ABSTRACT
Moving as a global society away from an obsessive subservience to economic growth is no simple matter. But there is currently no serious discussion of any alternative to the neoliberal, market-addicted path. Attempts to slow deforestation in Indonesia have failed.‘Unsustainable’economic development, resource and rent extraction, weak regulations and legal frameworks, and corruption are most often blamed. But neoliberal manipulation of information and policy, conservation framing, path dependency, and misunderstandings of subjectivities are issues that are not well understood and are not being addressed. They are the real reasons that tropical forest conservation in Indonesia is failing. They are also the reasons sustainable development and climate change mitigation are failing. This conclusion shows that the global economic system and economistic narrative prevent meaningful change, investments in saving forests are far outweighed by emissions-producing activities, saving Indonesia’s rainforests is not a good way to slow climate change, and that making palm oil ecologically sustainable can help biodiversity but not stop climate change.
