Heri Hermawan
This research tries to find out the underlying factors for the low rate of adoption and efficacy of agroforestry initiatives in Indonesia. Agroforestry projects under Land and Forest Rehabilitation Program in Indonesia has the objective to reconcile smallholders’ welfare improvement with timber production, but it largely fails to deliver its promise due to its disregard of socio-political and psychological drivers of adoption among smallholder farmers.
Specifically, this research tries to understand what priorities the Indonesian government has in the development of agroforestry policies, how those policies are conveyed and reacted in the media news, and how government officials on the field implement those policies. I also want to gather perceptions from local farmers regarding their acceptance, reservations, participation and involvement to government’s agroforestry projects.
The research site is in Nusa Penida Island, a small island 14 km off the southeastern coast of Bali, Indonesia, and is administered under the Klungkung Regency, Bali Provincial Government. In order to compile farmers’ perceptions on government’s agroforestry projects, field research was conducted on five villages in Nusa Penida Island. Interviews and data compilation were also conducted in The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and local governments in Bali In order to gather information about government’s agroforestry policy, planning and evaluation. Discourse analysis was conducted to local and national news media regarding agroforestry policies and practices.