Regime Change--Prospects for Community-Based Resource Management in Post-New Order Indonesia

In January 2001, Indonesia embarked on a historic effort to devolve many functions and responsibilities of government from the center to the district level. These changes are being attempted in the midst of the political and economic uncertainty that continue to bedevil Indonesia's government and population years after the "East Asian crisis" swept through the region in 1997-1998. After decades of centralized control of economic and political development, the country's more than 360 district and municipal governments are suddenly placed in charge of managing nearly all affairs of state, excluding foreign policy, monetary policy, religion, and security. This essay examines emergent natural resource and environmental management consequences of this momentous transformation. Long promoted by social scientists and development agencies, it now appears that decentralization brings with it a host of new worries and problems. Indonesia's decentralization effort is still in the initial stages, and many of the problems have roots in previous regimes.