Daulay, M. H., Soraya, E., & Maryudi, A. The Competitiveness of the Indonesian Furniture Industry in Global Trade: A Comparative Study with Vietnam. Jurnal Ilmu Kehutanan, 16(2), 152-158.
Abstract
Furniture products with significant added value are strategic commodities for the Indonesian economy. Therefore, this research aimed to determine the competitiveness of the Indonesian furniture industry in terms of marketing by making a comparison with Vietnam due to being one of Indonesia’s main competitors in the furniture trade for decades. This research employed a literature study to collect data and an integrated comparative analysis using the 5P mixed market framework of position, product, place, promotion, and price. The results showed that both countries had similar market segments with sensitivity to illegal timber, for example, theUS and EU. Vietnam was exceptional in offering lower prices since the Vietnamese furniture industry gained substantial support from the availability of abundant cheap labor and investment. Meanwhile, Indonesia was eminent in supplying raw materials from production forests, and its furniture industry had reached an augmented products level greater than Vietnam. Both countries have easy access to global shipping. Concerning promotion, Indonesia ought to emulate Vietnam by facilitating the furniture industry to participate in international exhibition activities to expand the furniture market network.
Laraswati, D., Krott, M., Soraya, E., Rahayu, S., Fisher, M. R., Giessen, L., & Maryudi, A. (2022). Nongovernmental organizations as interest groups and their roles in policy processes: Insights from Indonesian forest and environmental governance. Forest and Society, 6(2), 570–589. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v6i2.19125
Abstract
The traditional conceptions and claims of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have profiled NGOs as civil society representatives and as benevolent philanthropic actors of development in the Global South. However, recent phenomena indicate NGOs often acting in opposition to their benevolent claims. This study attempts to move away from the normative concepts of NGOs and develop an analytical framework fitted with the current empirics in environmental governance. Using theories of organized interest groups in a democratic political system, we analyze the extent of NGOs fulfilling their roles as organized interest groups (OIGs), where they should take roles representing the interests of particular groups within societies and exerting political influence on governments on the basis of these common interests. We use empirics from Indonesian forest and environment-related governance, and our framework is called “Representation–Influence Framework,” which assists in establishing more systematic coherent typologies of OIGs. Analyzed from the perspective that NGOs claim to serve as representatives of specific groups within societies, we establish three overarching categories of OIGs, that is, 1) en route to fulfilling the claim, 2) breaking the claim, and 3) opposing the claim. We further detail our framework into a subset of nine OIG typologies. In this way, we provide pathways to begin deconstructing the common simplifications and misunderstandings about NGOs. For empirics, we identified 38 OIGs in the cases of social forestry and timber legality policies and populated them according to the typologies. We found that most of them are en route to fulfilling the claim of representing the groups’ interests, although their political influence on the government is, in most cases, limited.
Maryudi, A., Sahide, M. A. K., Daulay, M. H., Yuniati, D., Syafitri, W., Sadiyo, S., & Fisher, M. R. 2022. Holding social forestry hostage in Indonesia: Contested bureaucracy mandates and potential escape pathways. Environmental Science & Policy, 128, 142-153. 21 doi.org/10.24259/fs.v5i2.11875
Abstract
The government of Indonesia continues to commit to social forestry as one of its cornerstone rural development policies. Social forestry mechanisms aim to grant legal rights/ permits to groups of local communities to manage previously inaccessible state forests, with the dual aims of improving the livelihoods of rural communities and encouraging participation in forest rehabilitation. Explicit policy targets include the allocation of 12.7 million hectares of state forests for local communities through a suite of social forestry project mechanisms. While the number of social forestry licenses have increased markedly over the past few years, current social forestry initiatives still fall short of meeting the ambitious land area targets. More importantly, increasing evidence points to social forestry policy outcomes only partially serving its initial intended promises. This paper helps to explain these partial outcomes and unmet promises from the perspective of social forestry bureaucracy structures and designs. We found that despite the core social forestry bureaucracy undergoing substantial expansion, several other bureaucracies also channeled their interests into the realm of social forestry policy. These other bureaucracies do not necessarily fit within the intended goals of social forestry policy. Indeed, several bureaucracies continue to hold social forestry policy implementation hostage through other forestry mandates, which results in an institutional chokehold on key social forestry interests. These other bureaucracies even introduced models to redirect social forestry initiatives by retrofitting mandates into their own policy priorities. To address these increasing roadblocks to achieving social forestry policy designs, this paper outlines and proposes a more simplified bureaucratic structure to assist in the implementation of a social forestry policy more in line with its intended goals. Specifically, tasks and responsibilities could be transferred to a single bureaucracy that has mechanisms more closely connected to local people, such as those already envisioned and established in the form of forest management units.
Purnomo, M., Maryudi, A., Dedy Andriatmoko, N., Muhamad Jayadi, E., & Faust, H. 2022. The cost of leisure: the political ecology of the commercialization of Indonesia’s protected areas. Environmental Sociology, 8(2), 121-133. doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2021.2001990
Abstract
Using the political ecology approach, we investigated the Indonesian government’s decision to commercialize protected areas (PAs) and promote its tourism sector aggressively, and examined how this commercialization is enabled through various institutions and governing structures. We confirmed that the commercialization of PAs in Indonesia was an alternative accumulation, dealing with the crisis of capitalist accumulation. Our empirical finding showed that the commercialization of PAs in Indonesia had detimental environmental and social impacts, such as deadlocks or monopoly or management, and environmental deterioration. This commercialization pattern was different from accumulation by conservation in other regions, such as Africa, where local people were deprived of their access to the means of production, consequently becoming laborers in the tourism industry. In Indonesia, local people were given access to resources; however, as these resources were of little value, they became laborers in the tourism industry. Further research is needed to test whether different patterns of accumulation by conservation also apply to other types of PAs in Indonesia, such as national parks and customary forests, including various coral reef conservation areas in remote and small Islands used as tourist attractions.
Rodd, M., Fisher, M., Monterroso, I., Liswanti, N., Maryudi, A., Larson, A. M., Mwangi, E., & Herawati, T. (2022). Coordinating forest tenure reform: Objectives, resources and relations in Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, and Uganda. Forest Policy and Economics, 139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2022.102718
Abstract
As forest tenure reform is mainstreamed around the world, outcomes are increasingly determined by the institutions that are responsible for administering its operationalisation and translating policy into implementation. This global study examines state institutional contexts of tenure reform in Kenya, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia, and Peru. Interviews were administered in 2016–2017 using a fixed questionnaire applied across all countries involving 26–32 respondents from state implementers of forest tenure reform in each country for a total of 145 respondents. Although our study engagement was tailored for specific country contexts, we identified generalisable forest tenure reform trends through comparative analysis. Findings situate the overall bridging role that state institutions play in forest tenure reform, which we describe as falling under three key overarching coordination functions, namely: coordination among implementers, coordination of objectives, and coordination of resources. These three categories provide insights not only for gauging the progress of a country’s forest tenure reform, but also for evaluating how robust reforms have been, and where forest tenure reforms are headed in the future.
Widyaningsih, T. S., Darwin, M. M., Pangaribowo, E. H., & Maryudi, A. (2022). Harnessing social innovations and mobilizing networks for improving local livelihoods: cases of two community-managed forests from Indonesia. Forests Trees and Livelihoods, 31(1), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2021.2018668
Abstract
Social forestry was envisioned as a policy innovation to tackle rural poverty. The literature increasingly shows that the goal is rarely achieved. Few mention social forestry improves local livelihoods, but many others point out the limited livelihood options provided to the communities. Recent literature highlights social innovation as a key factor in the success of social forestry. In this paper, we analyze the process by which social forestry permit holders harness social innovation to realize the promise of benefits from the forests. We focus on how they create networks with diverse stakeholders to gain the necessary resources to implement new ideas in utilizing the forests. We further analyze the key factors influencing the development of social innovation. We examine two rare cases from Indonesia where local communities thrived in the face of adversities and were able to turn them into opportunities to produce economic benefits. We identified resilience and adaptability as key internal attributes of the two communities to adapt to socio-ecological changes. Our cases also reveal the importance of building networks with related stakeholders. The success of social innovation is influenced by internal group factors such as persistence, leadership, as well as government policy and technical support.
Wulandari, E., Mardianto, D., Susilastuti, D. H., & Maryudi, A. (2022). Scholarly Interest in Forest Fires in Indonesia: A Bibliographical Review. Forest and Society, 6(2), 609–619. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v6i2.21473
Abstract
Forest fires in Indonesia have attracted much attention among researchers over the past few decades. This paper aims to systematically map the existing corpus of scientific knowledge on forest fires in Indonesia. The systematic maps visualize which areas of significant activity and indicate specific interests and motives. The systematic analysis is also helpful in improving the understanding of current issues, problems, and challenges. From the scientific database of Scopus, we found 209 peer-reviewed journal articles directly related to forest fires in Indonesia published between 1989 and 2021 (July). In general, the number of publications rose after major fire events, notably in 1997/1998. The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-related big fires seem to be the primary driver of more scientific inquiries. The present review shows that although fires occurred throughout the year, they mainly occurred in the dry season, indicating the crucial role of weather even though it is not the direct cause of fire ignition. Our research shows that all types of forest functions in Indonesia have experienced fires, but approximately half of the studied fires occurred in conservation areas. More specifically, previous studies have been more dedicated to secondary forests. The studies generally pointed out that secondary forests are more prone to fires. More than a half of the existing scientific work was looking at human-induced fires, although natural hazards drove that came close. Regarding human-induced drivers, most research was dedicated to the links between fires and the use of fires in land preparation for both small-scale agricultural activities and commercial plantations. The impacts of forest fires have been the most studied topic among scholars on fires in Indonesia. More specifically, the existing research was focused on the ecological/ environmental effects dominated by studies on the impacts of air quality and biodiversity. Interestingly, the existing research rarely addressed other issues, such as local livelihoods and how they adapt to environmental changes.