Decentralisation of administration, policy making and forest management in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan

Abstract

Berau district has been one of East Kalimantan's largest sources of timber since the mid-1980s. Until the fall of Suharto regime in 1998, most of the district's formal timber production was conducted by large-scale HPH concession holders, and the vast majority of the fiscal revenues generated flowed to the national government. Over the last several years, considerable volumes of logs have also been harvested illegally both by timber concessionaires and by small scale manual loggers. Following the onset of Indonesia's regional autonomy and decentralisation processes in late 1998, district officials moved aggressively to establish greater administrative control over the forest resources within their jurisdiction. they did so by allocating large numbers of small scale forest conversion licences, known as IPPK permits. Many of these were assigned to 'foundations' established by local entrepreneurs to coordinate the creation of logging ventures with village cooperatives and other community groups in parts of Berau with valuable stands of timber.