Camouflaging economic development agendas with forest conservation narratives: A strategy of lower governments for gaining authority in the re-centralising Indonesia

Abstract The government of Indonesia has recently recentralised the authority over forest resources. This paper analyses the bureaucratic politics and power struggles between central and local governments concerning the re-centralisation policy. This paper analyses the local initiative by Tambrauw District of West Papua in integrating management of conservation areas into district governance through so-called “conservation district” policy. We asked what are the specific real interests of the local government in implementing the environmentally-minded policy? How does the accumulation of power by the local government help it pursue its interests? We found that by using the environmentally-minded policy narrative, the district masks its true interests of economic gains from the forests. We further identified the power sources and strategies employed by the district government of Tambrauw in achieving its interests. The district successfully used the issue of local wisdom, customary rights and communities. Nuancing the narrative importance of specific socio-cultural realities, customary rights, and tenurial systems of indigenous people has paid off; the district successfully built coalitions with an array of actors, i.e. NGOs, higher bureaucracies, and indigenous groups. The coalitions provide opportunities for actors to realise their goals.