Procedia

Environmental Science,
Engineering and Management
http://www.procedia-esem.eu

Procedia Environmental Science, Engineering and Management 9 (2022) (1) 275-288

International Congress on Agriculture, Environment and Allied Sciences,

24-25 December, 2021, Istanbul, Turkey

SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT AS A FORM

OF COMMUNITY RESISTANCE IN BALI *
Ida Bagus Dharmika1, Gede Yoga Kharisma Pradana2**, Ni Made Ruastiti3
1Universitas Hindu Indonesia, Denpasar 80238, Bali, Indonesia
2International Institute of Tourism and Business, Denpasar 80239, Bali, Indonesia
3Institut Seni Indonesia Denpasar 80235, Bali, Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to identify and understand the process of Wangen (the process of managing protected forest
areas being illegally converted) into plantations in Pekutatan Village, Jembrana Regency, Bali. Ngawen is a
local designation for the activities of someone responsible for clearing forests. This study uses a qualitative
method. Current research data sources include protected forests, related parties, and the results of research that
have been conducted. Data is taken through interviews, observations, book literature studies, documentation,
and other sources such as the internet—the final results of the study show (1). The activity of ngawen done by
those living at the villages surrounding the protected forest was intended to show resistance to their being
neglected by the related parties; (2). They did the ngawen activity by reconstructing and constructing the
protected forest into the rural community- and traditional village-based plantation. No serious effort was made
by related parties to stop ngawen activities in the protected forest located in Pekutatan Village, Jembrana
Regency, Bali causing the forest area and its function to decrease.

Keywords: Community resistance, forest area, protected forest, political, social.

1. Introduction

Deforestation has taken place at the protected forest located at Pekutatan Village, Jembrana
Regency. Ideally, the people living in the villages surrounding the protected forest have their faith
and local wisdom, which are verbally and nonverbally expressed. Performing rituals, such as nailing
black and white plaid cloth to a large tree, and using "ngaturang canang" offerings for worship,
verbally express their local beliefs and wisdom. Meanwhile, the myths, beliefs, and religions they
adhere to describe their local thoughts and wisdom nonverbally. However, the empirical fact shows

*
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the AEAS Scientific Committee and Organizers
**
Corresponding Author: yoga@stpbi.ac.id
 Dharmika et al./Procedia Environmental Science, Engineering and Management, 9, 2022, 1, 275-288

that the forest is deforested, burned, cleared away, and looted, showing that they have committed
violence to the protected forest. It is presumed that such violence is triggered by their desire to show
their social protest against injustice, the thinking analogy leading to negative things, and the view
that the forest belongs to everybody. Local wisdom developed by traditional villages to manage
forests is a collection of knowledge created to care for forests. The forest and community
environment are mutually beneficial, and that dependence on each other will last forever and
harmoniously between Forest Environment and Community For Prosperous Society (Shabgah et al.,
2021).
The function of the protected forest cannot be separated from human needs; however,
people are also the main actors responsible for committing violence and deforestation. It is
presumed that there is a gap between the imaginary world and the real world, as far as forest
management is concerned. Making illegal use of what can be produced by the forest is regarded as
an alternative for quickly making money. In this case, the role played by the capitalist who is
prepared to buy what they can obtain from the forest cannot be neglected. Adaptive processes in
response to environmental pollution are also not fully revealed. The adaptive approach is usually
carried out through three glasses; they are drunk, physiologically drunk, and genetic drunk. Studies
that discuss adaptation, systems, and functions are studies that use the paradigm of modernity.
Political matters have also triggered the local people to commit violence to the protected
forest. As an illustration, several people have used the forest as a commodity for supporting their
bargaining power. As an illustration, when there are elections for heads of traditional villages, heads
of administrative villages, heads of conventional hamlets, leaders of administrative hamlets, the
legislative members, and so forth, the protected forest is used as a commodity for supporting their
elections. Those who fully support the candidates are promised to clear away the forest to grow
what they like. This activity of clearing away the forest is referred to as ngawen.
Clearing away the protected forest ngawen is an activity that requires a specific skill
frequently referred to as habitus, which determines a social practice taking place in a unique
‘arena’, namely in the villages surrounding the protected forest. Large-scale illegal logging is
triggered by injustice. Then, some investors can employ poor, unskilled workers. The problem
becomes more complicated when those who come from other regions also carry out illegal logging
or develop agroforestry. Deforestation reflects the impact of modern spirituality, which is
increasingly popular in Balinese society. The consequence is that the Balinese never think about
their offspring's future; they have never thought about what to do to save the environment in general
and forests in particular.
The problem of violence to the protected forest is such a complex problem that it should be
deeply, widely, and comprehensively comprehended. Besides, the solution to the situation should
be sought after by involving the actors involved in it. In this way, we will criticize, censure, and
punish violence and deforestation. It should be known that injustice and moral anger have triggered
individuals or groups of people to commit violence against the forest; in other words, committing
violence against the forest responds to injustice and moral outrage. Besides, the concrete and direct
situation have also caused them not to mind being responsible for dangerously committing violence
to the forest. This current study investigates the elements of the faith, norms, local knowledge
referred to and used by the local people to look after their forest environment. In particular, this
current study investigates why the people living around the villages surrounding the forested forest
(located at Pekutatan Village, Bali) have committed violence to protected woods.
Based on this consideration, the research problem is to identify and understand the process
of Wangen (the process of protected forest areas that were illegally converted) into plantations in
Pekutatan Village, Bali. The problems of the current study can be formulated in the form of two
questions. They are (1) why the people living in the villages surrounding the protected forest did
the activity of ngawen? (2) How was the movement of clearing away the protected forest ngawen
transformed into the political capital?

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2. Literature review

Deforestation pressures and their underlying drivers in Indonesia have been in flux
constantly over the past 60 years. Before 1970, there was no trend in severe forest loss. Between
1970 and the 1990s, export-oriented log production and global demands were drivers of
deforestation. Cultivation of rice and other permanent crops was another driver associated with a
growing population and transmigration policy (Tsujino et al., 2016). Tropical deforestation stems
from an increasing realization that the disappearance of these forests will have impacts that extend
beyond national boundaries. The vast majority of tropical forests are owned and managed by
national governments, relying on local bureaucrats and politicians to enforce federal logging rules
(Burgess et al., 2012). Despite this relevance, quantitative national-level information on drivers and
activities causing deforestation and forest degradation is widely unknown (Hosonuma et al., 2012).
The environment is no longer viewed as a separate entity from the economy. There are many
types of environmental damage with many consequences (Tyagi et al., 2014). Causes and
Consequences lie in the subject matter of ecological damage and local communities' resistance
concerning natural environmental damage. Environmental damage has four criminal classification
models. Environmental severe pollution models rank the most severe violations, followed by
concrete damage models, concrete hazards, and ultimately abstract hazards (Ali et al., 2021). The
regulation and maintenance of buffer zones highlight the main monuments and preserve the historic
urban landscape and connect contemporary buildings with urban history. More cooperation from
the local population is needed, especially to extract genius loci or place spirit from the cultural
property (Yuichi and Morris, 2014).
The environment can no longer be seen as a separate entity from the economy.
Environmental damage is of many types and has many consequences. Minimizing exposure to
environmental risk factors by improving air quality and access to improved sources of drinking and
bathing water, sanitation, and clean energy are found to be associated with significant health
benefits and can contribute significantly to achieving the Millennium development goals of
environmental health and development (Tyagi et al., 2014).
Remarkable spatial variation in deforestation levels within the region and exposed two
extreme concentration areas with over 5.0% annual forest loss: the eastern lowlands of Sumatra and
the peatlands of Sarawak, Borneo. Both of these areas lost around half of their year 2000 peat
swamp forest cover by 2010. As a whole, this study has shown that deforestation has continued to
take place on a high level in insular Southeast Asia since the turn of the millennium (Pustokhina et
al., 2021). These ongoing changes not only endanger the existence of numerous forest species
endemic to this region, but they further increase the elevated carbon emissions from deforested
peatlands of insular Southeast Asia, thereby directly contributing to the rising carbon dioxide
concentration in the atmosphere (Miettinen et al., 2011). Future work could extend such findings
over space and time. Other locations with governance differences in protection could be studied,
mainly if siting processes are directly observed. Looking at sites featuring new protection within
more than one governance type also can add insight, significantly if protection types’ spatial
distributions overlap, facilitating cleaner comparisons (Pfaff et al., 2014). Forest-monitoring
systems need to include dedicated sampling designs to measure, map, and characterize
reforestation. Locations with the most significant potential for forest regrowth need to be identified
(Meyfroidt and Lambin, 2011).
The diversity of life is ultimately produced by evolution, and much attention has been
focused on the rapid development of ecological properties. However, the tendency of many
environmental properties to remain similar over time has many consequences for basic patterns and
processes studied in ecology and conservation biology (Wiens et al., 2010). the adoption of more
efficient land-use practices and changes in consumption patterns can significantly influence the

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supply and demand of wood and agricultural products, thereby promoting the global recovery of
forests. Typical values, norms, and benefits perceived by the community create trust so that the
community proactively participates in protecting and sustaining the existence and preservation of
the Forest (Rijal and Noer, 2013). Terrestrial protected areas, an integral component of biodiversity
conservation policy, have also become a centerpiece of global efforts to reduce carbon emissions
from tropical deforestation. In the past decade, governments across the tropical biome have
continued to expand their protected area networks, and international donors have pledged billions
of dollars forest-based climate change mitigation (Nolte et al., 2013)
Net deforestation targets, inherently and erroneously, equate the value of protecting native
forests with that of planting new ones (Brown and Zarin, 2013). As opposed to generalized trust,
trust should be measured through reliance on a set of more specific questions that measure
expectations across a series of different situations (Bauer and Freitag, 2018). The lack of ongoing
internal reforms in Jembrana This condition was caused by euphoria with the past government. By
a lack of innovation by Jembrana, bureaucratic apparatus community participation is not optimized
as a basis for external reform. Lack of community participation is caused by a solid top-down
approach from the government and a lack of empowerment by local NGOs. Instead, efforts need to
focus on reducing deforestation for industrial-scale, export-oriented agricultural production, content
with efforts to increase yields in non-forested lands to satisfy demands for farm products (Defrieset
et al.)
Technology in reforming government bureaucracy, e-Bureaucracy in Jembrana Regency,
raises the assumption that bureaucratic modernization can be supported by the social system based
on cultural values (Utomo et al., 2015). Bonded social capital can be a force in generating the
adaptive capacity of rural communities in the management and development of infrastructure
(Kusumastuti, 2017). Financial risk-taking by politically connected firms, the economic intuition
makes sense only if management at financial institutions had good reason to believe that the
government would get involved and that political connections would be helpful in those situations.
Therefore, closely examining the history of US government involvement and intervention in
financial markets is instructive (Kostovetsky, 2015). civic attitudes on the part of voters are an
essential factor in keeping elected officials accountable for their misbehaviors (Nanniciniet al.). The
enhancement of progressive values represents the core of enhancing social capital, and it will be
more effective if supported by better quality (Prnadji, 2006). A wealth of empirical research shows
that social capital is associated with several outcomes that, for most people, are normatively
desirable (Rothstein and Stolle, 2011).
Social capital provides increased welfare for the community, and the government is expected
to assist small communities in raising social money (Nasution et al.). The village is understood as
a form of public housing. Public space is needed by public intervention in maintaining and
developing public space in villages in Indonesia (Setiawan, 2016). This socio-historical process is
explained by Bourdieu carefully through social formation, history, political conditions, certain
geographical conditions, and the modern appearance of the nation-state (Ningtyas, 2015). a system
or management needs to be developed that considers every problem and challenge so that the
decision-making process can be relied upon to optimize cultural values (Ismail et al., 2014). based
on a narrow social capital built around activities, is mainly composed of ethnic minority youth with
a low SES involved in more specific political activities (Teney and Hanquinet, 2012)
This perspective distinguishes between the extent of news use and political talk and the
orientation toward news consumption and political conversation (Rojas et al., 2011). Neglect of the
interests of the poor does not reflect bureaucratic irrationality. Instead, it reflects the fact that the
forest bureaucracy can adequately safeguard its interests by making relatively minor, tactical
concessions to the interests of the poor (Sunderlin, 2016). Most notably, the original argument casts
social capital as endogenous, whereas recent treatments have returned to the earlier political-culture
tradition, which treats values as exogenous (Jackman and Miller, 2002). The diversity of life is

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ultimately produced by evolution, and much attention has been focused on the rapid development
of ecological properties. However, the tendency of many environmental properties to remain similar
over time has many consequences for basic patterns and processes studied in ecology and
conservation biology (Wiens et al., 2010).

3. Research method

The qualitative method, which emphasizes the ethic, emic, holistic, and thick description
through social humanities, was used in the current study. The study was conducted in Pekutatan
District, Jembrana Regency. The reason was that there had been severe deforestation in this area.
Many people were individually and collectively involved in the activity of clearing away the
protected forest. Pekutatan Village is located in the most eastern part of the Jembrana Regency.
Historically, those involved in the forestation came from the village, which is the closest to the
protected forest. Then they were followed by the others coming from the other surrounding towns.
Another reason is that Pekutatan Village is a sub-district where informants can be contacted,
interacted with, and communicated intensively.
The data used in the current study are qualitative as well as quantitative data. The primary
data were obtained through interviews and observation, and the secondary data were obtained
through books, documents, and other sources such as the internet. The study subjects were the
critical informants chosen based on the criteria and or category purposively determined. The people
selected should strive to represent the objective conditions of the local area, based on their status
and role in deforestation. The key informants included 1) heads of the traditional villages, heads of
the administrative villages, heads of the hamlets surrounding the protected village; 2) the apparatus
of the civil service police unit ‘Satpol PP’, the department of forestation, forest rangers, staff
members of the department of religious affairs; 3) the local people especially those involved in the
forestation. In this way, comprehensive and proportional information could be obtained.

4. Result and discussion

They were aware that the essential function of the forest for the Balinese people, values,
norms, and regulations of law included in different ecological pearls of wisdom, manuscripts,
rituals, and folktales had been created to preserve the forest. Based on the Balinese people’s
knowledge in the past, it was stated that in 1917 the woods located in West Bali used as the Nature
Park ‘Taman Perlindungan Alam’ totaled 20,600 hectares, and in 1919 Sangeh was also used as the
Nature Park. In 1924 the forests in Bali were decided as the forest preserve Hutan tutupan. Such a
division of the woods in Bali was a part of the territorial politics carried out by the Dutch
government and the independent government. The spaces were territorialized into political and
economic ones that always contained the strategies of reorganizing population, controlling
resources, and regulating who could use the areas and how they should be used.
During the independence era, the Indonesian government continued territorializing the areas
of the State forests, starting from 1950. However, apart from accelerating responsibility for regional
and forestry, it is difficult for the government to determine policies related to the State of the
country. The Indonesian government considered that deciding the areas of the woods was the main
objective, and the existence of the local people and the social aspect were not regarded as essential
(Maring, 2016). According to the government, its power over the forests was centralized, meaning
that the centralistic politics, in which the controlling culture over human beings and the forests'
species was applied.
Different strategies applied so far do not guarantee forest conservation. As a result,
nowadays, Bali is facing a problem related to forest conservation. The main problem is that the
quality of the environment is getting worse. The Balinese people, especially those living in the

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protected forest villages, have directly, structurally, and culturally committed violence to the
environment. This phenomenon shows that the ideal things which the religious, literary, and local
wisdom texts contain are different from the social text. Various programs, strategies, and
regulations of law created and issued by the government cannot be implemented and obeyed by
other parties.
The deforestation took place in the forms of illegal logging Ngawen (clearing away the
forest), forest fire ‘pengrecekan’, relocation of poles, and excavation of building materials such as
sand, stone, and soil. However, viewed from the environmental degradation, the degradation
resulting from clearing away the forest ngawen was the most dominant. 'Independent' deforestation
is organized through networks, which have a hierarchical leadership. Its members trust,
communicate and look after each other. The capitalists supported it, and field coordinators referred
to it as the social capital. Social capital is the strength, network, communication, hierarchy of
leadership, and norms that a community has. Many studies show that the power of social capital is
significant and determines how thriving a community in managing natural resources, including
forests, is. The concept of social capital can be analyzed using two approaches: the actor’s
perspective (Buchanan and Pierre, 2016) and the social perspective (Jackman and Miller, 2002). In
a particular situation, the colonial capital can transform into the political capital in which the social
strengths attached to individuals (actors) and the social muscles that a community has can contribute
to decision-making in a political process (Rijal and Noer, 2013). The government has issued
different legal products, and other programs have been designed and implemented by the
government to control the activity of clearing away the protected forest Ngawen. Still, various
parties have not faithfully followed them. The social capital, political capital and the other capitals
play their roles in this “arena”; as a result, the activity of clearing away the protected forest ngawen
and illegal logging cannot be stopped.

4.1. The activity of Ngawen

Deforestation occurs regularly every year in the forests of the Jembrana Regency. In 1908
all the kingdoms cleared away the woods under the Dutch government, and they developed coffee
plantations. Before the mapping program was designed, the boundaries were determined. What the
State forests would be used for was decided; the people living in the villages surrounding the forests
had been doing illegal logging (since the 1940s). The unlawful logging continued when the Board
of the Kings started opening the areas of the woods for residences of those coming from outside
Jembrana, such as Pengeragoan Village, Medewi Village, Pulukan Village, Pangyangan Village,
and the villages located in Pekutatan District. Map of Jembrana district can be seen in Figure 1.
People came to the Jembrana area for several reasons, such as natural disasters, local
transmigration, and so forth. They came from Karangasem, Lebih, Nusa Penida, Bangli, Badung,
Gianyar, and Buleleng. Those are living at Pengeragoan Village or Badingkayu Village, Asah
Duren Village, and Manggissari Village, as the villages surrounding the protected forest were
provided with an area of either 1 hectare or two hectares each. At that time, the boundaries of the
protected forest had not been determined yet. The Dutch government chose them. The activity of
selecting the edges of the area of the protected area was a part of the territorial politics carried out
by the Colonial Government or the independent country. The division of territory marks territorial
politics into politics and economy, which always contains strategies used to reorganize society,
control resources, and make regulations that limit who can use the area and how the site should be
used. The conversion of protected forests to coffee plantations can be seen in Figure 2.
The persuasive strategy implemented by the colonial government could be identified from
their acknowledgment of the territorial system already implemented by the local government.
During the independence era, the Indonesian government continued the territorialization process,
starting from 1950. Apart from continuing the determination of the boundaries of the State forest,

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the government found it difficult to define the objects attached to determining the boundaries of the
State forest. Nailing the edges of the forest was the government’s primary objective; the local people
and the social aspect were neglected. Having authority over the forest was the government's
objective; however, controlling what was done by the other parties in general and the local people,
in particular, was not its objective. The provincial government has declared forest jurisdiction as
one territory and a more stable political system in which people and species are traditionally
controlled—all the legal products and regulations of law issued by the State where it is own.

Fig. 1. The map of the location of the protected forest

Fig. 2. Protected Forest converted to a coffee plantation

This shows the existence of repressive laws, emphasizing sanctions and prioritizing the
performance of forest rangers so that access to local resources for the community is limited and
eliminated. The juridical consequence is that any local person who creates access to and utilizes
forest resources to fulfill both (subsistence) needs will be declared or breaking the law. Clearing

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forests, carrying out illegal logging, disturbing security in the woods, cutting grass illegally,
sabotaging deforestation, becoming illegal grazers, and so on. Such a stigma was better referred to
as creating the ideology of the culture of control over the forest resource or as an expression of the
authority’s power over the state-based forest resource control, which was only managed for the sake
of the state income and foreign exchange.
In Clause (1), Article 5 of Act No. 41 of 1999, it is stated that the state forest can be in the
form of the one managed by the traditional law-based society. Further, in Act No. 41 of 1999, the
forest is driven by the customary law-based community is defined as the State forest resulting from
the fact that the State, as the highest organization of the people’s power, has the right to control.
Many parties, especially the organization known as ‘Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN)’
(the Alliance of the Traditional Communities in the Archipelago), disagreed with what was stated
in the Act No. 41 of 1999, as far as the traditional forest which was included in the State-owned
forests was concerned. Besides, the non-government organizations considered that the existence of
the customary law-based communities, which was regarded as sectorial institutions by the
Department of Forestry, was the takeover of the Regional Government's authority and political
sovereignty traditional community. Different policies concerning forest management issued by the
government were intended to generate as much income as possible.
The illegal logging in the protected forest in Bali in general and in Jembrana, in particular,
was generally carried out using two modus operandi. Operandi the trees were illegally felled in the
first modus, meaning that the trees in the protected forest were chopped down without being known
by anybody. The second modus operandi is that the stolen logs are transported to buyers based
outside of Jembrana without the support of any documents issued by the village leader who is next
to the forest. It was also possible that the form used was false. The other possibilities were that the
full logs transported were not following the data and repeatedly used the same paper.
During the process of illegal logging, there were several actors involved. They were referred
to as Nember Kayu (Boss), Mandor (Supervisor), Tukang Sensor (the actor felling trees using a
machine, Tukang Angkut/Kajang (the actor manually moving the logs), Pembeli/Penadah (the
Buyer). The Nember Kayu (the Boss) had the capital needed for the illicit logging and kept the logs.
The Mandor (the Supervisor) worked for the Boss and was responsible for supervising the illegal
activity logging. The Tukang Sensor was accountable for felling the chosen trees in the forest using
an axe, saw, and a machine. The Tukang Angkut/Kajang was responsible for manually moving the
logs to the street. He/she usually worked at night. The Pembeli or penadah (the buyer) can be
classified into two. The one coming from the local village was referred to as pembeli lokal (the local
buyer), and the one coming from another town was referred to as pembeli luar (the outside buyer).
To those responsible for illegally felling the trees, serving the local buyer was much safer
than helping the outside buyer, although the benefit they would receive was not too much. It was
much riskier for them to perform the outside buyer, as; serving the outside buyer needed
transportation, cooperation with the forest rangers. However, filling in the outside buyer could
generate much money. Based on the information obtained from the informant in the field, in the
illegal logging process, those responsible for felling trees should go through the following steps. In
the first step, they should determine the location of the trees which would be felled, based on what
type of wood was ordered by the buyer. In the second step, the tools needed (machine, ax, a small
dagger, sickle, rope) were prepared. In the third step, offerings ‘sesaji’ were trained before being
carried to the location. In the last step, the desired trees were felled in such a way that they would
The buruh tukang kajang were responsible for moving the logs to the side of the street,
connecting the forest with the closest village. Some were male, and the others were female. They
usually worked at night and sometimes spent the night in the woods and went home the following
morning. The logs were then collected in one location by the Nember (the Boss) before they were
transported to the location where they were sold. The Boss usually had a vast network with
outsiders, including the forest rangers' apparatus that he usually trusted and contacted. Also, there

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were always communication and interaction between the Boss and the outsiders. The activities of
the craftsmen in transporting the data log are seen in Figure 3.

Fig. 3. Timber transport workers (Kajang laborers)

Almost all the illegal logging activities involved the local companies locally referred to as
“cukong” that usually had a relationship with the wood processing companies locally referred to as
circle. The illegal logging operation was mobile, meaning that it moved from one location to
another. It was well organized and involved street people ‘preman’ and was strongly supported by
the apparatus of the military machine, police apparatus, government officials, and politicians in
charge of the forest area. The traditional communities living close to the protected forest would find
it difficult to enforce the customary law locally referred to as ‘awig-awig’ in the illegal logging
business, especially if the traditional leaders or most of the villagers were involved. Some cases
showed that conventional and formal leaders were also involved in illegal logging activity. They
were consciously and unconsciously inspired by the market demand and facilitated by the actors
involved in the illegal logging to break their customary law. In this case, members and traditional
community leaders who cut trees without following the applicable established procedures and rules
are involved in illegal logging activities. More and more members of the traditional village were
engaged in illegal logging as the orthodox community was getting weaker.
Three factors caused illegal logging activity to develop fast at the local level. They are (1)
the things related to the community’s values and the situation of those living in the villages
surrounding the protected forest; (2) the things related to the supply and demand which cannot be
separated from the logging industry; (3) the things related to the existence of the entrepreneurs and
their impact on the local politicians and leaders with whom they conspired. The three factors
affected, completed, and supported one another. The key to those factors was the corrupt economic
and political system. Natural resources, especially forests, can be exploited to make money for
political gain and personal gain; the activity can be seen in Fig. 4.
Many villagers were prepared to break the law; in other words, many villagers were ready
to be involved in the illegal logging activity. They were inspired by many others who also did the
same thing. When more and more people were involved in illicit activity logging, such action would
become acceptable. The reason was that their collective and positive insight, which was getting
weaker into the protected forest, motivated more and more villagers to get involved in the illegal
logging activity. Illegal logging was the easiest way of fulfilling the need for wood. The demand
for timber led to a workforce, meaning that job opportunities were available for the local people.
When illegal logging was getting worse and generating money became more explicit for the local

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people, illegal logging was getting more acceptable to the local people; even the local people were
getting dependent on illegal logging activities.

Fig. 4. Banana and coffee produced from protected forest areas in Pekutatan, Bali

All the processes and actors involved in illegal logging then created a network, norms, and
regulations under a social structure. They contacted, communicated, and interacted with one
another. Also, they trusted one another as well. More and more people were then getting involved
in the illegal logging activity; in other words, it involved the local people and those coming from
the other villages. Police and government officials, as well as politicians, are also involved in
establishing illegal logging communities. As stated by Bourdieu, social capital refers to a network
of relations functioning as the resource used to determine social position, capital accumulation, or
how effective action is (Buchanan and Pierre, 2016). Illegal logging is an activity that requires a
specific skill often referred to as habitus, which determines the social practice taking place in one
particular ‘arena’, that is, at the villages surrounding the protected forest. The government issued
different legal products to control illegal logging activity. The illicit activity logging continued,
showing that the State could not prevent the violence to the protected forest involving the
government’s apparatus.
There were several reasons why forestry conflicts could not be settled. First, there is no
government socialization on mapping and how to manage protected forests following Law No.41
of 1999; this initiated the conflict. Second, the regulations of law regulating the management of
natural resources also caused the match not to come to an end. Third, the local people did not have
any access to the space of participation where they could have enjoyed the forest products. Fourth,
the people living in the villages surrounding the protected forest, who did their best to make use of
what was produced from the forest, were made to be miserable when the government, through its
apparatus, took repressive measures. Fifth, the government failed to empower the local people in
the forest management system, causing them to be socially and economically imbalanced. Sixth,
there is a prolonged conflict over the boundaries of protected forest areas and community-owned
land. The illegal logging and the activity of ngawen done by the local people continued; thus, the
protected forest, especially that located close to Pekutatan Village, Jembrana, became seriously
deforested. Almost 91.95% of the forest area was cleared away, where the local people developed
plantations for economic purposes. After big trees were felled and traded, the place where they used
to grow was used as the area where coffee, clove, vanilla, chocolate, and banana trees were planted.

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Based on information obtained in the field, protected forest areas have been cleared by
local communities, and even some, which are used as plantation areas. Protection forest, if observed
especially along the main road it still looks sustainable. We will see those involved in forest clearing
activities (pengawen); however, once we enter the area no more than ten meters, we will see
bananas, coffee, and chocolate trees. When we entered further, we would see that the view was
utterly not following how the protected forest should have been. The trade process occurs typically,
meaning that government officials will never investigate the origin of the great agricultural
products. There was an impression that the management they applied was the management of
kuping bongolin, Mata kidemin (the administration in which nothing to listen to and nothing to see).
More and more local people were involved in the activity of clearing away the protected forest.
They had their network, specific communication facilities, and several leaders. They always
contacted, communicated, and interacted with one another. They cooperated with the apparatus of
the law enforcers and the forest rangers. They trusted and faithfully followed one another. It is these
which are referred to as the social capital they had.

4.2. The activity of Ngawen transformed into the political capital

Conservation requires social capital; it has ideologically constructed based on a sense of

togetherness, trust, and need for community and the resilience or sustainability of an environment.
Social capital owned by the pengawen community (those involved in illegal logging activities),
among others, are networks and the fact that they trust each other, communicate and interact in non-
violent movements. Social capital refers to trust, loyalty, or solidarity, but it also refers to a form
and structure. From the political point of view, social capital is significant as it is socially required
to achieve effective democracy. The pengawens used the social capital to obtain economic benefit
obtained from the politicians in the village, regional and national levels and obtain a ‘security
guarantee’. On the other hand, the political actors maneuvered to make the pengawen vote for them.
As far as democracy is concerned, the number of options significantly determines the political
position that someone can have.
The government made different attempts of Jembrana Regency to overcome and reduce the
activity of ngawen; however, the activity continued for various reasons. Even several officials and
politicians used the activity of ngawen as a political commodity. This social capital was effectively
used by the actors involved in the practical politics when the regent, governor, and legislative
members were held. It was also possible that those involved in the activity of pengawen were good
enough to use their political rights so that the politicians would protect them and benefit them
economically. The interesting phenomenon in the field was that the law enforcers and those
involved in clearing away the protected forest attacked each other.
As written in "Koran Lokal Bali Post" on April 28, 2011, before the people involved in
extracting coffee, bananas, shallots, and maize planted in protected forests, a government agency
called "Hutan" Planting Bali seedlings (responsible agency). The preparation of forest plant seeds
under the Bali Provincial Government and Jembrana Regency has been supported by other agencies,
such as the 1617 State Military Command Instrument, PKL Service, Jembrana Regency
Government, Babinkamtimas, Satpol PP, and Pakraman Village Alit Management. Protection
makes breeders angry. All the forest trees growing at the side of the protected forest were felled by
the pengawen coming from the villages surrounding the protected forest, showing that the social
capital they had had was great and strong enough to offer resistance. Apart from that, the local
government, which the politicians supported, applied the management of not listening to nobody
kuping bongol (deaf) and looking at nothing (close the eyes) taking place at the protected forest.
In addition, the votes cast by the pengawen are used as a "political commodity".This
phenomenon could be used as an input that if the votes given by the ordinary people were only used
as the “political commodity” and the “commodity of power”, what would happen was that the virus

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of violence would cause people to take revenge, commit violence and take anarchical measures as
the violence in the macro level would be followed by the violence at the micro-level.
Different attempts had been made by the local government, traditional institutions, and non-
government organizations to reduce the number of people who entered and committed violence
against the protected forest. Even the Regent of Jembrana propagandized that the protected forest
would be maintained through a program referred to as “zero visits to the forest’, and sent the
apparatus of the Civil Service Police Unit (Satpol PP) to look after the protected forest, involving
the traditional institutions established in the villages surrounding the protected forest (the Bali Post
Daily Newspaper, 8-2-2009). The prohibition boards were erected in several boundaries of the
protected forest, based on the agreement made by heads of the traditional villages, heads of the
traditional hamlets, and leaders of the subak organizations (the Bali Post Daily Newspaper, 30-1-
2009).
The State was too weak to overcome the violence committed by the local people
(pengawen) as it was not sure what was wrong and what was right viewed from the formal judicial
point of view. Therefore, if they committed violence to the protected forest, it could not be stated
that they had manipulated the religious values and local wisdom as they felt that nothing had been
wrong with them, resulting from the management of “kuping bongolin” (nobody to listen to) applied
by the State. If further observed, there was a fundamental principle causing them to commit
violence, namely the analogical logic; they quickly concluded that if others could commit violence
to the protected forest, why we could not.
We would get outraged if others disturbed and underestimated the Lord of plants/forest. We
did not say anything when we saw a big tree that was hundreds of years old was being felled and
stolen, and then the area where it used to grow was used as the area of coffee, banana, and chocolate
plantations by the thieves and the pengawen. However, we would get angry if others criticized the
ritual we performed for the Lord of forests (Wana Kertih, Tumpek Wariga). We paid more attention
to something abstract; we did not pay any attention to something concrete before us. We did not
pay any attention to the material thing that could contribute to our prosperity; we paid attention to
what should be done to access heaven (akhirat, niskala, swargan). That masks had covered our
faces; we moved based on the shows we wore; that there was a relationship among the sign,
meaning, and reality. Something natural reflected through the ritual and appreciating abstract things
had become a myth. It turned out that we had communicated with the abstract upper nature;
however, we could not make contact, communicate and interact with the middle nature (human
beings, animals, and trees) and the lower nature.
The actors involved in the illegal logging activity, the actors involved in the movement of
clearing away the protected forest so that they could develop the plantations they liked, the
politicians, the law enforcers, the government’s officials, and the traditional leaders had applied the
management of listening to nobody and looking at nothing (kuping bongolan, mata kidemin). The
cultural capital, the social capital, the economic prosperity, the symbolic capital, and the political
capital were transformed and converted in the ‘area’ of the protected forest, causing the matters to
be highly complex.

5. Conclusion

Based on what has been described above, it can be concluded that the people living in the
villages surrounding the protected forest showed their resistance to the government’s policy which
neglected the life of the communities around the protected forest by ngawen the forest itself.
Ngawen was a concrete form of the community’s resistance. It was a skill (habitus) owned by the
actors or a group of actors establishing a community in the “arena” close to the protected forest.
Clearing away the protected forest was done by constructing and reconstructing the protected forest
to be used as a community and traditional village-based plantation. The community had faith,

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values, norms, and regulations regulating the social practices through a long process which finally
led to construction. The social capital owned by the actors who cleared away the protected forest
could be transformed into political capital. Doing nothing to stop the activity of clearing away the
protected forest at Pekutatan Village, Bali, caused the area of the forest and its function to be
decreasing. Also, doing nothing to stop clearing away the protected forest resulted in the flood.

Acknowledgment
The author thanks the informant who was willing to provide primary data for the completion of this study.
The author would like to thank all those who have contributed.

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