Security beyond the political forest: regulation, formalization, and timber production in northern central java
Security beyond the political forest: regulation, formalization, and timber production in northern central java
wca2014-2214 James T. Erbaugh 1,*Paul Jepson 2Dodik Nurrochmat 3Herry Purnomo 4 1School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michgian, Ann Arbor, United States, 2School of Geography and Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 3Forestry, Institut Pertanian Bogor, 4CIFOR, Bogor, IndonesiaForest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) agreements between the EU and countries that grow tropical timber are set to complement, alter, or generate new regulatory mechanisms that seek to ensure the legality of timber products. These regulatory changes will affect specific policies and practices within timber production networks. Smallholder timber production (STP) in Indonesia will come under FLEGT regulation from January 2014. Using grower surveys conducted in the Jepara regency of Central Java (n=204), we generate information on who Jeparanese smallholders are, what they are growing, and why. We draw upon Foucauldian governmentality to understand how STP operates and how Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu (SVLK), the Indonesian method for timber legality verification, might further affect networks of STP. We find that current methods of resource provision, in addition to increased oversight of source documentation, are combining to increase formalization within STP to secure timber resources outside the political forests of Java. Attending to place-specific detail, we provide several potential insights for the optimal application of SVLK certification.