outcomes of proposed policies.  NRMP also identified key issues and challenged previous 

assumptions overlooked by the government.  Furthermore, risk assessments can provide 

guidelines for the policy options based on ecological and social variables that agencies have not 

incorporated into their planning.  

Key Questions Underpinning Natural Forest Management Complexities  

Three basic policy questions surrounding natural forest resources establish the framework for 

evaluating achievement of sustainable management (NRMP Report No. 58).  Answers to these 

questions, in turn, reveal the three policy driven and interrelated constraints:  undervalued forest 

resources, uncertainties of resource allocation rights, and overly prescriptive and bureaucratic 

regulations.  These central policy questions are: 

How much is it worth?  Specifically, are alternative land uses worth more to stakeholders 

than present uses? 

Whose is it?  Specifically, who are the direct users or stakeholders?  Is their stake 

perceived as equitable?  How long do the rights of access and exploitation last? 

How is it regulated?  Specifically, is the policy environment appropriate to the forest 

management objectives, and is the capacity of its enforcement mechanisms adequate?  

Is adequate accountability ensured? 

The central question is:  "Are incentives and disincentives faced by forest managers supporting 

harvesting decisions that allow for adequate regeneration, and thereby sufficiently maintain the 

natural forest ecosystem into the foreseeable future?  Notwithstanding the efforts of 

government, non government and private institutions, the answer is no.   

NRMP design sought to strengthen the capacities of the GOI and private concessions to adopt 

practices for natural forest management that would achieve sustainable yields. While the design 

objective was optimistic, NRMP did successfully gain a better understanding of some of the 

policies and practices contributing to the continuance of unsustainable forest management. 

During the process of developing this understanding, NRMP followed a sequential pathway, 

moving from a broad understanding of production forest issues in West Kalimantan and an 

assessment of the Indonesian silvicultural system (TPTI, Tebang dan Penanaman Terbatas 

Indonesia,  or the  Indonesian Selective Cutting and Planting System) to a more detailed 

understanding of individual management at the HPH concession level. The insights gained from 

these investigations informed a review of existing forest management policies, with particular 

emphasis on the GOI s changing policy and planning objectives.  

As NRMP progressed, greater emphasis was placed on distilling lessons from these 

experiences and using them as the basis for policy dialogues with the GOI and private 

concessions.   The lessons learned for sustainable natural forest management fall under three 

major themes:  

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