[Occasional Paper No. 1]
Forestry research within the consultative group on International agricultural research.

[Occasional Paper No. 2]
Social and economical aspects of Miombo woodland management in Southern Africa: options and opportunities for research.

[Occasional Paper No. 9]
Rates and causes of deforestation in Indonesia: Towards a resolution of the ambiguities.

[Occasional Paper No. 10]
Report on Discussion Forum on Information Services in the Asia-Pacific and AGRIS/CARIS in the 21st Century an Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation

[Occasional Paper No. 11]
Capacity for Forestry Research in the Southern African Development Community

[Occasional Paper No. 12]
Technologies for Sustainable Forest Management: Challenges for the 21st Century

[Occasional Paper No. 13]
Bosques secundarios como recurso para el
desarrollo rural y la conservación ambiental
en los trópicos de América Latina

Rate and Causes of Deforestation in Indonesia:
Towards a Resolution of the Ambiguities

William D. Sunderlin and Ida Aju Pradnja Resosudarmo

Summary

There have been several major research efforts on the rate and causes of Indonesia's deforestation in recent years and much associated literature, but there is still no consensus in the research community on these issues. This paper reviews the areas of uncertainty and confusion, and proposes questions that must be answered to get a better grasp of the subject. Among the key questions are: (1) How are we to define "forest", "deforestation" and "agency" in the context of Indonesia?; (2) What are the socio-economic characteristics and land-use practices of the various agents that have been lumped under the term "shifting cultivation"?; (3) Is the relationship between increasing population density and loss of forest cover causal or incidental?; (4) Why do some concessionaires appear to manage their sites relatively well, while many others do not?; (5) What have been the net forest cover effects of macro-economic restructuring and changes of commodity prices since the early 1980s? Guidelines are proposed for improved research on the rate and causes of forest cover change. The paper closes noting the need to rise above a tendency to seek mono-causal explanations. Cogent explanations will necessarily be complex, since the causes reside in long-standing and broad socio-economic forces.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• The Problem of Imprecise and Conflicting Definitions
• Smallholders
  • Shifting Cultivation-Forest Pioneer Continuum
  • Smallholder Tree Crop Production
  • Transmigration
  • Population Density

     

• Logging and the Timber Industry
• Estates and Plantations
  • Cash Crops on Estates
  • Forest Plantations

     

• Guidelines for the Determination of Rates and Causes
  • Rates of Forest Cover Change
  • Causes of Forest Cover Change

     

• Summary and Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• References