Progress towards Recognising the Rights and Management Potentials of Local Communities in Indonesian State-defined Forest Areas

This chapter reviews current governmental and non-governmental efforts in Indonesia to increase land security and the positive role local people officially play in the management of natural resources inside the 70 per cent of Indonesia defined by the government as a State Forest Zone. It presents a broad-brush description of the dichotomy between local natural resource management systems and the government regulatory framework that favours industrial forestry management. It also describes the characteristics of some of the many indigenous agroforestry systems found in Indonesia and details a successful effort to gain formal government incorporation of one these systems into the state regulatory framework.