Heeding the concerns raised by the forest industry, donors and local non-government organisations, the newly elected Bupati, Rama Alexander Asia, eventually decided to slow down the issuance of HPHH licences in 2001. He also solicited assistance from organisations such as the USAID-funded Natural Resource Management Project, the GTZ Sustainable Forest Management Project, the International Centre for Research on Agroforestry, and local NGOs such as PLASMA and Puti Jaji, to develop a more sustainable model of community-based forest management in the area.

In November 2000, a West Kutai Regional Forestry Program Working Group (Kelompok Kerja Program Kehutanan Daerah or KKPKD) was formed with assistance from the Natural Resource Management Project. Representing a diverse set of local forest sector stakeholders including government officials, adat or customary rights leaders, community representatives, NGOs, university professors and the private sector, KKPKD sought to understand the complexities of forest management in West Kutai District and to develop transparent and accountable management strategies for balancing sustainable forest management and improved community welfare in a participatory manner. In recognition of the importance of KKPKD’s work in terms of good governance and sustainable forest management, the Bupati of West Kutai formalised this working group on 2 January 2001 with Decree No. 453/K.065/2001. This provided a clear mandate for KKPKD ‘to establish a viable forestry program involving forestry-related activities and stakeholders in West Kutai District’ (KKPKD 2001).

Over the course of 2001, KKPKD worked through a number of planning activities in a wide range of formal and informal workshops and meetings, both large and small, to first understand forest management issues and to then develop a realistic forest management plan. While these major activities were being carried out, KKPKD also sought to make the results transparent to the general public. Innovative public consultation processes and regular use of electronic media — particularly radio — kept the public informed and involved (KKPKD 2001).

The West Kutai District Forest Management Plan was divided into seven main themes: forest recovery and management, institutional development, law enforcement, infrastructure, regional policy development, recognition and empowerment of adat customary and community rights, and human resource development. Within these seven main themes, 52 specific activities were presented and ranked in terms of their relative priority and targeted for completion within the next ten years. The plan also included information on supporting institutions and their roles, time frames, resources, basic assumptions, expected results, and criteria for the success for each activity (KKPKD 2001).

In 2002, two important regional or district regulations (Peraturan Daerah or Perda) were developed in accordance with this plan — Regulation No. 18/2002 on forestry and a draft regulation on the implementation of community forestry in the district. The regulation on forestry, which was signed by the Bupati on 4 November, provided the umbrella framework for all forestry matters in the district, including community forestry. Article 9 of this regulation stated that the local government would recognise and gazette customary forest (adat) areas. It also stated that the local government would allow local people to manage forest resources in accordance with their customary rules and regulations. To strengthen this point, an entire chapter (Chapter 5) was devoted to the rights and roles of local people in local forestry matters. Forest planning was to be carried out in a transparent, participatory, accountable, integrated fashion, which allowed for community aspirations (Article 13); and local people would be kept well informed about large-scale forest exploitation (Article 18). The participation of local people in conservation and forest rehabilitation was also stressed in Articles 28 and 43.

The draft regulation on community forestry further strengthened the local government’s intent to recognise and legitimate customary forest management systems. Article 2 of this regulation stipulated that the government would respect and recognise local communities that carried out forest management in an equitable and sustainable manner. If this is proven to be so, the government will recognise various types of community forestry, including customary forest management,  village  forest  management,  and  local  conservation  efforts (Article 3). In order for the local government to grant a right to carry out community forestry, the designated area must be proven to be free from conflict and already covered by internal regulations which sustain forest resources (Article 7). If granted a community forestry licence, the community is obligated to sustainably manage forest resources in a just and equitable fashion (Article 23).

However, while both of these regulations promote more equitable forest exploitation, several articles contradict central government regulations and could be considered to be illegal. For instance, in the regulation on forestry, the Bupati retains the sole right to issue licences for timber collection, community forestry, forest use by the wood industry, non-timber forest product collection, and the use of environmental services (Article 34). This article contradicts two key central government regulations — Regulation No. 34/2002 on Forest Planning, Management and Use (the long awaited clarifying legislation of the Basic Forestry Law No. 41/1999) and Decree No. 31/2001 on Community Forestry. The regulation and the decree both stipulate that the Bupati can only issue these permits after he has sought approval from the Ministry of Forestry.

Similarly, in the draft regional regulation on community forestry, the Bupati retained the sole right to issue a ‘Community Forestry Permit’ (Izin Kehutanan Masyarakat) after he received a recommendation from the head of the District Forest Department (Article 6). This contradicted Decree No. 31/2001 which stipulates that the Bupati can only recommend that a ‘Community Forestry Activity Permit’ (Izin Kegiatan Hutan Kemasyarakatan) be allocated after he has sought permission from the Ministry of Forestry through the Provincial Governor. More significantly perhaps, the draft regulation specified that a Community Forestry Permit could be allocated for a period of 100 years (Article 19). However, Decree No. 31/2001 states that a Community Forestry Permit can only be allocated for 25 years. Given the above legislative contradictions, the Kutai Barat government needed to gain broad political support for district government regulations pertaining to forestry in order to avoid conflict with the central government, and to gain its support for their future forest management plans.