THE FRONTIER OF THE MIDDLE CLASS: HOW FARMERS AND FISHERS PURSUE BETTER LIVES IN THE COASTAL LANDSCAPES OF EASTERN INDONESIA A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University John Daniel Watts July, 2016 © Copyright by John Daniel Watts, 2016 All Rights Reserved Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution. .................................................................... John Daniel Watts, 2016 Word Count: 80455 i Acknowledgments This thesis was inspired by my experiences working on the Landscape Mosaics Project, which ran from 2007 to 2010. The project was a collaborative initiative between the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), and covered sites in Africa and Asia. My fieldwork in the uplands of Northern Laos, along with research from the other sites, motivated me to undertake this thesis. Guiding me through the science and politics of environmental research were people such as Jean-Laurent Pfund, Manuel Boissière and Carol Colfer among others. Carol has continued to offer advice and support, including commenting on a draft of this thesis. Other former colleagues from CIFOR, in particular Nick Hogarth, Ronnie Babigumira and Nia Atmadja provided advice on how to conduct and analyse household livelihood surveys. A University Research Scholarship from the Australian National University funded my thesis, which I completed independently at the Crawford School of Public Policy in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. The Crawford School of Public Policy also funded fieldwork expenses in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, during 2012 to 2013. At the university, Fiona Yap, Chris Ballard, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Megan Poore, John McCarthy, Sango Mahanty, Andrew McWilliam and Luca Tacconi have all provided technical advice and administrative support for my thesis. Universitas Haluloleo sponsored my research permit from the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology and Education. In Kendari, Asrun Lio, Yani Taufik and Stephan Lorenzen provided support during the many logistical challenges of doing research (as a foreigner) in Indonesia. Yasril La Ery, formerly of LePMIL, went out of his way to introduce me to the people and civil society organisations of Southeast Sulawesi, for which I am incredibly grateful. One of those people he introduced me to was Saharuddin (Udin), who would introduce me to Buton, and in particular, the wonderfully diverse and complex place known as Lawele. Udin accompanied me on all the fieldwork and helped me overcome many logistical and linguistic challenges. Two local teachers, Nasrun Nadia and Aziz Yunus (Ayub), assisted with the livelihood surveys. Overall, I am incredibly grateful to the people of the villages of Lawele and Benteng, who welcomed me and patiently participated in my research activities. Towards the end of my thesis, I begun working at Earth Innovation Institute, and the Deputy Director, David (Toby) McGrath, kindly commented on a draft of my thesis. ii Finally, my wife, Silvia Irawan, and family have supported me throughout the longer than expected process. Silvia has also commented on several versions of the thesis and offered invaluable advice. iii Abstract The coastal landscapes of the outer islands of the Indonesian archipelago are places rich with biological and cultural diversity. The people who live in these remote and rural places are often comparatively poorer than Indonesians living in urban and regional areas, with limited access to infrastructure, government services and markets. They, like most Indonesians, have participated in the massive economic development that has taken place over recent decades. The places where they live are on the frontier of middle class Indonesia: a place where they can see the material benefits of a developed consumer society, but lack the means to live those types of lives in their rural settings. For the fishers, farmers and forest-dependent people who live in these coastal landscapes, what are the types of lives to which they aspire? How do these aspirations influence the decisions that rural households make about livelihood strategies and resource uses? To answer these questions, three settlements from a coastal landscape in Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, were studied. The research, conducted from 2012 until 2014, explored household livelihood and expenditure decision making through household surveys and in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The results of the case studies point to a theory of decision making for rural households under changing standards of living. Living standards were shaped by structural factors known as opportunity structures, such as infrastructure and consumer markets. Social influences, including traditions and modern social influences such as television, and social integration also shaped household goals and living standards. Changes in these structural and social processes affected not only the types of goods and services that were possible in the settlements, but also what was expected of people. Achieving these rising living standards was constrained by the lack of support for rural livelihoods. With limited support for improving the productivity of existing livelihoods, rural households instead diversified, with migration a central part of that strategy. As the mismatch between rural livelihoods and aspirations increased, a new type of vulnerability for rural households and their landscapes emerged. In these cases, the immediate needs of maintaining a living standard are more important than the sustainability of their livelihoods and resources. The research contributes to the literature on environmental and rural development policy in Indonesia by demonstrating how economic development and the expansion of consumer society has shaped rural household behaviour. I propose that theories of rural household behaviour should incorporate greater considerations of the goals of rural Indonesian iv households and community living standards, beyond just subsistence, as these shape the livelihood strategies of rural households. Policies and interventions should address the aspirations, capabilities and learning strategies of rural Indonesian households. By doing this, there is greater potential for reducing the environmentally harmful practices of smallholder farmers, small-scale and artisanal fishers and forest-dependent people. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ x List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. xi Currency Conversion Table ..................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1 : Simple Decisions in Diverse Transitions ................................................................ 1 1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Environmental Policy, Rural Development and Rural Livelihoods in Indonesia ............. 2 1.3. Thesis outline ................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2 : Livelihoods and Living Standards ......................................................................... 12 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 12 2.2. The means for making a living ..................................................................................... 12 2.3. A standard of living ...................................................................................................... 18 2.4. Decision making and rural households ........................................................................ 23 2.5. Multifunctional landscapes: where natural and social systems interact ..................... 25 2.6. Governance, institutional diversity and access ............................................................ 26 2.7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3 : Case studies from an Indonesian multifunctional coastal landscape .................. 30 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 30 3.2. Case studies of rural household behaviour in multifunctional landscapes .................. 30 3.3. Diverse transitions in Indonesia: farming and forests .................................................. 32 3.4. Diverse transitions in Indonesia: artisanal and small-scale fishers .............................. 35 vi 3.5. Governance in Indonesia ............................................................................................