ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of institutions of forestry in Indonesia, a country with a complex history at the intersection of many key global processes such as modernity, colonisation, globalisation and industrial development. Stewardship forestry institutions have grappled with containing this process, well aware of its unsustainability. The use of forests and the growth of forestry have been central to the development of the Indonesian state. The long history of increasing central control of Indonesia’s forests by the institutions of professional forestry and centralised government corresponded with a decrease in local access to, and use of, adat. In terms of evolving relationships between spheres of interest, unfolding changes in forestry could also provide opportunities for increased decentralisation. In developed countries the stewardship forestry basin was in place for long decades and built resilience through development that was nested in mutually supportive social institutions.
