Forest Conservation and Sustainability in Indonesia

Bernice Maxton-Lee is a research associate at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. She recently completed her PhD in political economy and sustainable development at City University of Hong Kong.

"This book by a committed environmentalist has tough messages for the Western conservation movement. In eight key findings, Bernice Maxton-Lee underlines blunt facts that activists in rich countries must face. Too many of the ideas advanced as solutions to the challenge of climate change are sideshows. Environmentalists in rich countries should blaming developing countries like Indonesia for global problems. The most important reforms need to start within the global North." — Peter McCawley, Honorary Associate Professor, Indonesia Project, Arndt-Corden Dept of Economics, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU, Canberra"Social scientists will be failing humanity if they fail to dig deep into who "you" are in Greta Thunberg’s lion’s roar, and why they "dare". By deconstructing the deadly structural traps of the global economy and decoding the neoliberal framing, this book explains how climate change was used as a great opportunity for those in the position of power to further entrench and intensify the unjust relationship among the Global North, the Global South, and nature. It unravels the zealous participation - oftentimes with pride and conviction - of consequent climate-change victims in speeding up the destruction of nature under banners such as "sustainable development" and "conservation" while staying clear of meaningful and ground-shifting actions for climate mitigation. Taking a historical long view and backed by rich empirical evidence, the book offers insights critical to the dethronement of neoliberalism." — Chien-Yi Lu, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C. "This remarkable book deconstructs the myth of responsible consumption of agricultural commodities and conveys the ultimate inconvenient truth: An ecologically sustainable economic growth is as impossible as the perpetuum mobile. The analysis is straightforward and outspoken. We urgently need much more of this kind of conservation literature, which is radical in the best sense of the word. Conservationists who think voluntary standard-setting certification through and down to the roots will eventually recognize that ‘it is designed to ensure the path of least resistance for capital to increase its own production‘. Current approaches to sustainability certification comfortably accompany the sleepwalking consumption society into disaster." — Pierre L. Ibisch, Professor for Nature Conservation, Research professorship for "Ecosystem-based sustainable development", Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management, Faculty of Forest and Environment, Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany"Do you avoid palm oil in your biscuits? Sign petitions to protect orangutans? So do I - and this book is for us. Carefully referenced, it traces the tricks of neoliberal "common sense" that convince us to trust REDD schemes, palm oil certification, or imaginary "zero deforestation." For all who care about the burning forests, Maxton-Lee gives us the cold water treatment. The growth economy is the real villain. Its continued pressure to increase demand for goods and services is what is leading to ecological destruction. Individual gestures will not suffice." — Kerryn Higgs, University Associate, University of Tasmania; Associate Member, Club of Rome"Bernice Maxton-Lee presents an unvarnished analysis why conservation and sustainable development efforts have failed to protect Indonesia’s forests. Indonesia’s remaining tropical forests, which harbour some of the richest biodiversity in the world, are now also increasingly victims of climate change. Deforestation and carbon emissions continue rising, despite all assurances and international efforts. This important book is based on a critical political analysis that reveals the disastrous subordination to the Western neoliberal economic growth paradigm." — Claude Martin, Former Director General of WWF International and author of "On the Edge – The State and Fate of the World’s Tropical Rainforests"

• CHAPTER 1 Conservation of Indonesia's forests in historical and political context CHAPTER 2 Formal and informal structures of Indonesian conservation CHAPTER 3 A REDD+ herring: Why clearer land tenure, transparency and governance will not make REDD+ work CHAPTER 4 Moratorium and One Map: The Norway-Indonesia Bilateral Partnership CHAPTER 5 Sustainability as market discipline and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)