In tropical countries with rapid deforestation, it is widely expected that wood supplies should increasingly come from planted forest rather than from logging in natural forests. However, there have been few successes stories in establishing industrial plantations in tropical forest rich Asian countries, including in Indonesia, to meet the growing need for more sustainable wood supply from plantations (FAO 2001:37, Barr 2001). Obstacles remain, the significant challenges are political and social rather than technical and silviculture (Morrison and Bass 1992, Anonymous 2000, 2001). Zince the era of ‘Pulping the Zouth’ (Carrere and Lohmann 1996), which mainly represented NGO views on...

Private involvement in partnerships to establish timber plantations was initially endorsed under the government’s program of Farm Forestry Credit Schemes (declared by the Ministry of Forestry, MoF Decree) in 1997, in which the community as a group is eligible to receive credit through the company partner (Figure 2.1). Other programs focusing on joint initiatives for developing forestry plantations include HTI-trans (between forest concession holders and transmigration participants), and Perum Perhutani (a state company with the major responsibility for managing teak plantations in Java) initiatives in community forestry. This policy was intended to increase the viability of small-scale forestry plantations (farm...

The designs of the different company-community partnership schemes were closely related to the motivation behind the initiatives, the target groups of potential partnerships, land tenure arrangements, and how familiar the company was with the appropriate approaches to accommodating potential partners’ needs and concerns in defining the entitlements as part of the contractual agreements. The following process generally applies for all company schemes: clarifying land status and/or user rights, socialisation by the company, setting-up institutional arrangements including organising tree-growers’ representatives and defining rights and responsibilities in the contractual agreement.

The socialisation process was ‘the main entrance door’ for the companies to...

This chapter discusses the viability of the three the case studies as mutually beneficial partnerships. The analysis aimed to review the on-going company initiatives by taking into account perspectives of tree-growers, company staff, both at the managerial and field levels and local governments, so improvements could be directed and utilised as inputs for those who would like to initiate partnerships. The commercial feasibility of the partnership schemes was assessed by estimating potential benefits coming from wood produced, financial Net Present Values from company perspectives and shared revenues received by the companies and tree-growers. Further, challenges and obstacles to ensuring long-term...

The biggest challenges in establishing timber plantations in Indonesia have originated in social aspects, specifically in dealing with people living inside concessions and in the areas surrounding the plantations. Partnerships have provided opportunities for the companies to accommodate socio-cultural aspects of the local communities. For the time being, in the short-term, companies would not gain economic benefits from the amount of wood produced under partnerships, but more by sharing the risks (and benefits) with local communities in establishing timber plantations. However, the challenges are quite complex and the long-term viability of partnerships depends on a continuing and dynamic process.

It...