ABSTRACT

Transmigration can be considered as one element in a broad framework of critically important experiments for marginal land utilization in Indonesia. Limited management skills at the local and central government level have also held back progress in land settlement. Resettlement is increasingly being linked to upland watershed management on Java and to regional development off Java. Transmigration is only one of several pathways to an expanded agricultural base on the outer islands. Resettlement projects have been defined to provide tests of transmigration under a variety of ecological situations, including fire—disturbed upland grasslands, upland forest, lowland forest, and swamp-forest, on Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi, of these major islands, Sumatra will clearly be the site of the most experimentation. Land development options can be sharply differentiated into those suitable for peneplain areas, often on red-yellow podzolic soils, and those suitable for swampy lowlands.