The Transnationalisation of Competing State Projects: Carbon Offsetting and Development in Sumatra's Coastal Peat Swamps

Abstract

Indonesia's peatlands can be considered as conflict arenas where different state projects and actors compete. The case presented here stands for a new conservation controversy. The Berbak Carbon Initiatives overlap with a settlement project, inducing struggles among different state apparatuses, transnational actors, and peasants. This article is based on a novel conceptual approach building on political ecology, politics of scale and state theory for investigating divergent and transnationalised state projects. Empirically we draw on qualitative research conducted in the province of Jambi, Sumatra. We argue that the territorial conflicts mirror the contradictory interests of different state apparatuses influenced by conservation‐oriented and development‐oriented actors in society but also by supra‐national planning institutions. In our case, the contestation becomes visible through inconsistent notions of development and property. We show how political change challenges the implementation of a forest carbon project, illustrating the high risks of mitigating climate change through offsetting.

Political Ecology of REDD+ in Indonesia

“…Hierarchical scalar structures of the state including territorial units and their institutionalized forms and levels of representation in Indonesia (e.g. provincial government, district government and village government) are the outcome of societal struggle and political negotiation (Brenner, 1998;Hein et al, 2018a;Houdret et al, 2014;Swyngedouw, 2010). They demarcate arenas of socio-political struggle and regulation.…”

“…Indigenous groups and peasants in many parts of the world criticize the "global gaze" (Fogel, 2004) of the REDD+ mechanism and the framing of forests as empty carbon stocks, highlighting that many indigenous groups and peasants live within and close to forests and have maintained the carbon storage capacity of forests for generations. REDD+ and green enclosures affect actors differently, reflecting power imbalances at the forest margins but also between the North and South, and between urban centers and rural areas in the South (Eilenberg, 2015;Hein et al, 2018a;Kosoy and Corbera, 2010;Lohmann, 2008;McAfee, 2012b). Following this argument, REDD+ can be considered as a mechanism that stabilizes the current fossil fuel-based accumulation regime (Hein et al, 2018a) and the "imperial mode of living" Wissen, 2012, 2017) characterized by high-emission lifestyles and consumerism in global centers.…”

“…REDD+ and green enclosures affect actors differently, reflecting power imbalances at the forest margins but also between the North and South, and between urban centers and rural areas in the South (Eilenberg, 2015;Hein et al, 2018a;Kosoy and Corbera, 2010;Lohmann, 2008;McAfee, 2012b). Following this argument, REDD+ can be considered as a mechanism that stabilizes the current fossil fuel-based accumulation regime (Hein et al, 2018a) and the "imperial mode of living" Wissen, 2012, 2017) characterized by high-emission lifestyles and consumerism in global centers. The imperial mode of living is based on a disproportionate claim to global sinks, including to the world's tropical forests, to offset the externalities of high emission lifestyles (ibid.…”

“…The ongoing conflicts also take place within the state. There is competition between the conservation and development-oriented apparatuses of the state, reflecting the different concerns of competing groups within society but also those of supra-national planning institutions (Hein et al, 2018a). In some cases, peasants and indigenous groups have formed alliances with local state authorities and local NGOs in order to regain access to land officially controlled by other state actors and private companies.…”

“…Especially after the political turmoil of the late 1990s and early 2000s, district heads (Bupati), village heads (Kepala Desa) and customary leaders took advantage of the confusion, interpreting the decentralization reforms to their advantage and asserting farreaching administrative authority over forests (Barr et al, 2006). In contrast, local conservation authorities used the REDD+ momentum after the climate conference in Bali in 2007 to form alliances with public donors and transnational conservation organizations to gain support for their chronically underfunded protected area system (Hein et al, 2018a).…”