IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v35y2023i3p505-520.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local brokerage and international leverage: NGOs and land conflicts in Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Ward Berenschot
  • Ahmad Dhiaulhaq
  • Aurelia Deviane

Abstract

The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has generated a large and growing number of conflicts between rural communities and palm oil companies over, mainly, access to land. Employing a detailed documentation of 150 such conflicts in four Indonesian provinces, this paper assesses and evaluates how local, national and international NGOs help communities address their grievances. We find that rights‐based activism characterises only a small portion of NGOs working on land conflicts, as a more common strategy revolves around political brokerage. NGOs generally fail to achieve significant impact, with the partial exception of (those connected with) international NGOs.

Suggested Citation

  • Ward Berenschot & Ahmad Dhiaulhaq & Aurelia Deviane, 2023. "Local brokerage and international leverage: NGOs and land conflicts in Indonesia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 505-520, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:35:y:2023:i:3:p:505-520
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.3640
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3640
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.3640?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Willemijn Verkoren & Chanrith Ngin, 2017. "Organizing against Land Grabbing in Cambodia: Exploring Missing Links," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(6), pages 1336-1361, November.
    2. Saturnino M Borras & Jennifer C Franco, 2013. "Global Land Grabbing and Political Reactions ‘From Below’," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1723-1747, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sändig, Jan, 2021. "Contesting large-scale land acquisitions in the Global South," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    2. Helena Shilomboleni, 2020. "Political economy challenges for climate smart agriculture in Africa," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1195-1206, December.
    3. Borras, Saturnino M. & Franco, Jennifer C. & Moreda, Tsegaye & Xu, Yunan & Bruna, Natacha & Afewerk Demena, Binyam, 2022. "The value of so-called ‘failed’ large-scale land acquisitions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    4. Lara M. Lundsgaard-Hansen & Flurina Schneider & Julie G. Zaehringer & Christoph Oberlack & Win Myint & Peter Messerli, 2018. "Whose Agency Counts in Land Use Decision-Making in Myanmar? A Comparative Analysis of Three Cases in Tanintharyi Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-30, October.
    5. Femke van Noorloos & Christien Klaufus & Griet Steel, 2019. "Land in urban debates: Unpacking the grab–development dichotomy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(5), pages 855-867, April.
    6. Ole Busck & Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt, 2020. "Development, Ecology and Climate Change: Resistance by the Peasantry," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 5(1), pages 9-31, January.
    7. Nanhthavong, Vong & Bieri, Sabin & Nguyen, Anh-Thu & Hett, Cornelia & Epprecht, Michael, 2022. "Proletarianization and gateways to precarization in the context of land-based investments for agricultural commercialization in Lao PDR," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    8. Tamura, Yu, 2021. "Contexts behind differentiated responses to contract farming and large-scale land acquisitions in Central Mozambique: Post-war experiences, social relations, and power balance of local authorities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    9. Mariko L. Frame, 2022. "Ecological Imperialism: A World‐Systems Approach," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 81(3), pages 503-534, May.
    10. Sochanny Hak & John McAndrew & Andreas Neef, 2018. "Impact of Government Policies and Corporate Land Grabs on Indigenous People’s Access to Common Lands and Livelihood Resilience in Northeast Cambodia," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-20, October.
    11. Thiri, May Aye & Villamayor-Tomás, Sergio & Scheidel, Arnim & Demaria, Federico, 2022. "How social movements contribute to staying within the global carbon budget: Evidence from a qualitative meta-analysis of case studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    12. Kirst, Sarah, 2017. "Chiefs do not talk law, most of them talk power: Die Macht traditioneller Autoritäten in Konflikten um 'land grabbing' in Ghana," GLOCON Working Paper Series 5, Freie Universität Berlin, Junior Research Group "Global Change – Local Conflicts?" (GLOCON).
    13. İnan, Canan Emek & Albulut, Koray, 2022. "Linking actors and scales by green grabbing in Bozbük and Kazıklı," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    14. Sarah Ruth Sippel, 2018. "Financialising farming as a moral imperative? Renegotiating the legitimacy of land investments in Australia," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(3), pages 549-568, May.
    15. Dell'Angelo, Jampel & Navas, Grettel & Witteman, Marga & D'Alisa, Giacomo & Scheidel, Arnim & Temper, Leah, 2021. "Commons grabbing and agribusiness: Violence, resistance and social mobilization," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    16. Borras, Saturnino M. & Franco, Jennifer C. & Nam, Zau, 2020. "Climate change and land: Insights from Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    17. Sanders, Anna J.P. & Ford, Rebecca M. & Mulyani, Lilis & Prasti H., Rut Dini & Larson, Anne M. & Jagau, Yusurum & Keenan, Rodney J., 2019. "Unrelenting games: Multiple negotiations and landscape transformations in the tropical peatlands of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 196-210.
    18. Arnall, Alex, 2019. "“Employment until the end of the world”: Exploring the role of manipulation in a Mozambican land deal," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 862-870.
    19. Weldemichel, Teklehaymanot G. & Lein, Haakon, 2019. "“Fencing is our last stronghold before we lose it all.” A political ecology of fencing around the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Xu, Yunan, 2019. "Rethinking the politics of land-use change: Insights from the rise of the industrial tree plantation sector in Southern China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:35:y:2023:i:3:p:505-520. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.