ABSTRACT

In the period of reform towards regional autonomy, rural households had more opportunity to influence government decisions. How did this change local policies, especially in relation to forests and forest land? To what extent did genuine local politics develop (Antlöv, 2003)? This chapter examines citizen participation and representation in Malinau to better understand how local political systems and decentralization shaped local people's opportunities to have voice in forest and land-use decisions. It gives special attention to small-scale, informal and village-level processes that have a major influence on local people's lives and district government decisions, yet are often overlooked in favour of more visible, larger-scale formal processes. The articulation of the formal and the informal processes of decision-making and influence at the village level constitute the realpolitik of local governance.