Sirimorok, Nurhady

Indonesian state environmental management remains largely top-down, despite the fall of the authoritarian regime in 1998, and associated social movements and decentralization initiatives. Such an environmental management encloses the commons, favor private companies, and displace local tenure systems and livelihoods, some of the more evident and persistent colonial legacies. This study aimed to discuss (1) factors that preserve the colonial legacy in Indonesian environmental management and (2) a local tourism commoning initiative in an Indonesian village that challenge the legacy. Focusing on the practice of commoning for tourism, this study applies a political ecology approach with participant observation and in-depth interviews. The study found that Indonesian environmental management is maintained by a combination of positivist paradigm, capitalist (neoliberal) forestry regime and patronage relationships. Started with a movement to reject a mining operation, the villagers develop a commoning by managing boat tour that ensure equal distribution among members. They take over the management of their village landscape, by constantly battling with patronage and capitalist systems deployed by the local state agencies, provide counter discourse such as “sharing wellbeing”, and make use of cracks and loopholes in the state formal programs.