How Can We Mitigate Power Imbalances in Collaborative Environmental Governance? Examining the Role of the Village Facilitation Team Approach Observed in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Researchers have focused on collaborative governance as an effective measure to realise sustainable natural resource management through the participation of various stakeholders. However, the literature has indicated that issues such as power imbalances tend to undermine the effectiveness of collaborative governance. Powerful actors represented by the government tend to control collaborative processes and produce benefits for dominant groups, while less empowered local communities are often deprived of opportunities for livelihood improvement. Although numerous researchers have analysed the key factors that influence the processes and outcomes of collaborative governance, few have identified a concrete measure to reduce the risk of failure, particularly when managing power imbalances in developing countries. This study explored a methodology to address the power imbalances in collaborative governance based on a case study of a participatory peatland fire prevention project implemented in West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys conducted with project participants suggested that measures such as establishing a joint team of government officers and villagers, providing a common facilitation training programme, training villagers as facilitators, promoting equal knowledge sharing, and allowing villagers to make their own decisions mitigated the power imbalances between the two groups.

Exploring Prospects of Deliberation in Intractable Natural Resource Management Conflicts

“…Second, the disputed issues often require substantial trade-offs between economic, social, and ecological objectives that make mutually accepted agreements unlikely (Mutti et al, 2012;Pölönen et al, 2020). Third, real-world NRM conflicts are often situated in regulatory contexts that shape the scope, conduct, and agenda for inter-group engagement in ways that benefit powerful actors and status quo (Arai et al, 2021;Raitio, 2013). Finally, parallel regulatory frameworks can intersect in ways that present the actors with conflicting ways of understanding and dealing with the issues at stake, leading to conflicting expectations, actions, and interactions (von der Porten and de Loë, 2013).…”

Analysis of Students' Knowledge About Natural Disaster Mitigation in Wetland Areas

“…Problems related to mitigation are significant, especially for school-age children, because of the large number of fatalities that come from school-age children (Tuladhar, 2014). However, in previous studies, the discussion focused a lot on mitigation learning (Wedyawati, 2017), learning models with an orientation on mitigation (Jairina, 2020), the impact and influence of disasters on land (Rosyidie, 2013), some also discussed ecosystem management as mitigation in South Kalimantan (Sudrajat, 2019), the use of clustering algorithms for natural disaster mitigation (Sadewo, 2018), (Salminah, 2019), strategies for dealing with climate mitigation problems (Nyong, 2007;Surahman, 2018;Lounela, 2020), the role of the village team's facility approach in mitigation in South Kalimantan (Arai, 2021), ease of changes in oil palm land (Van der Laan, 2017;Austin, 2015), some even mention that mitigation strategies need to include wetlands (Murdiyarso et al, 2014), mitigation options on N. emissions2O from corn fields in Kalimantan (Hadi et al, 2010) and no one has discussed mitigation knowledge on students in the wetlands of South Kalimantan.…”