1.   Enabling Policies for Sustainable  

Resources Management 

1.1 Overview 

Chapter One provides an overview of macro economic policy experiences, highlighting the need 

for project designers to better understand policy processes in the Indonesian context, and the 

roles and opportunities that donors create for policy interventions. The chapter presents 

NRMP's experience in addressing economy wide policy issues. Incentives for industrialization 

and deregulation priorities are discussed in terms of how incentives can support sustainable 

resources management.  Lessons learned from identifying and encouraging natural resources 

management policy reforms pertain to i) policies for sustainable development and ii) policy 

development players and their roles. 

Policy development is identified as the underlying cause for many of the outcomes donors seek 

to address in environmental and natural resources management projects.  This chapter 

describes NRMP experiences assisting the Government of Indonesia (GOI) with natural 

resources policy development.  Lessons learned from these experiences suggest that focusing 

on roles of participants in the policy process and their expected outcomes would result in 

stronger project design.  As Indonesia moves from a singular focus on economic growth to more 

balanced  sustainable development objectives, a wider range of policy tools will be required by 

the policy process participants.   

NRMP policy initiatives focused on developing more appropriate links between economy and 

environment to ensure greater attention is paid to the range of natural resources and ecological 

services utilized by society.  First, the role of policy in sustainable natural resources 

management is discussed; why existing policies need to be modified toward sustainable 

development objectives.  NRMP policy studies are used to highlight some required changes and 

to indicate how policy interventions contributed to pursuit of the project s goals. 

NRMP experience illustrated the need for greater recognition of both the policy process and the 

roles of participants within the process, both of which need to be properly perceived during 

project design.  Failure to do so limits the extent to which donor objectives will be achieved.  An 

explanation of why certain NRMP outcomes occurred provides insight into how certain pitfalls 

may be addressed in future project interventions.  A fundamental conclusion is that wider 

involvement in policy is a prerequisite to successful long term natural resources management. 

1.2  Sustainable Development Policy Issues  

This section aims to set the scene by providing the theoretical underpinning of critical concepts 

developed later in the book.  These concepts hinge largely upon the notion of participation in 

natural resources management and the need to see beyond the consultation mechanism 

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