State Control Without End: From Customary Land to the Dutch East India Company Legacy

 

A Wake-Up Call That Forests Belong to the People Long Before the State Existed

Hutan dan Kehutanan Indonesia dari Masa ke Masa - Forests and Forestry in Indonesia Through the Ages by Sadikin Djajapertjunda and Edje Djamhuri arrives as a rare and necessary intervention in Indonesia’s environmental literature. 

It fills a conspicuous gap: a rigorous, historically grounded account of Indonesian forestry written by foresters themselves. In forewords by the Minister of Forestry and the Dean of IPB University’s Faculty of Forestry, the scarcity of such works is stated plainly. This makes the book valuable not only as a historical record, but also as a reference for scholarship, policy, and practice.

Indonesia’s vast tropical forests have long been central to the nation’s fate. Yet from precolonial kingdoms through Dutch rule, Japanese occupation, independence, authoritarian development, and reformasi, forest governance has swung between promise and failure. This book sets out to disentangle that long arc by tracking cycles of success and collapse, along with the policy shifts that defined them. It functions, in effect, as both a rearview mirror and a compass.

That context matters. Contemporary debates about deforestation, tenure conflicts, forest degradation, land-use change, and institutional weakness often unfold as if history began yesterday. Djajapertjunda and Djamhuri show otherwise. Today’s crises are deeply rooted in yesterday’s decisions. Each era had its own logic, and forest management has never been separable from political power, economic ambition, and social change.

Structure, Scope, and Method

The book proceeds systematically across eras, from prehistory and early kingdoms to the VOC and Dutch East Indies, Japanese occupation, independence, the Old Order, the New Order, and the reform era. This chronological, document-based approach delivers a panoramic view of policies, institutions, forest use, and the evolving role of professional foresters. Its strength lies in sustaining narrative clarity across a long timeline while remaining anchored in verifiable written sources. The Dean of IPB’s Faculty of Forestry underscores the importance of such documentation to prevent misinterpretation and the emergence of a second wave of problems caused by archival neglect.

Early chapters explore how prehistorical societies understood forests in ecological, spiritual, and economic terms. Accounts of Nusantara rulers drawing timber, medicines, and building materials from forests underscore a deep reservoir of local knowledge. They remind readers that Indonesia’s relationship with forests is a cultural inheritance rather than a modern invention.

The colonial period details the Dutch systematization of forest exploitation. Much of what is considered modern forestry today, including zoning, boundary-making, and production forest management, emerges as a direct colonial legacy. This section is particularly illuminating because it traces the origins of policies that continue to shape contemporary governance.

From independence through the New Order, forests became instruments of national development. Large-scale land conversion, logging concessions, forest-based transmigration, and timber industrialization dominated state priorities. Economic growth was placed above sustainability, a trade-off that resulted in massive deforestation and the erosion of ecological functions.

The reform era introduces decentralization and a new set of complexities. Authority was devolved to regional governments, but institutional readiness and administrative capacity lagged behind. As a result, policy often clashed with conditions on the ground.

Throughout, the authors’ professional forester perspective, which is objective, data-driven, and historically grounded, gives the book an academic tone that remains accessible.

Why the Book Matters

Several strengths make this work an important reference for policymakers, academics, students, researchers, and conservation advocates.

First, the book successfully bridges historical documentation and modern forestry analysis. Few works manage to operate convincingly in both domains at once.

Second, the authors’ background as professional foresters adds analytical depth. They do not merely recount events, but explain the causal logic behind policy decisions and their long-term consequences.

Third, the book avoids simplistic moral judgments. Decisions once considered necessary, such as early New Order logging to support economic development, are shown to have generated new problems over time. The past is neither romanticized nor condemned, but examined critically.

Fourth, the presentation of historical data is clear and well structured. For students and researchers, this makes the book a valuable foundation for academic inquiry and further study.

Fifth, the book conveys a strong moral message without preaching. The future of Indonesian forestry depends on the nation’s ability to learn from its own history. Without that capacity, the same mistakes will continue to recur.

Limits and Enduring Relevance

The book does have minor limitations. The narrative is heavily centered on state institutions and formal governance, while Indigenous peoples, local communities, and social dynamics in the interior receive less attention. This is notable given the centrality of Indigenous forest relations in Indonesia. In addition, the writing style is formal and technical, which may demand greater concentration from general readers.

Published in 2013, the book also predates more recent debates, including climate change mitigation, peatland restoration, the One Map policy, carbon trading, ESG frameworks, palm oil politics, and the FOLU Net Sink 2030 agenda. These omissions reflect the period of writing rather than a conceptual weakness.

Despite these constraints, the book’s relevance today is striking. As climate change intensifies, tenure conflicts persist, and sustainability rhetoric grows louder among governments and corporations, this work offers what contemporary discourse often lacks: historical grounding. It reminds readers that Indonesian forestry is not merely a technical problem to be optimized, but a long political and social journey shaped by power, economics, and geopolitics.

Book reviewer: Rangkaya Bada