E-Revista de Estudos Interculturais, 2025(13 Special Issue). Scopus. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105026476193&partnerID=40&md5=936e1d331bc20faec0bd6528fd3bca14
Sheremata, M. (2018). Listening to relational values in the era of rapid environmental change in the Inuit Nunangat. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 35, 75–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.10.017
Thorburn, C. C., & Kull, C. A. (2015). Peatlands and plantations in S umatra, I ndonesia: Complex realities for resource governance, rural development and climate change mitigation. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 56(1), 153–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12045
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Riamona Sadelman Tulis, Agus Pramusinto, Agustinus Subarsono, Bevaola Kusumasari