The Ironwood Problem: (Mis)Management and Development of an Extractive Rainforest Product

This study explores the reasons that national and local forest management systems have failed to protect local supplies of ironwood occurring in the dipterocarp forests of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Government management strategies have bypassed local people's claims to ironwood because customary forest management institutions have not been formally recognized and supported. Traditional ironwood management focused on the regulation of outsiders' access to the trees and an informal “ethic of access” guiding its use and distribution among village households. Kalimantan forest management is now dominated by industrial timber extraction. The government has given timber companies the rights to control all forest activities within their concession areas, but companies have little incentive or capacity to manage the activities of numerous villages within their concession territories. Yet the indirect effects of logging on village forest management have had a staggering impact on the social organization of forest use. The penetration of roads has facilitated outsiders' access to formerly remote areas. Chainsaws and logging roads have facilitated villagers' commercial harvest of ironwood and generated changes in the villagers' management of the wood. Private control has taken precedence over common (village) controls, and the ethic of access has been transformed. The article concludes that some traditional institutions could be empowered by the state to protect both forest resources and local claims in a joint forest management arrangement.