Forest and Society

Welcome to Forest and Society

Forest and Society is an international journal published by Forestry Faculty of Hasanuddin University that promotes research making clear conceptual and methodological contributions particularly research engaging with people, land, and forest, including topics such as The Commons, Commoning, and Collective Action; Landscape Governance; Political Ecology and Environmental Justice; International Forest Regime; Agrarian Transformation; Social Movement and Resistance; Technopolitics, Knowledge Production, and Environmental Communication; Rights, Gender, and Indigeneity; Mobility, Labor, and Demographics; Climate Change and Carbon Forestry; Frontiers and Extractive Industries; and Nature Conservation and Protected Areas.

While our geographical focus is on Southeast Asia, we actively encourage submissions that offer comparative analyses across regions. The journal bridges theoretical and applied research, supporting capacity-building initiatives to improve regional research quality. We welcome proposals for Special Issues on specific themes.

Current Issue

Volume 10, Issue 1 (2026)View issue

Featured Content

Current Articles

    • Original Research Article11 June 2026

      Community Forest Management and its Impacts on Ecosystem Services and Livelihoods in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam

      Nguyen Ngoc Lan Chi, Le Thi Hoa Sen, Ho Le Phi Khanh, Guilhem Saget, Jennifer Bond
      This study explores the implementation of Community Forest Management (CFM) and its impacts on ecosystem services and the local livelihoods in Thua Thien Hue province. Through interviews with CFM households, non-CFM households and local representatives, it found that although CFM contributes positively to the enhancement of ecosystem services, limitations remain. Specifically, CFM payments only account for up to 10% of households' income and therefore activities such as patrolling tend to be left to older, non-earning household members. The study also found evidence of `reverse exclusion' where limiting CFM participation to poor households also limited the capacity of the group to implement training and contribute voluntary labour. The study highlights that communities' income sources are increasingly shifting away from forest-related activities, driven in part by CFM policies. Despite limited financial returns from CFM, it plays a crucial role in shaping community livelihoods, which require integration with broader income diversification strategies.
    • Original Research Article4 June 2026

      Multispecies Mutualistic Resilience: Riverine Lifeworlds Along the Irrawaddy River

      Phyo Su San, Maya Kóvskaya
      This article advances the concept of multispecies mutualistic resilience to analyze how human and more-than-human communities in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta navigate ecological rupture under conditions of extractive infrastructure and climate crisis. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Ywar Thit village tract, including life-story and semi-structured interviews, digital ethnography, and analysis of vernacular cultural texts, we examine how deltaic communities attune to kaing grasses (Saccharum spontaneum) as land-making agents and vernacular indexical signs of alluvial transformation, and the Irrawaddy River as a living semiosic and material force. Rather than treating resilience as a return to prior equilibrium or as a property of bounded social-ecological systems, we argue that resilience emerges through situated, improvisational relations among ecosystem people, kaing, alluvial islands, and the Irrawaddy River. Centering kaing allows us to show how vernacular riverine knowledges work as semiotic scaffolding: a durable yet adaptive set of sign-relations linking sonic semioscapes, sediment, current, memory, and action, through which communities interpret the river's iconic and indexical cues and coordinate responses to ecological rupture. We treat kaing as a semiosic agent and the Irrawaddy as a living semiosic force, showing how their reciprocal material-semiotic relations, from grass rooting and sediment stabilization to currents, sonic alarms, and erosion, scaffold attuned multispecies improvisation. To clarify how attunement structures resilience, we introduce two analytic concepts: resonance fields, where co-constructed semiosic and semiotic cues scaffold reciprocal adaptation through attunement, and dissonance fields, where infrastructural or epistemic rupture breaks those scaffolds and generates precarity. Bridging multispecies and more-than-human ecological ethnography, ecosemiotics, and environmental humanities, we show how deltaic communities, guided by vernacular epistemologies and ecological co-agency, navigate slow violence and capitalogenic degradation not through mastery but through relational world-making, revealing how lifeways persist through signs, scaffolds, shared rhythms, and improvisational collaboration, even amid intensifying climatic and infrastructural threats.
    • Original Research Article4 June 2026

      Rules and Roles in the Political Economy of Peatland Fires in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

      Ali Yansyah Abdurrahim, Atiek Widayati, Edi Purwanto, Meine van Noordwijk
      Peatland fires in Indonesia represent a critical socio-ecological system failure, generating transboundary haze, biodiversity loss, and severe human health impacts. In Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, the persistence of fires illustrates the tensions between protection and production in the local political economy. On the one hand, peatlands are legally designated for conservation under national regulations and regional initiatives, such as Regulation No. 48/2023 on peatland fire prevention. On the other hand, they remain under sustained pressure from the expansion of palm oil, transmigration schemes, and local livelihood needs. This study applies a political economy (stakes) and political ecology (status-power) lens to analyze why peatland fires persist despite formal regulations. The research draws on multi-source evidence on rules and roles, including policy documents, spatial data on hotspots and burned areas, interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders, and a political economy-ecology analysis (PEEA) of governance gaps. Findings demonstrate that peatland fires are not merely ecological events but outcomes of hybrid access mechanisms, incoherent governance, and structural inequalities. Corporations exploit the 'non-forest' (Area Penggunaan Lain, APL) status and regulatory ambiguities to expand their plantations. At the same time, smallholders and transmigrants rely on burning due to limited resources and a lack of affordable alternatives. Three interrelated drivers underpin these dynamics: (1) inconsistent multi-level governance and weak enforcement capacity; (2) the clash between instrumental values of production and relational values of conservation; and (3) global market demand reinforcing local vulnerabilities. These conditions create what local actors describe as "legal but illegal, illegal but legal.'' Understanding peatland fires within a political economy-ecology framework can advance debates on fire governance in tropical peatlands, highlighting the need for integrated, multi-stakeholder approaches that reconcile protection with production imperatives in Indonesia and beyond.
    • Original Research Article30 May 2026

      Customary Forest Management Based on Cultural Spatial Tripartite Scheme in Tenganan Pegringsingan

      Aloysius Gonzaga Dimas Bintarta Raharja, M. Baiquni, S. Setiadi
      The customary forest of Tenganan Pegringsingan in Karangasem, Bali, received the Customary Forest Decree from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 2019 as a part of Social Forestry implementation. This decree marked the beginning of granting rights to manage the customary forest for the traditional village in Bali. The Tenganan Pegringsingan indigenous community manages their customary forest through a traditional bureaucratic scheme, employing the authority of Krama Desa and a set of customary laws (awig-awig). Krama Desa acts as the governance authority for the utilization of the Tenganan Pegringsingan customary forest, involving two parties: the inheritance rights owners and the Penyakap community. This research employs spatial ethnography and participatory observation methods within the Penyakap in the Tenganan Pegringsingan customary forest to study the spatio-cultural relations and ecological adaptation perspectives of those living within the customary forest. The existence of the tripartite scheme in the management of the customary forest in Tenganan Pegringsingan involves the Krama Desa, the inheritance rights owners (the Tenganan Pegringsingan indigenous community), and the Penyakap ("sharecropper'' and settlers in the customary forest). All three play crucial roles in the future utilization and preservation processes of the customary forest.
    • Original Research Article28 May 2026

      Integrating Local Ethnobiology into Sustainable Forest City Development in Indonesia's New Capital City

      Tri Atmoko, Mukhlisi Mukhlisi, Bina Swasta Sitepu, Ulfah Karmila Sari, Eko Herwanto, Deny Adi Putra, Tri Rizkiana Yusnikusuma
      The Nusantara new capital city has been a national strategic program based on Indonesian's sustainable forest city concept. In the future, there will be a migration of 1.9 million people from different islands, indigenous, and religions, carrying their own cultures. It will suppress the existence of local cultures. Local culture lives in harmony with nature, but massive development will impact the presence of forests and their culture. This research aims to document various local cultures related to ethnobiology (plants and wildlife) of the indigenous in the Nusantara region and its surroundings (Dayak, Paser, and Kutai). The research was conducted through structured interviews with the selection of respondents using the snowball sampling method, which started with local customs leaders. Validate the plant species used by taking herbarium samples, while wildlife is based on animal field guides. The plant and animal species are identified for their conservation status and used as food, medicine, cultural rituals, ornaments, accessories, buildings, tools, and materials. A total of 515 used citations were for plants, and 450 citations were for animals. Based on the Relative Frequency of Citations (RFC) value, respondents often mentioned using plants, such as Calamus sp. (Dayak's RFC 0.57; Kutai's RFC 0.20; Paser's RFC 0.59), Bambusa sp. (Dayak's RFC 0.33; Kutai's RFC 0.10; Paser's RFC 0.22), Pandanus sp. (Kutai's RFC 0.23), and Peronema canescens (Paser's RFC 0.30). Agathis borneensis is the only endangered plant category; nine other species are vulnerable. No plant species were listed on CITES, and only Borassodendron borneense was protected. The animals most used are Sus barbatus (Dayak's RFC 0.50), Hystrix bracyura (Dayak's RFC 0.37; Paser's RFC 0.37), Hemibagrus sp. (Kutai's RFC 0.53), Chana striata (Dayak's RFC 0.30; Kutai's RFC 0.47), Muntiacus muntjak (Paser's RFC 0.37), and Rusa unicolor (Dayak's RFC 0.33; Paser's RFC 0.37). Two animal species are critically endangered (Manis javanica, Nasalis larvatus), 19 are protected, and Appendix I CITES listed are Helarctos malayanus, M. javanica, and N. larvatus. The essential plant species for local peoples should be a priority in developing a forest city for cultural and wildlife sustainability.
    • Original Research Article28 May 2026

      A Political Ecology of the Orang Rimba's Struggle and Existence in Jambi, Indonesia

      Aditya Dipta Anindita, Arya Hadi Dharmawan, Soeryo Adiwibowo, Didik Suharjito
      Since the 1970s, forest conversion in the name of development has encroached upon the living spaces of the Orang Rimba, a forest-dwelling indigenous group in Jambi Province, Indonesia. Some of the forest areas, which serve as the cultural and livelihood foundation for this hunter-gatherer community, have been transformed into transmigrant settlements and oil palm plantations, while the remaining forests were designated as a National Park in 2000. Although they still have access to the national park, many Orang Rimba have built their livelihoods among the oil palm trees—not as owners or workers, but believing that these lands are their ancestral hunting grounds. This study explores the lives of the Orang Rimba in their hunting and foraging spaces (hutan tano), which have been gradually transformed through a series of development interventions, including transmigration programs, oil palm expansion, and conservation. It examines how this indigenous community negotiates their socio-cultural survival in response to these overlapping pressures. Ethnographic methods were employed to provide comprehensive insights into how the Orang Rimba experience, interpret, and respond to social and ecological transformations. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, the study reveals the strategies they use to sustain their way of life by mobilizing hereditary knowledge as hunters and gatherers, maintaining cultural identity, and negotiating their place within evolving and contested landscapes. The findings highlight the complex interplay between environmental dispossession, cultural resilience, and everyday strategies to negotiate with oil palm economies and conservation regimes—offering critical insights into the lived experiences of indigenous communities confronting the encroachment of industrial agriculture.
    • Original Research Article28 May 2026

      Patron-Client Relationship Undermines Sustainable Fishery Governance: A Case of Small-Scale Fishing Certification in Sulawesi, Indonesia

      Desiree Simandjuntak
      One of the ways market-based fishery governance attempts to boost sustainable fishing is through economic incentive. Offered as an above-market price to producers, it is commonly practiced in seafood certification to encourage sustainable and equitable production. However, certification is mainly inaccessible to small-scale fishers who are typically tied to pre-existing patron-client relationship, particularly those from developing economies. This study analyzes the extent to which economic incentive can benefit small-scale fishers amidst the intricate power imbalance in producer community. Based on a ten-month ethnography study in Sulawesi, Indonesia, it finds that prevalent patronage impedes participating fishers' income as it is affected by the amount and promptness of payment. Additionally, being in FTCFS stigmatizes participating fishers who trade outside its supply chain as `cheaters' because it is seen as a form of disloyalty to FTCFS. Accordingly, it delegitimizes alternative source of income, even when it is so desperately needed to survive. These findings suggest that market-based fishery governance overlooks local labor and social relations, thereby reshaping and reinforcing inequality. This study points to the need for a more nuanced understanding of the complex everyday lived experiences of small-scale fishers if we are to achieve sustainable fishery governance.
    • Original Research Article25 May 2026

      “Big River People”: Human-Nature Interactions in the Mekong and Columbia River Basins

      Andrew M. Stone
      The Mekong and Columbia Rivers are a world apart. Yet rivers instantiate and manifest critical ecological relations. This paper draws on qualitative interviews, community dialogues, historical documents, and ceremony-based encounters to examine political practices among "big river people'' in the Mekong and Columbia River basins. It interprets participants' narratives and actions as expressions of ontological politics, i.e., contestation of imposed realities and lifeways. Participants link environmental degradation to violations of relational ethics. Across both study groups, elders and knowledge holders describe ecological and cultural loss as forms of ongoing violence enacted through hydropower development, displacement, and resulting erasure of ways of knowing and being. Their testimonies also demonstrate ongoing peace actions: a process of regeneration and reclaiming agency rooted in continuity of spiritual practice, intergenerational teaching, and empathetic recognition of shared river kinship. They assert that effective governance must begin with relational understanding of human-Nature interactions rather than bureaucratic consultation. Cross-basin analysis identifies parallels in research participants' loss, perseverance, situating empathy as a political methodology grounded in reciprocal and co-constitutive human-Nature relations, and development of collaborative networks. River peoples' ontological political work simultaneously points to improved adaptive river governance practices, and their deep ontological contestation of a governance frame of human-Nature relations. Analysis shows how spirituality, ceremony, and a relational frame operate as modes of knowledge production and relational repair that also bridge trans-local struggles for justice.
    • Original Research Article25 May 2026

      Territorializing Restoration: The Exclusion of Indigenous Agroforestry in Indonesia

      Siswandi Siswandi, Micah R. Fisher, Nurhady Sirimorok, Muhammad Alif K. Sahide
      For decades, formal forest restoration initiatives in Indonesia have largely been driven by the state, companies, international donors, and NGOs. Meanwhile, despite widespread state and plantation enclosures Indigenous Dayak groups have been regenerating lands through swidden and turning them into fruit-based agroforestry for generations. Across Indonesia, traditional practices are largely excluded from the national and international restoration agenda. This paper examines forest restoration through the lens of Indigenous agroforestry, specifically through the transformations unfolding in shifting cultivation practices among the Dayak Ga'ai in Long Buang village, Bulungan District, North Kalimantan. Through a political ecology lens, the study examines the main drivers of deforestation alongside the obstacles of integration of Indigenous restoration practices. The fieldwork involved participant observation and interviews with various members of the local community. The findings reveal how local knowledge and practices can and do successfully enact forest restoration in subtle and overlooked ways, while also providing subsistence and income, as well as helping to maintain traditional land ownership and relationships to the land. However, the expansion of market-oriented oil palm plantation and state territorialization cannot be understated, which has expanded through the designation of state forests, and which continue to impact agroforestry practices. In situating our approach around the processes of territorializing forestry, the analysis shows the importance of integrating local (Indigenous land tenure and knowledge) with land reform policies at the national level aimed at solving land tenure conflicts. Only in doing so, can any reform initiative hope to support equity through rights recognition and achieve more lasting forest restoration that has become a growing international priority.
    • Original Research Article25 May 2026

      Debating Narratives on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining: Jambi and Bangka Belitung Islands Provinces in Comparison

      M. Yusuf, Moh. Arief Rakhman, Michael Lega, Citra Darminto, Riri Maria Fatriani
      Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities are proliferating and portrayed as playing a significant role in the economies and livelihoods of many countries, while also being correlated with environmental degradation and social issues. The existence of this mining, especially illegal mining conducted by the community, stimulates the emergence of debates among the involved actors to legitimize their arguments and positions, as well as their existence. While the previous discussion featured the contradictions between mining and its impacts, legal aspects, and conflicts, this research reviews the contentious narratives related to ASM in two provinces in Sumatra, Jambi and the Bangka Belitung Islands. By applying comparative analyses, this research specifically explores the narratives produced and reproduced, as well as the effect of legitimacy patterns by the three involved actors. This research reveals shocking facts that miners consistently use economic, historical, and traditional reasons as a right to life. On the one hand, the government and environmentalists share similar narratives on the environment, sustainability, and safety, but in the context of legality, they are contradictory. These three contradictory narrative mainstreams signify that power operates for the actors' existence who do not directly represent individual or collective attitudes, where one moment is contradictory, but another is not. The survival power of sophisticated narratives by various actors works in maintaining power and influencing or changing control. Moreover, the production and reproduction of discourse is a mode of existence in the controversy arena that has similar tendencies in the context of mining.
    • Original Research Article21 May 2026

      A Decade of Coffee Research in Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam (2015–2024): Bibliometric and Thematic Insights for Philippine Coffee Science

      Analiza D. Resurreccion, Christian P. Gopez, Henry Leen A. Magahis, Leslie Anne L. Liwanag, Feorillo A. Demeterio III
      Coffee is a key agricultural commodity in Southeast Asia, with Vietnam and Indonesia ranking among the world's leading producers, while the Philippines faces declining output and fragmented research efforts. This study compares coffee-related research in Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam from 2015 to 2024 to inform strategies for strengthening Philippine coffee science. A mixed-methods scientometric and thematic approach was applied to a corpus of Scopus-indexed journal articles. Descriptive bibliometric indicators were used to examine research productivity, citation visibility, collaboration structures, institutional participation, funding composition, and disciplinary coverage. Longitudinal patterns in selected indicators were assessed using non-parametric trend analysis (Kendall's τ and Sen's slope), appropriate for short, time-ordered bibliometric series. AI-assisted thematic mapping, combined with manual verification, was employed to trace the evolution of research themes based on titles, abstracts, and keywords. The results reveal clear differences among the three national research systems. Indonesia and Vietnam demonstrate higher per-capita research output, broader international collaboration networks, wider institutional participation, and more diverse funding landscapes than the Philippines. Corporate collaboration is negligible across all three countries. Thematic analysis shows a regional shift from production- and quality-focused research toward traceability, sustainability, climate-smart practices, and digital technologies, with Vietnam exhibiting the strongest integration of advanced tools such as AI and blockchain. Philippine coffee research shows relatively greater emphasis on socio-economic, livelihood, and community-oriented themes but has more limited engagement in engineering, environmental systems, and processing-related research domains. Overall, the findings highlight structural and thematic features shaping the international visibility and positioning of Philippine coffee research relative to its regional peers. By providing the first systematic comparative mapping of coffee research across Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, this study demonstrates the value of regional scientometric comparison for generating diagnostic insights into sector-specific research systems.
    • Original Research Article21 May 2026

      Gender, Customs, and Oil Palm: Reframing Iban Women's Roles in Sarawak's Changing Forest Landscape

      Lucy Sebli, Caroline Eve Gembar, Dexter Sigan John, Claudia Jiton, Dick Lembang Dugun
      The expansion of the oil palm industry significantly shapes gender roles within Iban society, revealing a complex interplay between tradition and modernity. Contemporary research underscores the fundamentally egalitarian nature of Iban society, a crucial context for understanding evolving gender relations. While Iban women primarily manage domestic responsibilities, this occurs within a framework promoting equality, where all individuals are valued and afforded equal rights and opportunities. In subsistence farming, men often support heavier tasks, highlighting a collaborative approach to gender roles. However, the increasing complexity and stratification of the gendered division of labour, particularly exacerbated by oil palm cultivation, introduces new dynamics. These changes directly influence women's roles in this evolving landscape. Despite existing literature on women's contributions to traditional paddy cultivation and their involvement in oil palm work, the conversion of forest to agricultural land profoundly affects gender relations and labour divisions in Iban communities. This raises critical questions about women's access to and control over land resources, their participation in economic decision-making, and their leadership roles. Furthermore, the intersection of indigenous customary practices with contemporary agricultural systems presents unique opportunities to explore women's agency within capitalist agrarian transformation. Yet, this area remains largely under-examined. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the evolving gender roles, division of labour, and resilience of Iban women within the oil palm economy, challenging Western patriarchal-capitalist assumptions. The discussion is structured around three key phases: the subsistence, commercialization, and commoditization phases, using narratives from Iban women smallholders and leaders to illustrate these transitions.
    • Original Research Article21 May 2026

      An Integrated Value Chain Analysis of Large Cardmom (Amomum Subulatum Roxb): A Case of Bhutan

      Laxmi Chetri, Muneer Ahmad Magry
      This study explores the value chain of large cardamom in Tsirang, Bhutan, through a field survey of 260 households engaged in cardamom farming, using a semi-structured questionnaire. The findings reveal a relatively simple value chain: upstream actors include both male and female farmers who cultivate, harvest, and dry the cardamom, while downstream actors are primarily male local and regional traders who purchase, transport, store, and export the product. Women are largely confined to upstream roles, with limited or no participation in downstream activities. The relationship between farmers and traders is predominantly transactional, lacking formal contracts or advance financing. A cost-benefit analysis shows that producers earn lower net profits per kilogram (average selling price: INR 1,209.82/USD 14.41), whereas local and regional traders gain significantly higher margins (average selling prices: INR 1,742/USD 20.75 and INR 1,900/USD 22.63, respectively). Despite these disparities, income from cardamom plays a crucial role in enhancing various aspects of sustainable livelihoods and contributes meaningfully to the achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals. However, farmers face persistent challenges, including price instability, insufficient training, and pest and disease outbreaks, all of which undermine their income potential. Key recommendations to optimize and sustain the value chain include: capacity building for farmers, increased awareness and training on pest management, village-level infrastructure development, price stabilization mechanisms, and policy frameworks aimed at ensuring long-term income security for cardamom producers.
    • Original Research Article19 May 2026

      Indonesia Spatial Planning Criteria Promotes 70% Terrestrial Protected Areas in Papua

      Devi Manuhua, San Afri Awang, Wahyu Wardhana, Lies R. W. Faida
      Papua is renowned as a world-class tropical wilderness, rich in both floristic and linguistic diversity. Proactive efforts to protect this region have been implemented by Indonesian government through a land allocation policy designating at least 70% of the area as protected. However, the extent to which protected areas (PA) criteria are implemented at a spatial scale remains very limited. Therefore, this study aims to link multi-criteria PA policies with Papua's landscape conditions, focusing on land allocation for the expansion of terrestrial PA at a spatial scale. Geographic information system (GIS)-multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method played a crucial role in analyzing PA according to various criteria, including subordinate, water-based protected, conservation, geological protected, disaster-prone, cultural heritage, and mangrove areas. The results of the first procedure identified 3,683 small islands with a total PA of approximately 1% of Papua's total 41 Mha. The second procedure was applied to six large islands, resulting in the allocation of 66% for PA and 10% for buffer zone. The priority of PA was, first, to safeguard endemic species in the most dense and remote small island complexes. Second, to conserve species richness in western New Guinea and the surrounding large islands, including karst areas on Biak-Supiori, Misool, and Waigeo Islands; earthquake-prone areas on Yapen Island; and water catchment areas on Dolak Island. Land allocation for the expansion of PA was successfully formulated comprehensively based on a new framework. The maps in this study enabled the identification of ``hotspots'' valuable in protecting Papua's remaining wilderness.
    • Original Research Article19 May 2026

      Environmental Impact and Environmental Justice of Oil Palm: A Discourse Analysis on Social Media in Indonesia

      Rijal Ramdani, Obed Asamoah, Eloy Sinai Leriand
      Drawing upon the environmental impacts of oil palm and environmental justice frameworks, this study critically analyses what issues associated with the negative image of oil palm on social media, particularly Twitter (currently X) and Facebook addressed by Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and research institutes in Indonesia. We applied the discourse analysis method, and we mined the data from seven Twitter and Facebook accounts, namely 1) WWF Indonesia, 2) Sawit Watch, 3) Yayasan Fortasbi, 4) Greenpeace Indonesia, 5) AMAN, 6) WALHI and 7) CIFOR representing the right-based NGOs, environmental justice NGOs, and research institute in Indonesia. The research shows that the environmental justice NGOs plays a dominant role in addressing negative image of oil palm, with different social media platforms emphasizing distinct issues. On Twitter, the focus is on deforestation and biodiversity loss, while on Facebook, forest fires are the main concern. In terms of environmental justice, the justice NGOs emphasize recognitional and distributional justices, while rights-based NGOs and research institutes focus on representational justice. The justice NGOs claims that oil palm expansion involves regulatory violations and land grabbing. Right-based NGOs highlight labour exploitation while research institutes stress the undervalued role of women in plantations, who often work in poor conditions.
    • Original Research Article19 May 2026

      Transforming Power: The Adaptation of Customary Authorities in Aceh's Forest Governance

      Ikhwan Rahmatika Latif, Akmal Saputra, Masrizal Masrizal, Nodi Marefanda, Herdin Arie Saputra
      This article examines the transformation of customary authority in forest governance in Aceh, Indonesia, moving beyond the conventional narrative of decline toward a more nuanced view of power as relational and negotiated. Utilizing the frameworks of political ecology and legal pluralism, the research examines how indigenous institutions adapt to evolving governance structures, spanning from the Sultanate era to centralized state authority and into the post-conflict special autonomy framework. This research employs a qualitative approach, combining literature analysis, legal review, and case-based insights from several regions in Aceh to examine the evolving relationship between customary institutions and forest governance. The findings reveal that while customary authorities have experienced a reduction in formal jurisdiction over forest resources, they have not become powerless. Instead, their authority has been reconfigured through adaptive and resistive strategies embedded in everyday practices, social legitimacy, and cross-scale engagement. In contexts of overlapping legal systems, customary actors maintain influence by negotiating access, aligning with external actors such as NGOs and local governments, and mobilizing cultural narratives that reinforce their moral claims over forest landscapes. These dynamics demonstrate that power in forest governance cannot be understood solely in terms of formal authority or legal recognition. Rather, it emerges through continuous interactions across institutional, social, and ecological domains. This study emphasizes the significance of quotidian politics and local agency, thereby facilitating a redefinition of power as negotiated influence—dynamic, context-sensitive, and relational. Ultimately, the Aceh case illustrates that the transformation of customary authority represents not a process of marginalization, but an adaptive reconfiguration of power that remains central to sustainable and inclusive forest governance.
    • Original Research Article13 May 2026

      Commercialization of Conservation Areas: Mapping the Key Policy-Governance Issues in the Current Scholarship and Outlining a Future Research Agenda

      Danis Syahroni, Ni Nyoman Bintarin Milenia, Much Taufik Tri Hermawan, Micah R. Fisher, Ahmad Maryudi
      The global expansion of area-based conservation has been accompanied by an upward trend in its commercialization, but research on this phenomenon remains fragmented and lacks a comprehensive analysis of its development. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis on 275 journal articles published between 1996 and 2024. Analysis identifies four foundational clusters in early scholarship, namely: ecotourism development; complex linkages between tourism and livelihood; neoliberal conservation and power relations; and, payment for ecosystem services (PES). The current research landscape, we identify, reveals a broader set of six policy/ governance-related thematic clusters, as follows: sustainable tourism and meaningful participation; tourism for poverty alleviation; dilemmas in the tangible contributions of tourism; resource control and power asymmetries; equity and efficiency in PES schemes; and, governance shifts of marine conservation areas. The findings demonstrate a shift from broad conceptual debates to applied and context-specific analyses, with Asia and Africa emerging as the most intensively examined regions. This review found several underexplored themes that could shape scientific inquiry in the future. They include gender, youth, and international market mechanisms (e.g., from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and biodiversity credits), including challenges related to governance of marine conservation. By tracing intellectual trajectories, this review provides a comprehensive framework for guiding future study into the sustainability of conservation areas.
    • Original Research Article12 May 2026

      Political Will in Decentralized Forest Governance: Developing a Typological-Relational Model from the Formalization of Customary Forests in Indonesia

      Antonius Mulyadi, Yeremias Keban, Hakimul Ikhwan, Ahmad Maryudi
      Political will is widely recognized as a decisive determinant of policy reform; however, its relational and institutional dynamics in decentralized governance remain insufficiently understood. This study examines how political will is generated, sustained, and operationalized in the recognition of customary forests (hutan adat) in Indonesia, focusing on the interaction between institutional configurations, actor networks, and advocacy coalitions. The research is anchored in an integrated typological-relational framework that combines Brinkerhoff's four dimensions of political will (initiative, alignment, commitment, and policy solution) with core mechanisms of the Advocacy Coalition Framework. An embedded comparative case study design was applied to two West Kalimantan districts with divergent governance trajectories: Sanggau and Mempawah. This study investigates how structural processes (such as regulatory instruments, coordination platforms, and bureaucratic capacity) intersect with relational processes (including actor alignment, coalition coherence, and institutional trust) to shape distinct political will configurations. Analysis identifies four ideal-type configurations-transformative-progressive, adaptive-tactical, ambiguous-reactive, and stagnant-resistant serve as diagnostic categories for assessing governance performance and designing context-sensitive interventions. Sanggau exemplifies a transformative-progressive configuration, characterized by inclusive coproduction, cohesive advocacy coalitions, and adaptive learning embedded in legal and administrative systems. In contrast, Mempawah represents a stagnant-resistant configuration, marked by bureaucratic inertia, fragmented coalitions, and persistent institutional mistrust. From these findings, three strategic imperatives emerge for practical governance: (1) institutionalize strategic alignment through shared-goal platforms; (2) build institutional trust via inclusive and transparent processes; and (3) embed adaptive learning through iterative, feedback-driven implementation. While grounded in Indonesia's decentralized forest governance context, the framework offers broader applicability for other domains, including climate adaptation, Indigenous rights recognition, and agrarian reform.
    • Original Research Article1 January 2026

      Umbilical Cord Connections: Ban Huay E Kang Women's Ecological Knowledge Transmission and Mobilization

      Areerat Worawongwasu, Yuting Zhou, Phyo Su San
      In the Pga K’nyau village of Ban Huay E Kang in the Chiang Mai province of northern Thailand, a newborn's umbilical cord is placed inside a bamboo container and hung from a tree. This is a sacred act of establishing a lifelong connection between each villager and the forest. The practice is known in the Pga K’nyau language as de paw thoo. This tradition has faced significant disruption from state-led conservation policies and the institutionalization of childbirth in state hospitals, which Ban Huay E Kang villagers contest through their revitalization of de paw thoo. Based on collaborative ethnographic research, we examine how spiritual, ecological, and cultural relationships structure Pga K’nyau epistemologies. In this research project, we ask: how is knowledge of de paw thoo transmitted and mobilized by women in Ban Huay E Kang to access resources? This paper argues that Pga K’nyau women in Ban Huay E Kang strategically transmit and mobilize de paw thoo as evidence of their long-standing relationship with the forest, to contest state territorialization, resist extractive state policies, and assert cultural belonging. We argue that de paw thoo functions not solely as cultural memory but as a dynamic tool for ecological governance that contests state territorialization and resists extractive policies. Drawing on feminist political ecology, the project investigates the tensions and innovations within these practices of intergenerational ecological knowledge transmission. This paper contributes to emerging scholarship on how gender, cosmology, and environment intersect in the making and remaking of Indigenous knowledge in upland Southeast Asia. De paw thoo serves as a lifeline of knowledge and a strategic political claim that secures the community’s reciprocal relationship with their ancestral land.
    • Original Research Article1 January 2026

      Elephant Economics and Agrarian Transitions: Conditions for Benefiting From Elephant Tourism Market in an Upland Karen (Paganyaw) Village

      Xiaoyun Neo, Aswin Baharuddin, Nur Fadilah Sunardi
      In rural, upland northern Thailand, Indigenous Karen (Paganyaw) communities have long practiced diversified subsistence cultivation and forest-based livelihoods. Yet state conservation policies and tourism-led development are reshaping these agrarian systems and livelihoods. This paper explores how one Karen (Paganyaw) community in Chiang Mai province reconfigures its livelihood strategies amid the decline of swidden cultivation and the rise of elephant tourism as a new rural economy. Beyond subsistence cultivation, villagers are seeking to diversify their households and personal income by participating in this new economic sector. We argue that the transition out of small-scale agriculture into tourism is not a neutral market choice but responds to the same political-economic pressures that have historically displaced swidden systems. Drawing on 32 qualitative interviews, this ethnographic research examines diverse forms of Indigenous involvement in the elephant tourism supply chain crucially determined by non-capitalist social relations and kinship networks.  By identifying the socio-economic conditions – land and capital ownership, and familial and social networks – that result in socially-differentiated and stratified allocation of benefits from elephant tourism, it disenchants the notion of a monolithic ‘community’ yet reveals one empirical case of how Indigenous peoples navigate shifting economies and sustain meaning in their livelihood.
    • Original Research Article1 January 2026

      The Unequal Partnership Behind Biodiversity Conservation Efforts in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

      Alexandra Rasoamanana, Eliezer Majambu, Dominique Bikaba, Symphorien Ongolo, Emilie Dupuits
      The growing demand for inclusivity in conservation has led international conservation organisations (ICOs) to collaborate more with local conservation organisations (LCOs). This paper assesses such partnerships through a community-led initiative establishing a wildlife corridor between Maiko and Kahuzi-Biega National Parks. In this region, resource conflicts are often cited as a political justification for recurring conservation failures. However, this framing overlooks crucial questions about how fairness and sustainability in conservation are constructed in practice, particularly within contested forestlands where multiple groups claim legitimacy over ownership. We analyse the structural conditions that enable or constrain the formation of authentic partnerships. Such partnerships are characterised by equitable negotiation, shared goals, and reciprocal processes, all designed to enhance local autonomy and achieve fair, equitable, and long-term conservation outcomes. Using document reviews, fieldwork, and interviews, our study finds that although conservation areas are legally designated, LCOs primarily act as service providers, implementing ICO-led projects. ICO support is often short-term and project-based, prioritising the legal recognition of conservation areas to meet global expansion targets, but lacking sustained financial commitment. Unclear exit strategies further undermine LCO autonomy, fostering dependency rather than empowerment. Drawing on Scott's patron-client theory, we argue that ICOs, as patrons, shape outcomes to align with their own interests, while LCOs, as clients, adapt strategies to maximise available benefits. This reciprocal dynamic perpetuates inefficiency and reinforces deep-rooted power imbalances. Our findings highlight that securing long-term conservation success requires transforming the structural conditions that inhibit authentic partnerships, placing far greater emphasis on empowering local actors.
    • Original Research Article1 January 2026

      The Disenchanted Grove: Postcolonial Modernity and the Decline of Ri’i Bamboo Governance in Flores, Indonesia

      Handoyo Handoyo, Puji Hastuti, Lukas Rumboko Wibowo, Budiyanto Dwi Prasetyo, Surati Surati, Kresno Agus Hendarto, Lila Juniyanti, Dewi Ratna Kurnia Sari, Desmiwati Desmiwati, Sanusi Sanusi, Ane Dwi Septina, Ramawati Ramawati
      This article explores the erosion of ri’i, a traditional ecological governance system practiced by the Ngadha people in Flores, Indonesia, in the face of modernization and postcolonial development. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with cultural elders, ritual practitioners, and local authorities, the study documents how ri’i—a ritual-based regulatory system for bamboo resource management—has been progressively dismantled through the combined pressures of technocratic governance, land commodification, and shifts toward individualism. Empirically, the main drivers identified are state land certification (including Sertifikat Hak Milik, SHM) and village modernization campaigns, which reconfigure communal tenure and everyday governance practices. Once embedded in sacred cosmologies and collective decision-making, ri’i rituals are now rarely practiced and are increasingly treated as incompatible with contemporary development paradigms. Drawing on political ecology and postcolonial theory, the study analyzes how land certification and settlement reorganization render customary relations legible to administrative and market logics, fragmenting nua and sa’o stewardship and weakening sanction regimes that once made restraint socially binding. The findings show that disenchantment is not merely a top-down imposition but also a result of negotiations, ambivalences, and internal tensions within the community. The article further examines how technical sustainability interventions—particularly the Hutan Bambu Lestari (HBL) model developed by Yayasan Bambu Lestari (YBL)—can function as partial substitutes: they support harvest scheduling and monitoring through administrative markers, yet do not automatically rebuild the moral and relational authority through which ri’i historically governed extraction. By foregrounding local narratives and governance practices, this article calls for recognizing ri’i as a legitimate and culturally rooted form of ecological governance and proposes policy responses that move beyond generic “hybrid models” toward actionable measures that repair communal tenure authority, deliberative practice, and sanction legitimacy.

Most Popular Articles

  • Journal Article
    1 July 2020

    An annotated bird checklist for Gam island, Raja Ampat, including field notes on species monitoring and conservation

    Julian Schrader, Christoph Parsch, Soetjipto Moeljono, John D Kalor, Tim Hofmann, Christoph Weinrich, Fabian Mühlberger, Christina Stinn, Michael Mühlenberg, Cornelia Sattler
    Species checklists are a fundamental component of biodiversity research. They foster understanding of species distributions and habitat preferences, thus reducing gaps of knowledge in geographical occurrences of species. Especially in light of the limited availability of data on species distributions for Tanah Papua, an increasing scientific focus on the region is crucial to foster and refine the knowledge of species occurrences and to inform potential conservation planning. Despite a strong focus on conservation of Raja Ampat´s marine areas, surprisingly few studies have focused on the terrestrial biodiversity of the archipelago. As a consequence, detailed species checklists are largely missing. Here, we provide a preliminary bird species checklist for the island of Gam and its surrounding islands, located in the central Raja Ampat archipelago. During nine sampling periods between 2013 and 2019, we recorded 132 bird species in six distinct habitat types. Of the detected species, six are considered threatened by IUCN Red List criteria. We further recorded three new species for Gam Island, thereby expanding their known extent of occurrence.
    Read More
  • Journal Article
    3 January 2025

    The Illegal Online Trade of Indonesian Protected Pitcher Plants

    Uswatun Hasanah, Retno Utami, Yatha Maziyyatul Hijriyah, Eni Nuraeni, Dwi Hilda Putri, Syahrul Kurniawan, Iyan Robiansyah
    Indonesia is a global hotspot of pitcher plant diversity with 80 Nepenthes species recorded to date - 59 protected under Indonesian law - and more species likely to be discovered and described in the future. Under Indonesian law, these protected Nepenthes can only be traded if they originate from artificially propagated sources, and trade necessitates specific permits and government-issued certification. The present study aimed to evaluate the trade of Nepenthes species protected by Indonesian law in Indonesian-language online markets. The trade data was searched in March 2024 in the top five most visited e-commerce in Indonesia, i.e., Shopee, Tokopedia, Lazada, Blibli, and Bukalapak. We discovered that 37 Nepenthes species (29 endemic to Indonesia; 14 species globally threatened) under protection in Indonesia were sold online, with 501 advertisements from 296 sellers. The majority (89.2%) of these sellers operated from Java Island. Our research documented the sale of 2,552 Nepenthes plants, totaling IDR 56,660,000 (USD $3,480). Additionally, sellers reported having 536,757 plants in stock, potentially worth over IDR 92 billion (USD $5,664,000). None of the sellers had permits for the Nepenthes they sold, indicating that they sold them illegally. Therefore, despite being designated as protected species in name, they lack effective protection in practice. The number of traded Nepenthes recorded in our study was higher than that reported by CITES (157 plants) over a 49-year period. Among the traded species, N. clipeata and N. sumatrana are two Critically Endangered species in the top 10 most advertised. These findings could aid the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry in identifying key players and regions involved in the trade, as well as assist conservationists and policymakers in determining which species need strong protection measures.
    Read More
  • Journal Article
    10 July 2025

    The Role of Ecosystem Services in Holistic Conservation within Protected Areas: A Case Study of the Song Thanh National Park, Vietnam

    Tuyen Nghiem, Sumeet Saksena, Hue T. Ha, Truong Dao, Toan Le, Huong D. Vu, Dien Nguyen, Truong Q. Hoc
    Vietnam has made a strong commitment to biodiversity conservation, as evidenced by its extensive network of protected areas. However, environmental issues persist in protected areas. Often, the resulting violence complicates the situation, making it more challenging to analyze and manage. We studied the perceptions of people in the buffer zone of the Song Thanh National Park, Quang Nam province, regarding the current status of ecosystem services (ES), the importance of ecosystem services, their changes over time, and people's participation in protecting ecosystem services. We employed a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data. We conducted semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and household surveys. We found that local communities were aware of the current status of ecosystem services they used and the importance of prominent selected services, such as swidden agriculture and water resources, in their lives. The study also showed how people perceived the improvement of regulatory services since the establishment of the national park, while the extraction of forest ecosystem services led to legal violations. People's dependence on the provisioning services provided by protected areas often leads to environmental conflicts in their management. This study provides strong evidence that conservation is essential; however, an ES approach is needed to manage protected areas effectively to meet conservation objectives.
    Read More
  • Journal Article
    3 January 2025

    Historical Land Use and Land Cover Change of the Lake Tempe Region: A Multi-source Data Landscape Reconstruction

    Syahruddin Mansyur, Nur Ihsan Djindar, Wasita Wasita, Imam Hindarto, Nani Somba, Hasrianti Hasrianti, Moh. Ali Fadillah, Hamka Naping, Sofyan Setia Budi
    Lake Tempe, situated in the Wajo Regency, is an ancient lake in Indonesia that plays a crucial role in the socio-historical evolution of Southern Sulawesi. The Lontara manuscript, a significant source of regional history, highlights Lake Tempe as a vital resource for adjacent communities. Contemporary narratives of Lake Tempe, however, are overshadowed by recurrent flooding attributed to accelerated sedimentation leading to lake shallowing, which impedes its capacity to manage the inflow from tributary rivers. This study aims to offer a historical perspective by reconstructing the landscape and detailing the evolution of land use and land cover (LU/LC) in the Lake Tempe region, thus enhancing our understanding of the lake's current conditions. We compiled an array of historical and archaeological data, including manuscripts, archival maps, and satellite imagery, spanning the 13th to 20th centuries. Our approach involves historical LU/LC modeling to provide an intricate depiction of the landscape evolution in the Lake Tempe area. Moreover, we presented modeled projections of LU/LC alterations over approximately 86 years (1930-2016). The analysis reveals that pre-20th century landscape dynamics in the region were influenced by several factors: demographic shifts due to local migration, interplay among local elites over natural resource control, and integration into global trade networks from the 13th century onwards. These elements collectively spurred deforestation during periods of agricultural expansion. Starting in the early 20th century, the agricultural development policies of both the Dutch Colonial and the Republic of Indonesia's governments further accelerated land conversion for distinct agricultural purposes. This historical narrative underscores the fact that centuries of anthropogenic activity have been central to the hydrometeorological challenges faced throughout the Lake Tempe region.
    Read More
  • Journal Article
    9 January 2023

    Estimation and Mapping Above-Ground Mangrove Carbon Stock Using Sentinel-2 Data Derived Vegetation Indices in Benoa Bay of Bali Province, Indonesia

    A. A. Md. Ananda Putra Suardana, Nanin Anggraini, Muhammad Rizki Nandika, Kholifatul Aziz, Abd. Rahman As-syakur, Azura Ulfa, Agung Dwi Wijaya, Wiji Prasetio, Gathot Winarso, Ratih Dewanti
    Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the greenhouse gases that causes global warming with the highest concentration in the atmosphere. Mangrove forests can absorb CO2 three times higher than terrestrial forests and tropical rainforests. Moreover, mangrove forests can be a source of Indonesian income in the form of a blue economy, therefore an accurate method is needed to investigates mangrove carbon stock. Utilization of remote sensing data with the results of the above-ground carbon (AGC) detection model of mangrove forests based on multispectral imaging and vegetation index, can be a solution to get fast, cheap, and accurate information related to AGC estimation. This study aimed to investigates the best model for estimating the AGC of mangroves using Sentinel-2 imagery in Benoa Bay, Bali Province. The random forest (RF) method was used to classified the difference between mangrove and non-mangrove with the treatment of several parameters. Furthermore, a semi-empirical approach was used to assessed and map the AGC of mangroves. Allometric equations were used to calculated and produced AGC per species. Moreover, the model was built with linear regression equations for one variable x, and multiple regression equations for more than one x variable. Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was used to assess the validation of the model results. The results of the mangrove forests area detected in the research location around 1134.92 ha, with an Overall Accuracy (OA) of 0.984 and a kappa coefficient of 0.961. This study highlights that the best model was the combination of IRECI and TRVI vegetation indices (RMSE: 11.09 Mg/ha) for a model based on red edge bands. Meanwhile, the best results from the model that does not use the red edge band were the combination of TRVI and DVI vegetation indices (RMSE: 13.63 Mg/ha). The use of red edge and NIR bands is highly recommended in building the AGC model of mangrove forests because they can increase the accuracy value. Thus, the results of this study are highly recommended in estimating the AGC of mangrove forests, because it has been proven to be able to increase the accuracy value of previous studies using optical images.
    Read More
  • Journal Article
    25 June 2019

    Traditional usage of medicinal plants by Temiar tribes in the State of Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia

    Pakhriazad Hassan Zaki, Seca Gandaseca, Noorhayati Mohd Rashidi, Mohd Hasmadi Ismail
    Traditional medicine has deep historical linkages and cultural roots. In a rural community, it is practice based on the ethnological, medical and heritage of the practitioners. Temiar indigenous tribe of Orang Asli in Kelantan, have their traditional way of beliefs and healing practices. This study examines the remedies using medicinal plants and herbs among the tribe members in Kampung Pasik, Kelantan, Malaysia. A structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews were conducted with 250 respondents. A total of 18 species of medicinal plants was recorded preferably used by the tribes. Results indicate that traditional phytoremedies practices play an important role in helping their healthcare system with the help of the tribe healers. Cultivated medicinal plant species represent 94% of the source, whereas 4.4% were found wild in the forest and 1.6% grown around their settlement. This study revealed that five preparations methods such as boiling (27.56%), pounded (27.45%), squeeze (21.60%), drying (14.17%) or concoction of various part of medicinal plants (9.22%). The most applied were by drinking (35.29%), chewing (32.70%) and 19.89% rubbing, poultice (6.40%) and shower ingredients (5.72%).
    Read More

Readership Activity