Moeliono, Moira

Commons and Anti-commons in Kapuas Hulu, Indonesia
Moira Moeliono and Linda Yuliani
Can local communities resist the anti-commons processes as promoted by private sector and the state? In Kapuas Hulu, Indonesia, some communities are trying. People in the Labian-Leboyan watershed initiated a forum to rehabilitate the watershed by replanting the native tengkawang (shore sp) tree. Another forum is attempting to solve the waste problem whereby collaboration from upstream to downstream is needed to manage the water commons. In parallel communities are trying to regain the control over their resources though the national social forestry program.
These ‘commoning’ processes are gaining attention, especially in the face of privatization including privatization of public services. Even though Kapuas Hulu is in a remote area, the increasing dominance of neoliberal economics as well as of the application of artificial Intelligence in business as well as governance and education, will affect the human dimension of development.
In this paper we present the three cases and critically assess the effectivity of community efforts in the face of conscious as well as unconscious acceptance of the anti-commons.

Studies of the commons predominantly focus on identifying and testing the ‘right’ governance conditions. In Indonesia, so-called ‘design principles’ are embedded into policies aimed at the forest commons, but lack attention to the ‘why’, ‘who’, and ‘how’ the commons are shaped and governed, i.e., processes of commoning. Addressing these questions repositions relational dimensions between ‘commoners’, ‘non-commoners’, and the State, elucidating dynamics between human and non-humans, and provides insights into broader implications of commons governance.

We argue for centering the processes and practices of commons governance, including a focus on the abandonment of the commons; as well as for more explicitly understanding and nurturing the corollary movements towards commoning. As (participatory action) researchers we aim to at once diagnose and facilitate the shaping of conditions that enable commoning processes to emerge among existing and new commons. In this presentation, we underscore our position by critically reflecting on longstanding engagements in Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) projects initiated by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in the early 2000s.

Past research views ACM as “an emergent governance approach for complex social-ecological systems that connects the learning function of adaptive management with the linking function of co-management.” We reflect on these learning and linking modalities and scrutinize the added value of fostering enabling conditions for commoning. We specifically seek answers on the extent to which ACM enables conditions for commoning to take shape as a social practice as well as the ways it catalyzes rules and procedures for use, distribution, stewardship, and responsibility for given resources.

We examine two Indonesian cases from Jambi (central Sumatra) and Sulawesi through their attendant commoning processes, specifically the who’s, why’s, and how’s. Doing so allows us to focus on both the possibilities of ACM while also remaining clear-eyed on what gets overlooked in shaping the conditions of commons governance.