ABSTRACT
Malinau's story highlights the mixed potential of global governance reforms to more localized and democratic government. Decentralization and democracy reforms in post-Soeharto Indonesia have increased state control over forests at the district level, while dramatically weakening control of the centre. As a result, local social forces have gained more influence in localized governance, which in turn structure and limit the control of the district government. In Malinau, and we suspect many forest areas, these social forces have been and continue to be strongly influenced by local ethnic affiliations. Local political orders are emerging, reinforced and organized by power relations among local ethnic groups. Many of these local political orders grew out of early networks of influential people and their descendants. Decentralization and reforms gave these orders new visibility and voice.
