West Kalimantan is the fourth largest province in Indonesia, covering 146,807 square kilometers (km²) (7.53% of the area of Indonesia). When first formed in 1956, this province consisted of six districts (Pontianak, Sambas, Sanggau, Ketapang, Sintang, Kapuas Hulu) and one municipality (the city of Pontianak). In 1999, two new districts were added: Landak (an offshoot from the Pontianak district) and Bengkayang (originally part of Sambas). Mainland West Kalimantan, bordered in the north by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, consists mostly of lowlands with a few hills, while the marine area contains scores of islands. Vegetation types include coastal vegetation, mangroves,...

In a legal and formal sense, level I, or provincial governments (including the government of West Kalimantan) have wide-ranging authority over forestry activities, including the exploitation, sale and distribution of forest products, and the protection of forest resources. This authority is based on Government Regulation No. 64/1957, which mentions ‘the transfer of some forestry matters to level I swatantra⁹ regions’. However, the Basic Forestry Law of 1967 and Government Regulation No. 21/1970¹⁰ revoked part of this authority. While the provincial government did still have some authority, this was generally limited to an auxiliary role. Since 1970, the provincial government of...

There are three groups of stakeholders in forestry and plantation activities in the Ketapang district: government agencies, industry enterprises (private or state-owned) and local communities. Each of these groups has its own role in the context of forestry and plantation activities, reflecting their different interests. These may either co-exist in harmony, or come into conflict with one another.

There are two categories of government agencies with interests in the forestry and plantation sector in the Ketapang district. The first covers the technical (sectoral) agencies that directly administer forestry and plantation activities; while the second includes those agencies that are not...

At the regional level, the focus on decentralisation has been primarily concerned with the transfer of authority from central to provincial and district governments; the issue of authority being transferred from these governments to local communities has not yet been considered. The issue of granting to local communities a degree of autonomy, particularly with respect to the adat communities rights to land and forest resources has received little attention in the discussions relating to decentralisation. The case of the Dayak adat communities in the Ketapang district illustrates local people’s efforts to secure what they see as their rights over land...

Conflicts of interests, diverse in both horizontal and vertical ways, have pervaded across the decentralized forestry and plantation sectors in Ketapang district, and West Kalimantan in general. The local governments and communities risk losing out on the opportunities and benefits of good governance, which calls for proper devolution of authorities as an urgent priority. The previous analysis at the provincial and district level as well as the thematic cases (adat communities, plantations and National Parks) showed indicators of decentralisation on decision making and administration/management of the forestry/plantation sector, which is summarised as follows:

Regional autonomy represents an opportunity for regional...