©Copyright 2012 Mia Siscawati Social Movements and Scientific Forestry: Examining the Community Forestry Movement in Indonesia Mia Siscawati A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2012 Reading Committee: Celia Lowe, Chair Peter Lape Nancy L. Peluso Laurie Sears Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Anthropology University of Washington Abstract Social Movements and Scientific Forestry: Examining the Community Forestry Movement in Indonesia Mia Siscawati Chair of Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Celia Lowe Department of Anthropology This dissertation examines the cultural aspects of collaboration between social movements and forestry science in the community forestry movement in Indonesia. This movement has served as a response to the application of industrial scientific forestry. This approach has been one of the main tools of state control over land and forest resources in post- colonial Indonesia, particularly since the beginning of the New Order era inaugurated by the military coup of General Suharto in 1966. Indonesian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) responded to this problem with intensive campaigns against state forest policies and the destructive logging practices and began to promote community forestry focused on issues of land tenure and resource rights as an alternative to industrial scientific forestry. One of the groups involved in the community forestry movement in Indonesia has been the progressive academic forestry scholars. Participation of these scholars marked a critical point since, in general, academics have been associated with the ruling regime, and many of them were involved in the development of the forestry paradigms that lead to deforestation and its resultant social problems. In this dissertation I examine how collaborations between academics and social activists have transformed forestry science. Furthermore, I investigate the adoption of gendered local knowledge promoted by and circulated within social movements into academic forestry science, and the possible role of alternative forestry science in shaping social movements. I also explore the complex and contradictory position of academic foresters in order to understand their social, political, and scholarly framing of forests, how they mediate their political position and “situated knowledge” with the state, capital, and social movements, and how this positionality has affected the constitution of community-managed forests as an object of knowledge. The influential ideas and actions the “progressive” academic foresters and their contributions to the formulation of community forestry concepts, represent the complex ways of exercising their freedom. The notion of freedom they apply represents a complexity of ideas and practices of freedom that relate to their position in the web of relationships with their fellow progressive scholars, activists, forestry professionals, state apparatuses, funding agencies’ officers, and forest villagers. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................................................... 1 An Introduction to Social Movements and Scientific Forestry: Examining the Community Forestry Movement in Indonesia............................................................................................................................... 1 “Scientific” Forestry in Indonesia ........................................................................................................... 1 Responses from Social Movements ........................................................................................................ 6 Community Forestry ............................................................................................................................... 9 The Formation of “Community Forestry” in Indonesia......................................................................... 11 Studying the Formation of ‘Scientific Forestry’ and ‘Community Forestry’ ........................................ 13 Collaborations and “Academic Freedom” in the Community Forestry Movement ............................... 17 Research Design and Methods .............................................................................................................. 21 Chapter Outline of Dissertation ............................................................................................................ 26 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 30 The History of Forest Knowledge and Scientific Forestry in Indonesia .................................................... 30 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 30 Knowledge of Forests and Forest Utilization in Pre-Colonial Indonesia: Learning from Stories .......... 32 Forest and Timber Knowledge in Europe ............................................................................................. 47 Forest utilization and forest tenures ...................................................................................................... 47 Experimental Preliminary Silviculture Systems and the Formation of Scientific Forestry .................... 50 Timber Knowledge of the Dutch Trading Empire ................................................................................. 56 Dutch Shipbuilding Industry and Timber Extraction ............................................................................ 57 Experimental Forms of Forest Management and Silviculture for Javanese Teak .................................. 60 Development of Scientific Forestry in Colonial Java ............................................................................ 64 i The Bogor Botanic Gardens: Scientific Nursery for Colonial Forestry Science .................................... 69 Ethical Ideas and Colonial Forestry Education ..................................................................................... 72 Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................................................. 79 Scientific Forestry and the Indonesian Foresters ....................................................................................... 79 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 79 Forestry in Newly Independent Indonesia ............................................................................................. 83 Forestry Education in Newly Independent Indonesia ............................................................................ 84 Forestry Transnational Learning during the Cold War Era ................................................................... 85 The Beginnings of International Interventions toward Indonesian Forestry: the Story of FAO ............ 88 Indonesia Responses toward Capitalistic Approach: the Story of Sukarno’s Foreign Policy and Its Contribution to Forestry Sector ............................................................................................................. 90 Suharto Establishes the New Order Era ................................................................................................ 92 International “Development” Paradigm and Its Translation in the New Order’s Forestry .................... 93 The Alliances of Bureaucrats, Timber Tycoons, and Military in the New Order’s Forestry ................. 96 Contributions of Forestry Academics to Forestry Policies .................................................................. 101 Collaboration between Academic Foresters and Forestry Business .................................................... 104 The Indonesian Foresters’ Solidarity .................................................................................................. 106 Responses to the New Order’s Destructive Forestry: Reactions from Forestry Students .................... 107 Challenging Foresters’ Culture of Pride .............................................................................................. 110 Concluding Remarks ........................................................................................................................... 117 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................................................ 118 The Formation of “Social Forestry” in New Order Indonesia as a Site of Social Possibilities ................ 118 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 118 Brief Overview of Social Forestry of the New Order Period (1966-1998) .......................................... 121 ii Taungya .............................................................................................................................................