Strengthening Local Institution to
Improve Social Cohesiveness
(Session 2)
Dr. Yuti Ariani Fatimah
November 19th, 2020

Background
• In 2015, Indonesia lost more than 2.6 million hectares
of land from fire and emitted over 1157 MtCO2
(Heymann et al. 2017)
• Peatlands become highly susceptible to fire due to
rapid lowering of the water table level during dry
period (Page and Hooijer 2016)
• 60 % of all hotspots in Sumatra and 47 % of all hotspots
in Kalimantan were detected in peatland (Miettinen et
al. 2017)
• The Indonesian government developed a plan aims to
restore at least 2 million hectares of peatland

Participation to Strengthen Local Institution
• The government adopted community participation as key
strategy to obtaining the support of local communities (BRG
2017)
• Since the 1990s, participation in solving environmental
problems is widely accepted as key to mobilize supports,
building trust and in the long run, maintaining durability of
the project (Cornwall 2002; Ostrom 2014; Reed et al. 2018;
UN 1992)
• Despite the involvement of communities in many peatland
restoration activities, continuity of these activities faced
many challenges, including:
• Resistance to rewet the peatland since it may reduce growth and
productivity of agricultural crops (Giesen 2015),
• Mismatches between the designated and actual locations for canal
blocking (Pebrika, Handayani, and Harianto 2018),
• Absence of market for peatland products and limited funding
availability (Harrison et al. 2019)

Main Issues Actors Strategy
1980 –
2002
• People started to cultivate sago after
their attempt to cultivate rice had failed
• The nat gov’t provided sago seeds and
mill through the Village Improvement
Program
Farmers peatland,
sago, mills
• Strengthening sago
network
• From wild sago to
sago cultivation
2002 –
2014
• Presence of Uni Seraya Unit II
• Giving Lestari Unggul Makmur (LUM) PT,
concession to 10,390 hectares area in
Sungai Tohor and six other villages in
Tebing Tinggi Island
• Digging canals over 10 kilometers length,
12 meter width and 5 meter depth to
transport seeds
• Fire on peatland
Village elite, sub-
district
government,
NGOs, PT LUM,
national
government,
peatland
• Formal diplomacy
to sub-district and
district gov’t
• Planting sago and
rubber in
concession area
• Campaign/festivals
2014 –
2020
• Peatland restoration activities
(revegetation, rewetting, revitalization)
• Integrated sago cooperative
• Limited sago market
Local community,
NGOs, sago, sago
buyer, peatland,
restoration fund,
tree adoption
• Strengthening sago
quality and diversify
its products
• Various peatland
restoration
activities
Contesting Social Cohesiveness

Social Cohesiveness: Top-Down or Bottom-Up?
1980 2002 2014 2020
Villagers
Peatland
Sago Mills
Villagers Peatland
Sago
Mills
Villagers
Peatland
Sago
Mills
PT LUM
Scientists
BRG
Env’t
NGO
Env’t
NGO
Canals
PT Uni
Seraya
Paddy
President
Support
MoF Decree
on concession Env’t
NGO
MoEF Decree on
social forestry
Sago
buyer
s
Non-village
level
Village
level
Corporate
concessions
Peatland and
forest fire
Canal
blocks
Revegetation
Sago
buyers

Concluding
Remarks
• Social cohesiveness is always
contested
• The stabilization of social
cohesion was done through
constant resource
mobilization
• Transitions in the social
cohesion from one period to
another center around the
relationship between the local
community and sago
• There is no contestation
between economy and
ecology, but vulnerability due
to single market

Thank you
yuti.ariani@ntu.edu.sg