Defining the objectives and roles of Indonesian production forest governance through the multi-business forestry policy narrative

Abstract

Omnibus law of the Republic of Indonesia No.11 of 2020 on Job Creation has changed many regulations in the forestry sector. The policy narrative being discussed regarding these changes is Multi-business Forestry (Mb-F). Set against a timber-oriented governance background that has been practiced for almost 5 decades, ambiguity about what objectives and roles of Mb-F are debated. Through the use of content and institutional analysis, this study aims to define its. Content is sourced from 30 national news and journals as well as audio data from in-depth interviews with 36 experts transferred to text form. Text data was processed using NVivo software after highlighting, condensing, coding, categorizing, and theming. This process defines the objectives, which are then further analysed to define the alliances and roles using Mactor software. This research found three main themes, namely performance & governance, forest land-use & productivity, and social-economy impact & environmental concern. These three themes are rooted in 10 objectives, namely land-use, timber, food, NTFP, employment, state revenue, corporate benefit, biodiversity, climate change, and soil/water conservation. The key stakeholders that have the highest influence and independence in implementing Mb-F are the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which is relayed by Experts, Regions Forestry, Environmental, and Food & Horticulture Services, as well as the Business World. Employment is the objective that gets the highest weighting, and timber gets lowest. This indicates that the Mb-F Policy narrative will encourage a change in the orientation of Indonesia’s forest governance harshly.