Bureaucratic inertia in dealing with annual forest fires in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia has sustained annual forest fires since the 1990s related to land clearing activities for agriculture. The Indonesian Government has made substantial efforts to resolve annual fires by improving intergovernmental coordination at national and local levels. Overall, 96 government agencies are liable for controlling forest fire. This study explores local to central government’s bureaucratic reluctance in addressing forest fires, focusing on Riau Province, the most forest fire-prone region in Indonesia. Data were collected from 2015 to 2019 using participatory observation, engaging in meetings of key players; in-depth interviews with key heads of relevant agencies, officials, and NGOs; and a questionnaire for Social Network Analysis. The results show that there are seven influential institutions for addressing land and forest fires in Riau. However, the power of the decision-making process is concentrated at the level of the President and the Governor as the regional leader, which implies that large institutions involved in fire response have less power and responsibility owing in part to bureaucratic inertia as bureaucracy is overly centralised and less responsive. In the long term, devolution of government authority from the central to the local level is required to furnish front-line institutions with the power to deal with the fires.

Shifting conflict into collaboration: peatland fires mitigation in the biosphere conservation transition zone in Sumatra, Indonesia

“…Since TPSP is a non-state action initiative, we also support the argument posited by Fisher et al (2020) that collaborative action works if the initiative comes from the bottom and is applied in a flexible and transactional way rather than in a top-down and rigid form of government intervention (see also Madden and McQuinn 2014). The previous research has shown the failure of top-down collaborative arrangement in dealing with forest fires in Indonesia due to bureaucratic inertia where power is centralised in vertical government institutions (Purnomo et al 2021). The evidence from our case study suggests that informal collaboration from a non-state initiative has enabled the local institution in the peatland fire mitigation.…”

“…The depth of the fires in the peatland can reach 1.1 m and the underground fires produce much more smoke compared to crown fires (Ballhorn et al 2009). Moreover, previous research has shown the reluctance of bureaucracy in dealing with forest fires in Indonesia due to the centralisation of power in fire response (Purnomo et al 2021).…”

Creating Peatland Restoration Policy for Supporting in Indonesian Economic in a Sustainable Way

“…However, the reality is that people are less interested because of limitations on product marketing. Become a record of the government in peat restoration to assess the involvement of village governments, the availability and capabilities of community groups, assistance, monitoring and evaluation, and accountability [29]. In addition, strengthening the role of district governments is crucial in peat restoration because they can certainly know precisely the situation, environment, and socioeconomics of its people.…”

Civil Society Participation Model: Forest and Land Fire Prevention Policy in Jambi Province

“…Community participation is essential because it is the implementer of multiple activities pursued by the Government (Schultz et al 2019). This study was conducted because forest fires have an important impact on evaluating government efforts to strengthen local institutions that deal with forest fire incidents (Purnomo et al 2021a). This research was conducted because forest fires have an important impact on evaluating the government's efforts to strengthen local institutions that deal with forest fire incidents (Purnomo et al 2021b).…”